The Best Deaths In The Fear Street Trilogy, Ranked

Content Warning: This list contains mentions and depictions of violence and murder.

Netflix’s runaway hit horror trilogy Fear Street aired its final chapter on July 16, 2021. While primarily set in the puritanical witch-burning days of 1666, the Fier Witch’s reign of terror in Shadyside came full circle back to 1994 where Part One began. Through it all, more than 30 characters were killed by Sarah Fier and her evil, murderous minions.

Many things go into a great horror movie kill. Originality, shock factor, abject scariness, graphic violence, an inventive murder weapon, the importance of the victim to the overall plot of the film, and so on. By these measures, Fear Street boasted some extremely impressive fatalities.

10 Heather’s Sternum Impalement – 1994

The very first fatality in Fear Street deserves mention for setting the bar for the hyper-violent carnage to come. In an homage to Scream, mall employee Heather (Maya Hawke) is chased down a corridor in slow-mo by a masked murderer reminiscent of Ghostface.

After being stabbed in the sternum with a butcher knife while running, Heather hits the ground in sheer panic. The killer Ryan continues to aggressively joust the knife into Heather’s breastplate as blood bubbles from her mouth. Scary, shocking, and ultra-violent, the kill sets the standard for series from the jump.

9 Joan’s Hacked Body – 1978

Tommy Slater (McCabe Slye) commits some of the gnarliest and most graphic onscreen violence in Fear Street. After using his trusty ax to slaughter a young camper offscreen, Tommy proceeds to treat the boy’s counselor Joan with even more barbarity.

Tommy storms into Joan’s cabin and proceeds to ax her in the throat. Joan falls to the floor and screams in terror, only for Tommy to take another brutal swipe of the ax across her neck and body. It’s a gory overkill that falls in line with the trilogy’s excessive violence.

8 Head-Bashed Brother – 1994

In Part 1: 1994, Josh explains a series of news clippings to his friends that reveal past murders relating to the Fier witch. A rapid montage of brutal murders is shown, including a really disturbing one involving a little boy braining a man with a baseball bat.

With a newspaper headline that reads “Deformed boy bashes brothers’ heads while they sleep,” the image of the Michael Myers-like little boy repeatedly beating someone’s brains in is as deeply unnerving. The cherubic visage of the boy indicates innocence, but his baleful actions are as bloody and brutal as can be, the combo of which is truly terrifying.

7 Simon Axed In Head – 1994

Considering how Simon (Fred Hechinger) is one of the best and most likable characters in 1994, his ultra-grisly demise by taking an ax-blade to the top of the head must be included. Seeing it through the eyes of Josh makes it doubly disturbing and is a sly wrinkle new horror films ought to learn from.

After a supermarket massacre, Josh and Simon elude Tommy the best they can. As the two friends make eye contact, Tommy lunges out of nowhere to strike his ax plum on Simon’s cranium. However, the most brutal part is when Tommy releases the blade and sends Simon’s head splattering on the ground to the sound of a squashed melon.

6 Gary’s Decapitation – 1978

In the middle of Tommy’s Camp Nightwing massacre, he brains, bludgeons, and batters several campers without mercy. However, he ups the ante entirely by gorily beheading Gary (Drew Scheid) in a bathroom stall right in front of Ziggy (Sadie Sink).

Crammed in tight quarters, when Tommy swings the ax, it appears as if it’s about to hit Ziggy. When the blade misses, temporary relief is supplanted by sheer horror when Tommy strikes Gary’s neck and chops his head off in one fell swoop as a geyser of blood erupts.

5 Arnie Axed In Face – 1978

Like Heather’s opening fatality in 1994, the first death Tommy exacts in 1978 is deliberately intended to set the ultra-violent standard for the film. As such, poor Arnie (Sam Brooks) catches the brunt of Tommy’s wrath by catching an ax-blade across the face.

Unsatisfied, Tommy doubles down and slashes Arnie across the face again in an extremely aggressive fashion. Punctuated by eruptions of grue and visceral sound effects, Gary is left dead with two giant ribbons of missing flesh across forehead, eyes, and nose. The exorbitant nature of the death makes it as menacing and memorable as can be.

4 Nurse Beddy’s Throat Gouge – 1994

One of the most nondescript side characters in 1994, Nurse Beddy (Eric Mendenhall), got killed in a literal jaw-dropping manner. When Skull Mask (Noah Bain Garret) marauds the hospital in search of Deeana (Kiana Madeira) and Sam (Olivia Scott-Welch), he violently impales Nurse Beddy in the throat under the chin. As a fountain of blood leaks out, Sam and Deeana are left mouth agape.

What makes the death so brutal is the following shot of Beddy on the ground, his O.R. scrubs covered in blood, as Skull Mask continues to gouge the blade through his throat while peering intently at Sam and Deeana.

3 Cindy’s Mutilation – 1978

As the secondary lead in 1978, Cindy’s (Emily Rudd) grisly demise was as shocking emotionally as it was graphically intense. Given her prominent role and her name possibly being the same as C. Berman, fans expected her to survive until the end.

Alas, after fighting Tommy off long enough for Ziggy to temporarily escape, Cindy is chopped down in stylized slow-motion meant to accentuate the barbarity of her death. Tommy knocks her to the grass, stabs her with the ax repeatedly until she’s unrecognizably covered in blood. The final close-up of Tommy chopping Cindy in the chest is a horror trope that is truly upsetting.

2 Kate’s Face Through Meat Grinder – 1994

Without a doubt, the best death in Fear Street caused at the hands of the antagonists comes when Kate (Julia Rehwald) has her face chewed up in an industrial meat grinder. Not only is it the bloodiest and most inventive death, but it also happens to one of the film’s most likable main characters, which ups the impact.

While attending the supermarket to get drugs for Sam, one of the summoned Shadyside killers slowly shoves screaming Kate’s face through the slicer, causing all of her skin to rip off and pools of gore to collect below. It’s an absolute show-stopper!

1 Nick’s Eyeball Impalement – 1666

While 1666 had the lowest number and least effective onscreen deaths, the final death knell in Sarah Fier’s witchy curse takes the cake. At the end of the film, which puts the characters back in 1994, Deena has a vision that leads her to stab Nick Goode in the eyeball.

While being stabbed in the eye is good enough on its own, the ramifications of the fatality are what make it the best. By stabbing Nick in the eye, Deena effectively ended Sarah’s cruse and killed all of her murderous minions in the process. Moreover, it’s the one fatality in the trilogy where good triumphs over evil.