Warning: Some SPOILERS lie ahead for Fear Street: Prom Queen!

Darkness is descending on a rare bright chapter in Shadyside's history in Prom Queen primarily centers on Lori and Megan, two best friends and outcasts at Shadyside High School, as they navigate their senior year and prepare for the prom, which Lori hopes to win the titular award. This, incidentally, puts Lori in the spotlight for a killer targeting Prom Queen candidates, and her rival, Tiffany.

Lori and Megan aren't the only ones in Fear Street: Prom Queen's cast who find themselves targeted by the killer, as Tiffany's clique known as the Wolfpack are also tormented by the killer. This group includes Ella Rubin's Melissa, Tiffany's No. 2, Rebecca Ablack's Debbie, her so-called "mouthpiece", and Ilan O'Driscoll's Linda. Other notable targets, and potential suspects, include David Iacono's Tyler, Tiffany's boyfriend who Lori has a crush on, and Ariana Greenblatt's Christy, a rebellious teen who proves to be the outlier favorite to win Prom Queen.

In anticipation of the movie's release, ScreenRant interviewed Suzanna Son, David Iacono, Ariana Greenblatt, Ella Rubin and Rebecca Ablack to discuss Fear Street: Prom Queen. The former duo reflected on their experience working with Lori actor India Fowler to capture their unique dynamics with her, while Iacono also reveals how his fate was nearly very different in the film. Rubin, meanwhile, shared her delight at her recent tenure in the horror genre paired with Until Dawn, while Greenblatt and Ablack also shared some insight into their characters.

Debbie & Christy Showcase The Attempt At Change In Shadyside

Rubin Also Calls It "Such An Honor" To Have Been Embraced By The Horror Community

Though having made her movie debut with 2014's The Rewrite, the past few years have seen Rubin really start to land more prominent roles both on the big and small screens, including the Anne Hathaway-led The Idea of You and Netflix's The Chair. This year, however, has seen Rubin welcomed into the world of horror with both the Until Dawn movie adaptation and Fear Street: Prom Queen, both of which the star describes as being "such an honor" to get to be a part of.

"Genuinely, I revere horror, and the artistry that it pushes forward," Rubin beamed. "I've always been sort of a scaredy-cat about horror, but also, just in of the whole scream queen thing, I think so many horror films are such an incredible showcase for so many of my favorite actresses. So, it's just really an honor to get to do horror a lot. And, like you said, people embracing it is a relief, and also just really exciting and really fun."

Rubin also went on to point out how one of the biggest goals of any film in the genre is to have audiences "watch with your friends" and to "have this shared experience of an intense feeling", calling it "my dream as an actress" to star in movies that allow for this to happen. "I've just been feeling really, really lucky, and excited, and I hope I get to be lucky enough to do this forever, because also horror fans are a really loyal group of fans," Rubin expressed. "I just think it's such a beautiful thing to love a genre and dedicate yourself to a genre."

The movie similarly marks the horror debuts of Greenblatt and Ablack, with the former playing the rebellious Christy, who the Barbie alum describes as having "accepted her reality" of living in Shadyside, particularly when "comparing Christy to the other girls in the movie". Greenblatt goes on to share that why she loves the character is "she is so grounded", and unlike the others who are trying to embrace the potentially bright chapter of Shadyside, she is "not very optimistic", instead focusing on doing "what she needs to do".

She's definitely a fun one to even watch, I might say, because you kind of never know what she's going to do, and less is more for her.

"She doesn't care about status, or how she's perceived, which I think is really fun and interesting to be that free spirit that is in when she needs to, and out exactly when she can," Greenblatt explained. "She doesn't care about judgment, and she takes it all in one ear, out the other. She's definitely a fun one to even watch, I might say, because you kind of never know what she's going to do, and less is more for her. She's just like, 'This life is stupid, this high school is stupid, and I do what I can.'"

While Rubin's Melissa is introduced as being Tiffany's proper best friend, Debbie is frequently seen scheming for how to take the crown from Fina Strazza's character, despite being the Wolfpack's mouthpiece. Though Ablack confirms that "Debbie is really vying for that spot", she indicates that her character is actually trying to take the place of Melissa, explaining that "she is vicious in a way that if she could have that spot, she would have it", but that "she knows her place".

