Warning: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Fear Street: Prom Queen.
This article contains descriptions of violence, gore, and death, which some readers may find upsetting.
Fear Street: Prom Queenis the fourth installment in theFear Streetfranchise, telling a more standalone story than the previous three entries while still keeping what made the earlier films work. Even though the movie is rated R, it definitely skews towards a slightly younger audience of young adults, continuing the legacy of the originalFear Streetnovel series by R.L. Stine, which was also meant for teens and young adults. However, the movie still has many bloody moments and gory deaths, staying true to the slasher subgenre.
Even thoughProm Queenhas an entirely new cast, it definitely treads familiar ground with the franchise, and a number of the new characters feel like they fill very similar roles, down to the ways in which they die. Even if these kills don’t tend to be as gory as some other slasher films,there are plenty of gruesome moments to look through, as the movie shows the untimely fates of this group of Shadyside High students.
10Christy Renault
Played by Ariana Greenblatt
Christy’s death was the first in the movie, and it also happened to be the least brutal of the bunch. In fact, her death wasn’t actually shown in its entirety, just implied. She was alone outside the school, after selling some drugs to a pair of Sunnyvale kids, when the masked killer came up behind her and cut into her shoulder with a fire axe. She fell down, and as the killer brought the axe down once again to finish the job, it cut away to a new scene.
While this could have been extremely brutal if it were fully shown,the cutaway meant that it didn’t have the same impact as some of the other killingsinProm Queen. The moment was very similar to the first kill inFear Street Part 1, where Maya Hawke’s characterwas killed, but this one was significantly less gory.
9Nancy Falconer
Played by Katherine Waterson
The second least-gory death in the film was also the last kill, as Nancy was the final murderer left after her family had been taken care of. She was the not-so-surprising twist villain during theend ofProm Queen, and her death came very quickly, as Lori, fighting for her life, grabbed a trophy and smashed it into the side of Nancy’s skull, taking her down once and for all.
Nancy didn’t actually die during the ending, as she was still sputtering a few words as Lori left her, butProm Queen’s mid-credits sceneshowed that she had indeed been killed. This death was very quick, and not very gory, butthe trophy cracked into her head in a pretty nasty way, and the fact that the aftermath was actually shown made this kill hit harder than Christy’s.
8Debbie
Played by Rebecca Ablack
Debbie’s death scene was definitely a step up from the previous two entries, as it was shown in its entirety, and was committed by the actual murderers. After Judd had been killed in a way that earned him a pretty high spot on this list, Debbie was killed after being pushed into an electrical panel full of live wires, which obviously electrocuted her to death.
While this was definitely a pretty terrifying and brutal way to die,Prom Queendidn’t actually show it to be all that horrific when it happened. There were a few close-up shots of Debbie’s eyes as she died, but overall, she was just tangled in a bunch of wires and shocked to death in a pretty bloodless manner. Especially when compared to Judd’s death, this one didn’t feel too shocking or gruesome, despite it being a pretty entertaining killing.
7Tyler Torres
Played by David Iacoco
Tyler’s death was undoubtedly the most unexpected, but unfortunately, that didn’t exactly translate to being all that brutal of a killing. It happened when he and Lori snuck away from the Prom, and he was trying to get a little too pushy with Lori. The two were talking, and suddenly, a knife was thrust into the top of his head, which presumably killed him instantly.
If it had been more obviously built up to, it probably wouldn’t have hit quite as hard.
While there wasn’t much blood or gore shown here, the sudden and harsh nature of this killing definitely made it stand out when compared to the previous entries. Brutality isn’t always about gore and blood, andthe fact that this came nearly out of nowhere made it seem like a much more intense killingthan it would’ve been otherwise, and if it had been more obviously built up to, it probably wouldn’t have hit quite as hard.
6Melissa
Played by Ella Rubin
The method of Melissa’s death was very similar to Tyler’s, but where he got a longer knife through the skull, she was killed by a butcher’s knife across the face. Melissa’s death was built up over a much longer period of time than Tyler’s, as she was being chased by the masked murderer in the changing rooms for a few minutes before she was actually killed.
