Fear Street: Prom Queen’s ending was not only about revealing the identity of the killers who were going after the potential winners of the titular competition, but also about finding the reason behind why they were targeting Lori Granger specifically. Like any other educational institution in fiction or real life, Shadyside High was preparing for the annual prom, and a handful of its students were going above and beyond to be the “prom king” and “prom queen.” The frontrunners of this race were the Wolfpack—Melissa, Debbie, and Linda—and its leader, Tiffany Falconer. Then there was Christy Renault. And last but not least, we had Lori. Of course, since Tiffany was the richest and meanest girl on the block, she was slated to emerge victorious. But Lori refused to go down without a fight, thereby making the affair not all that one-sided. However, unbeknownst to the candidates, there were at least two masked killers out there, hellbent on eliminating anyone who could be the prom queen. Why? I mean, anyone with half a brain could guess it based on that plot description, but let’s discuss it in detail anyway.
Spoiler Alert
Dan Falconer Was The First Killer
After a whole hour of the most boring kills ever, it was finally revealed that the first killer was Dan, one of the teachers at Shadyside High and the father of Tiffany Falconer. He had already murdered Christy, Melissa, Debbie, Linda, and their respective boyfriends, with the exception of Christy’s boyfriend, because he wasn’t a part of the educational institution. He had killed the janitor, Stoker, as well. And for his final task, he went after Lori and her best friend, Megan Rogers, and murdered a bunch of other students and staff just because they were in his way. Amidst all this chaos, since Lori had already been crowned “prom queen,” she had the winning tiara at her disposal. So, when Dan was about to bring down the ax on Megan, Lori used the tiara and stabbed him through the mask. That forced Dan to pull off his mask and reveal his identity to everyone. When Nancy asked why Dan had done such a thing, he said that he knew that becoming the prom queen was important to Tiffany and Nancy. VP Dolores Brekenridge wondered, what was the point of this whole endeavor? Because if Dan ended up killing all the competitors except for Tiffany, the competition would’ve been canceled anyway, and there would’ve been no prom queen and king, which is exactly what happened. To which Dan replied that eventually everyone would have forgotten the details about what led to the final stages of the competition, and only the name of the winner would be remembered by whoever was keeping track of Shadyside High’s history.
Sure, that would’ve been possible if the kills were more discreet. If Dan had caused most of the candidates to go missing instead of murdering them on prom night, thereby forcing the authorities to bring in unpopular competitors, it would’ve increased Tiffany’s chances of winning. By the way, if Dan had done nothing and just allowed the Wolfpack to boost Tiffany’s image, Christy and Lori’s efforts to “win” the competition would have amounted to nothing because their PR game was nonexistent. Also, the movie didn’t do too good a job of showing that the situation was really desperate for Tiffany. A few people here and a few people there probably said that they were against Tiffany and the Wolfpack, but, in the build-up to prom night, it never seemed that do-or-die for the Falconer girl. In fact, by going to these extreme lengths to secure the victory for Tiffany, Dan ended up botching the most important night for his daughter. And since the entire fiasco was recorded by Harmony, the only thing that people will remember is that Dan Falconer killed innocent kids so that his daughter could wear a tiara. Or maybe that was the whole point of this subplot: you can only kill your competitors to crown somebody the winner if you have bribed the authorities to turn a blind eye to such a crime; otherwise, it’s pointless.
Tiffany And Nancy Falconer Were The Other Two Killers
We’ve all watched Scream, so we all know that there’s always more than one killer. Hence, it wasn’t that big of a surprise when two masked murderers showed up to butcher Melissa. And once Dan was revealed to be the murderer, it was kind of obvious that the other killer was Nancy, because both of them were tall and the latter was actually really obsessed with Tiffany winning the prom at any cost. Sure, she put on a good act in front of the police, but since this is a genre where such kinds of “twists” are expected, the writers should’ve done a better job of shifting the audience’s focus from Nancy to somebody else. Now, if you have seen the poster for Prom Queen, the retro one that’s a homage to posters for ‘80s slasher movies, then you know that there are three killers, because there are three weapons on there. So, after Dan was taken away by the police and Lori went with Tiffany to give her company because the latter was so shaken, it became clear as day that Tiffany was the third killer. Therefore, when Nancy also got home, and the mother and the daughter pulled out their knives to stab Lori, it didn’t come as that big of a shock. After pinning Lori down, Nancy revealed that the “real reason” why their family wanted to kill her was because Lori’s mother, Rose, had “stolen Nancy’s man.”