She wants to be No. 2, at the very least, and she really feels that Melissa is coming for that No. 2 spot, and that makes her really angry. So, it's fun to play that kind of dynamic with all the girls, and Debbie does feel like a wolf to me. She is quite vicious, quite evil, in a way, that's really exaggerated and fun to play.

Son & Iacono Found It "Effortless" To Connect With India Fowler

Son Also Loves The Comparisons To Deena & Sam From The Original Trilogy

When the film isn't showcasing Tiffany's heated dynamic with the heroine, Fear Street: Prom Queen offers plenty of screentime for Lori's relationship with Suzanna Son's Megan. In reflecting on building that close dynamic with Fowler, Son described it as being "so effortless" for the two stars, feeling that they became "fast friends" from when they first met each other during production. "There were never pauses in conversation, or awkwardness," Son recalled. "It's almost like I had to pull it back a bit, because I'm like, 'Wait, Megan is still a little bit cold.'"

Son went on to explain that one of the biggest ways she sought to create Megan's personality was "to anchor her to Lori", comparing their relationship to Lori being "the love letter" while "Megan is like a cigarette", and the two "just have to go together in that way". She also points to this dynamic as being part of how Megan undergoes change across the film's run, as "she can see the good in Shadyside" and calling the loyalty she has towards Lori "beautiful".

Given the original Fear Street trilogy largely focused on the relationship between female leads Deena and Sam, there are some potential parallels to be drawn between Lori and Megan and the prior characters. When asked whether this was intentional on the part of co-writer/director Matt Palmer and his stars, Son expressed that she "loves that people are seeing that", but confirmed that they "didn't talk about that", with the team instead trying "to make it its own, standalone thing" and leaving the door open for how Palmer "wanted to take it" and for how "it was going to grow".

Another key figure in Lori's journey is that of David Iacono's Tyler, a Shadyside athlete who starts the film as Tiffany's boyfriend and Lori's crush, but later breaks up with the former and shares a kiss with the latter during prom. With the movie also showcasing some deeper conversations between the two about their futures, and Shadyside as a whole, it required some meaningful conversations between Iacono, Fowler and Strazza, which the former described as being "very fulfilling as an actor".

"I think both India and Fina gave me everything that I needed to be able to take Tyler on this journey," Iacono explained. "Especially, there's one scene where Tiffany and Tyler finally kind of confront, very quickly and subtly, a bunch of issues that they've had in their relationship. So yeah, I think the writing really delivered that, and both India and Fina gave me everything I needed, and it felt very fulfilling."

The Killer's Suit Was So Cool, The Stars "Wanted To Try It On"

Iacono's Confrontation With The Killer Nearly Ended Very Differently

Once prom kicks off, much of the cast find themselves confronted by Fear Street: Prom Queen's killer, with many also not making it out alive. In reflecting on their first experience with the killer, both Son and Iacono found the killer's suit to be "a pretty good outfit", with the former calling it "chic" and expressing having "wanted to try it on", while the latter praised the stuntman that played the killer. "He came from a family of stuntpeople, and his parents were stuntpeople," Iacono explained. "That guy needs to have a movie about him, he was so cool. He was so good at his job, he was the best."

Among the killer's victims was that of Iacono's Tyler, who takes Lori to the high school's auditorium and tries to get intimate with her, but in the midst of her declining his advances, the killer appears behind them and stabs him in the head with a machete. However, as he explained the filming of his death scene, Iacono reveals that "in the first draft" of the movie's script, "he didn't die". It was only as development continued that "the writers were having the story evolve", leading to Tyler's demise, though Iacono actually found it to be "a better end" for the character.

At the very end, in that scene with him and Lori on the stage in the auditorium, you kind of see this creepy dark side of him that has been hinted at throughout the movie subtly, and it finally rears its head, and then for his head to then be stabbed. It felt very perfect, and circular, and I think it made sense, and it was also pretty gruesome.

More About Fear Street: Prom Queen

Welcome back to Shadyside. In this next installment of the blood-soaked Fear Street franchise, prom season at Shadyside High is underway and the school’s wolfpack of It Girls is busy with its usual sweet and vicious campaigns for the crown. But when a gutsy outsider puts herself in the running, and the other girls start mysteriously disappearing, the class of ’88 is suddenly in for one hell of a prom night.

Check out our other Fear Street: Prom Queen interviews with India Fowler & Fina Strazza!

Fear Street: Prom Queen is now streaming on Netflix.

Source: ScreenRant Plus