While Tyler’s death was impactful because of its sudden nature, Melissa’s death just felt more brutal in the manner in which she was killed. The knife cut into her face and remained stuck there, giving us a close-up look at the blood dripping down her head before she slammed into the ground.The impact felt very heavy, with a lot of weight behind the strike, and seeing her head with the knife still embedded in it was a brutal sight.
5Gerald
Played by Brennan Clost
Gerald’s death was also very sudden, and the fact that it happened so casually and with so much blood made it even more horrific. Gerald was a very minor character throughout the movie, only appearing in a few scenes, one of which was when the murderer came charging into the Prom, intent on killing Lori. Gerald just happened to be in the way, so, after cutting off Claire’s leg, the killer sliced his head clean off.
This death was very surprising, and was absolutely one of the goriest moments in the movie. While a beheading like this has been more brutal in other movies and shows,it worked very well here, with the classic spurt of blood shooting out of the neck stumpbefore Gerald’s body hit the ground. Most kills in the movie up until this point had been stabbings or cuttings, so it was nice to see this kind ofvariety return toFear Street’s deaths.
4Tiffany Falconer
Played by Fina Strazza
After the reveal that Tiffany’s dad was one of the killers, the fact that her mother was also one was essentially a foregone conclusion, as the movie showed that there were multiple murderers. However, Tiffany’s contributions to these killings were a fun surprise, and made her brutal manner of death all the more satisfying. As she was gearing up to finally kill Lori, she was kicked in the stomach, falling off the balcony onto a statue of a falcon, impaling her through the chest.
The brutality of this death was mostly in how well it was executed in the scene itself, withher fall being given the weight it needed to feel as impactful as possible. Her turn to total insanity after seeming like a more sympathetic character was a very fun twist on the “bully to friends” trope, and her death felt like a worthy conclusion to her character.
3Linda
Played by Ilan O’Driscoll
After the first killing of Christy, it would be easy to assume that most of the deaths inProm Queenwould be similarly tame, without too much in the way of blood and gore. However, Linda’s death absolutely proved that assumption wrong, despite not even showing the attack. The killing was only heard, not seen, but when she finally came into the light, her stomach had been cut open, and she was holding her own guts, before she finally collapsed and died.
Even though the physical attack wasn’t seen here, the reveal that Linda was literally holding her stomach made this moment stand out, even among the kills that were shown in full. The easy assumption to make after hearing the noise would have been that her throat was slashed, butthe guts falling out of her was a very striking visual, easily making this moment stand out as one of themost brutal of the entireFear Streetfranchise.
2Bobby
Played by Dakota Taylor
Bobby’s death happened right after Linda’s, and it was probably the most drawn-out killing in the entire movie. Right after she collapsed, he tried to run, but the killer quickly caught him and sliced off his hand with a paper cutter. While that was brutal enough on its own, it happened again with his other hand, leaving him with two bloody stumps, trying to crawl away. After unsuccessfully trying to open the door, his face was smashed against the glass window, killing him in a spray of blood.
The fact that this killing took so long was undoubtedly one of the reasons that it felt so vicious, as most of the other deaths happened very quickly. Cutting off both of Bobby’s hands in such a crude manner left him a gory, bloody mess, and seeing him desperately crawling and trying to open the door with his stumps was a vicious way to really getProm Night’s killings started.
1Judd
Played by Damian Romeo
While some of these other deaths were pretty nasty, Judd’s was easily the goriest in the entire film by a long shot.It combined all the elements that make for a brutal killing, with the shock value and blood and gore that made it easily the most vicious death. While he was attempting to make out with Debbie in the basement, his face was suddenly cut into with a small saw blade, nearly cutting his entire head in half, and blood sprayed across Debbie and the room.
Fear Street: Prom Queenis available to stream on Netflix.
While Bobby and Linda’s deaths were brutal in their own right, Judd’s face being severed with a handheld saw took the gore to another level.The movie didn’t show every single detail that it could’ve, but it did enoughto get the point across, giving a couple of good looks at his screaming face as the spinning blade literally carved him open. The surprise and how deeply it sliced into him made Judd’s death easily the most brutal inFear Street: Prom Queen.