Yeah, when Nancy, Rose, and Lori’s dad were in high school, Nancy was in love with him, but then he went for Rose. Then Nancy killed Lori’s dad and pinned the blame on Rose, thereby tarnishing the Grangers’ reputation in Shadyside. I just want to clarify some things. Given how there are hardly any interactions between Rose and Lori, it’s easy to forget that the woman is present in her life at all. I suppose that that’s the point, that the rich can murder anyone and then blame the poor. Based on that, I understand why Rose couldn’t prove her innocence to the rest of the world, but why has she never explained this fact to Lori? She has watched her suffer because of a lie for no fault of her own. Why? I have no clue. Also, I’m really confused about the timeline of the events. Is Prom Queen trying to say that Rose and Lori’s dad had sex in high school, and the news of Rose’s pregnancy was what caused Nancy to freak out and kill him? Because in one of the two conversations that Rose had with Lori, she said that she ran for prom queen and then that campaign was tarnished by the murder. Why hasn’t Nancy gone after Rose, then? Maybe she wants to make her suffer as she watches all her loved ones die, and she would’ve gone after Rose after killing Lori. We’ll never know for sure. Also, the reasoning for all this murder and mayhem, where women are killing women over a man and the title of “prom queen,” kind of reeks of misogyny. There’s no depth to it. The setting is very superficial, and the payoff is just bland.
Sequel Bait
In Prom Queen’s ending, Nancy and Tiffany had cornered Lori on the first floor and were about to go in for the kill. But Lori managed to kick Tiffany really hard, and she got impaled on the bronze falcon statue on the ground floor and died. Then Nancy tried to kill Lori, but the latter struck Nancy on the head, and she died. After Lori exited the Falconer household, it was revealed that Nancy had probably used the Widow’s satanic book to execute her demented mission, because the blood flowing out of her head formed the symbol that was on that book. So, what the hell does that mean? I am not really sure. Hence, allow me to speculate. From 1978 to 1994, Nick Goode was the one who was using the book, the creatures, and the dark magic to curse Shadyside and make Sunnyvale prosper. That’s why it’s not possible that Nancy got access to the book, became evil, and went on that murder spree with her husband and daughter on prom night. Then did Nick invoke Nancy’s name, thereby causing her to snap and become a serial killer, who’ll go on to become an undead serial killer eventually? Well, if that’s the case, there are a bunch of inconsistencies. Nancy didn’t turn into a murderer in 1988. She’d tasted blood when she was in high school, which I’d guess was in the 1960s. Nick was somewhere between 15 and 18 in 1978. That’s why it’s impossible for a child to gain access to the Widow’s book and communicate with Satan.
That’s why I must point my finger towards Sheriff Goode Sr., who is in Prom Queen. He hardly had any memorable lines of dialogue, but if the Goodes have a history of selling Shadyside souls to the devil, then maybe he was the one who caused the Falconers to go crazy? Why? Well, to get Sunnyvale to flourish. Despite being the sheriff of Shadyside, he was working as a mole for the Sunnyvalers. However, that still doesn’t answer when Nancy and her family were turned to the dark side, whether Nancy was the only one who was cursed while her family was just influenced by her, and why her transformation wasn’t similar to that of the other minions of Satan (that we’ve seen in all the other films). My best guess is that Sheriff Goode added some “delayed reaction” spell on top of the “corruption of the soul” spell that was put on Nancy. Maybe he fancied Nancy or Rose, and he wanted to get back at one of them, and that’s why he used Nancy to kill Lori’s dad. After that, Nancy’s degeneration began. Dan and Tiffany weren’t cursed in the strictest sense; they just did Nancy’s bidding. Or maybe Nancy wasn’t cursed at all when she killed Lori’s dad. But since Goode knew about her actions, and how she’d thrown Rose under the bus, he wanted to punish her and he put the curse on the Falconers when they had the most to lose. And while Nancy was probably possessed, Dan and Tiffany just tagged along. Well, all of them paid for it, and while Tiffany and Nancy won’t be around to face the consequences of their actions, Dan has to watch his family reputation get destroyed. As for why an undead Nancy didn’t show up in Fear Street 1994, it’s because the minds behind this franchise hadn’t thought that far ahead, or maybe the “delayed reaction” spell spared her from that outcome. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the ending of Fear Street: Prom Queen. If you have any opinions on the same, let me know through the comments section below.
