Netflix’s latest entry in the Fear Street franchise is now available on streaming, but the new film, Fear Street: Prom Queen, features surprisingly few connections to the preceding trilogy. The best films in the Fear Street trilogy created an interesting world with an interconnected story of violence and terror told across several centuries. Considering the size and implications of this lore, it is surprising that the new film mostly stands alone. However, there are a handful of notable connections to the larger franchise.

The Fear Street movies are based on the R.L. Stine novels of the same name, and adapt a series of books in the vein of Goosebumps but for a teen audience. Netflix did a very interesting release of the original trilogy, filming three feature-length films together, each set in a different period, and releasing them sequentially one week after another. Prom Queen does not follow this pattern and instead crafts a standalone story about a prom night slasher in 1988, drawing some connections to a favorite so-bad-it’s-good horror movie from 1980.

Prom Queen Didn’t Feature Many Connections To Netflix’s Fear Street Trilogy

The New Film, Set In 1988, Has Only A Few References To 1978 And 1666

The new Netflix film is clearly set in the same timeline as the previous trilogy, but this is mostly just addressed in the film’s opening. A quick montage of the Fear Street timeline and killers plays, and there is a brief glimpse of a poster that serves as a memorial to the victims of the camp in 1978. After this, a piece of graffiti stating “Sarah Fier lives” can be seen, drawing a clear connection to the events of Fear Street Part Three: 1966. However, few other direct connections are seen until the film ends.

It makes sense that the movie begins by establishing clear connections to the overall lore. While Prom Queen tells a mostly standalone story about a killer terrorizing prom night at Shadyside High, it draws from Stine’s work, and seems to be an installment in what is planned to be a larger series. There are additional Fear Street movies in development, and the franchise appears to be a priority for Netflix. By addressing these tangential connections, Netflix can build a larger universe of mostly standalone films.

Fear Street: Prom Queen’s Credits Scene Linked To The Goode Family, But It Wasn’t Enough

The Mid-Credits Scene Helps Connect Prom Queen To The Larger Franchise

The mid-credits scene from Fear Street: Prom Queen actually features the strongest connection to the previous trilogy. After the film’s end, which reveals that the Falconer family has been behind the killings in an attempt to win Tiffany the Prom Queen тιтle, Nancy’s death reveals a surprising connection to the previous films. When Nancy dies, the blood that flows from her head begins to form a familiar symbol in the shape of a round image with lines running through the middle. This symbol is known as the Witch’s Mark or the Devil’s Mark.

The Witch’s Mark was first used by Solomon Goode in 1666. The symbol is ᴀssociated with the Goode family in the previous films and is part of the ritual used by that family to kill their victims. This mid-credit scene poses so many questions, however, as it is not clear how Nancy Falconer connects to the Goode family. Some have speculated that it is possible that Nancy Falconer could even be related to the Goode family, or have had some connection with them in the past.

How Prom Queen’s Lack Of Connections To Fear Street’s Trilogy Hurt The Story

Fear Street: Prom Queen Fails To Recapture What Was So Appealing About The Previous Trilogy

Fear Street: Prom Queen is a fun little horror movie, but the lack of connections to the overall franchise may be a weak point for the film. Rather than feeling like a genuine successor to the previous Netflix trilogy, the new film instead calls to mind the Jamie Lee Curtis horror movie Prom Night. The new film is a self-contained story where a killer commits horrible acts of murder and destruction against the students at Shadyside High as they prepare for prom night, and it is disappointing that greater connections to the larger series aren’t explored.

Bringing in a familiar throwback tone, and a period setting, and drawing inspiration from the Stine novel, Prom Queen seems to be satisfied with only drawing tangential connections to the larger series. While this helps to tell a mostly original story, and gives it a link to a franchise, creating an easy buy-in for audiences of the previous films, it is disappointing that greater lore connections weren’t explored. Even the use of shifting time periods to tell a more expansive story is abandoned here, leaving the new film as a mostly generic teen thriller.

Fear Street: Prom Queen is a fun new installment in the Netflix horror franchise and features several connections to the previous trilogy of films. However, audiences may be disappointed to learn that the new film is mostly standalone. The story of Lori Granger and her bloody prom night makes for a fun new film but maybe a misstep for the franchise as a whole. Perhaps the other upcoming Fear Street films may have more integral connections to the franchise as they are produced in the coming years.