There’s a new killer on the loose in Shadyside, and this time, they’re out for prom punch. Fear Street: Prom Queen is the latest installment based on the classic R.L. Stine novels, following 2021’s trilogy of slashers. Set in the neon-drenched 1980s, Prom Queen follows a whole new generation of Shadysiders as they prepare for their senior prom. But a picture-perfect prom isn’t quite in the cards for these Shadyside students … and soon something much more sinister is on the prowl as the dance floor heats up.

“The idea of doing period horror and a slasher movie at prom just immediately felt like one big, massive yes,” director Matt Palmer tells Tudum. “There are loads of cool stories in the Fear Street world, but that one just really, really jumped out at me.”

Also jumping out at people? A faceless, red-coated serial killer. As the competition for prom queen intensifies, bodies start popping up all over the school. It’ll take a lot more than faculty chaperones to clean up this mess. 

But who is this mysterious masked killer? “A huge part of the exhilaration of watching a horror movie is trying to work out what the threat is,” Palmer says. We wouldn’t dream of spoiling the surprise — but if you’ve already seen the film, read on to dive behind the scenes of the carnage. 

How did the movie pull off that dance number?

Before the blood starts to spill, the school’s prom queen candidates are introduced, and underdog Lori Granger (India Fowler) gets an unpleasant surprise. While Lori stands awkwardly at the back of the stage, prom queen frontrunner Tiffany Falconer (Fina Strazza) leads a choreographed dance number with her “Wolf Pack” of friends (Ella Rubin, Rebecca Ablack, and Ilan O’Driscoll). Wearing matching American flag leotards, the girls’ routine makes for a striking — and perhaps lightly inappropriate — campaign event. 

Rehearsals were a crucial moment for the chemistry of the actors playing the Wolf Pack. “The first day we all met was at dance rehearsal,” Strazza tells Tudum. “That dance is amazing, but also very absurd. You’re kind of forced to let down those walls immediately.” 

The cast also had to work with costume difficulties. “They wanted us to keep our prom heels on for the dance,” says Ella Rubin, who plays Melissa. “If you look close up, there are clear rubber bands wrapped around all of our shoes. The shoes were giving us so much drama. It felt a little bit, for me at least, like a high-wire act.”

It also brought the Wolf Pack together as one. “We got to know each other by dancing together,” says Ilan O’Driscoll, who plays Linda. “I don’t think any of us had any dancing experience. So we got to see the worst of each other right away.”

Who does the killer target?

Outcast Lori may not seem like the type to be in the thick of a prom queen election, but even as the cramped and crowded hallways of Shadyside High start to close in, she stands determined to make her voice heard. “Lori doesn’t want to let herself get swept under the rug,” Fowler tells Tudum. “I think she sees prom as a way to get her foot in the door, not in an attention-seeking way, but to show everyone, ‘I'm here and I have something to say.’ ”

There’s another crueler contender in the mix: Tiffany Falconer, the school’s mean girl. There’s plenty of pressure on Tiffany from her Shadyside royalty parents (Katherine Waterston and Chris Klein), but she has her own motivations. “I think Tiffany totally wants to be prom queen,” Strazza says. “She definitely feels that family pressure, but I think she’s got just as much evil in her as her parents. She’s ruthless.”

But when Tiffany’s most formidable opponent, rebellious bad girl Christy (Ariana Greenblatt), doesn’t turn up at a mandatory event and is disqualified from the prom court, something’s clearly amiss. And as the big night unfolds, the bodies start piling up. It becomes clear that the killer is targeting prom queen candidates (and a few of their unlucky boyfriends).

You might be surprised to learn that these victims have nothing but glowing things to say about their experiences being slaughtered onscreen. “I loved getting murdered,” Rubin says. “I love getting murdered in movies. I’ll do it as long as they let me. I think it’s so much fun.” 

Greenblatt, who takes on the mantle of the opening kill à la Drew Barrymore in Scream, even asked the stunt team to make her death worse. “The stunt team was so sweet, and they wanted to give me knee pads and pillows to fall on when I get stabbed in the back,” Greenblatt tells Tudum. “I was begging them to take them away. I did not want any of the pads involved whatsoever. I was like, ‘If I’m getting  murdered, girl, let me feel the actual floor.’ ”

For O’Driscoll, there was one downside, of course. “I’ve always wanted to die on camera, so I was super-excited to film it,” she says. “I thought it would be so much fun. And then when they dumped a whole bunch of blood on me, I was like, ooh. I don’t know if I like this part.” 

Who is the prom queen killer?

Fear Street: Prom Queen has a trio of twists. First, when Lori is crowned prom queen, the killer emerges and tries to eliminate her once and for all, only to be taken out by a well-placed stab with a tiara. The unmasked killer is finally revealed to be Tiffany’s father Dan Falconer, who took it upon himself to clear the field of competition for his daughter. 

“Dan believes he’s totally justified, that this is what has to happen,” Klein tells Tudum. “Tiffany is losing, and we don’t lose in the Falconer household.” But it’s not a selfless decision — Dan has deeply internalized the stakes of this high school election. “His relationship with his daughter is riding on this, his standing in the high school is riding on this,” Klein continues. “More important than anything, his marriage to Nancy Falconer is riding on this, so this has to happen for him.”

And speaking of that marriage … turns out there isn’t just one killer. After prom is over, Lori is brought back to the Falconers’ home to recuperate, only to learn the entire family is in on it. 

Who really killed Lori’s father?

During the final confrontation with the killers, Lori learns the truth about what happened to her mother, Rose (Joanne Boland), a social pariah in Shadyside. The town has long believed she was responsible for the murder of Lori’s father on their own prom night decades prior. But in reality, Nancy confesses that she killed him — after he left her for Lori’s mother. It’s a revelation that sends a thunderbolt through Lori. 

“Every single thing that’s ever happened to her, the darkness that she’s been through as a teenager and all the bullying she’s suffered, it was for nothing,” Fowler says. “Hearing that the whole story she had been forced to believe her whole life wasn’t true, I think that really is the moment where it’s like, ‘I will fight now.’ ”

And fight she does, through the revelation that both Nancy and her daughter Tiffany have been in cahoots fighting to secure Tiffany’s prom queen crown. According to Waterston, “Fina brought her own villainous energy to the dynamic. It really was passed down to the next generation, this kind of entitlement and blood-thirst. And so I think it was really fun to play with her because she either matched my darkness or she topped it.”

But that darkness is short-lived, as Lori kicks Tiffany down a set of stairs and impales her on an inconveniently placed decoration. Nancy continues on the warpath, only for Lori to dispatch her with a blow to the head — ironically, from a trophy off the Falconer family shelf. 

Lori hits the road, having (hopefully) saved herself for good. “Whatever’s next, she has much more of a hard shell to be able to handle it,” Fowler says. “She’s learned that she’s capable and she can do it. But other than that, I really have no idea. Maybe she … can just hang out and have some chill time out and enjoy life a bit before anything else goes horribly wrong.”

On that note … a post-credits scene sees the blood from Nancy’s head wound dripping down into a runic shape that will be familiar to anyone who’s seen the original Fear Street trilogy. Evil never really dies in Shadyside. 

Reporting by Ariana Romero