Plot summary

Football team quarterback Billy Corbin and Annie Morgan, Annie's best friend Loren Gregory and her boyfriend Steve Stein, class president Wade Scott and cheerleader Cassie Herron, goth girl Nora Stanley and her beau Robby, and Jaclyn Baker and her date Karl Clements are the five couples attending Winston High School's Homecoming dance together. Football player Allen Mathis is also with them. Their group of underclassmen is denied entrance to the school by a trio of senior linemen from the football team. It turns out that Billy paid his teammates for the ruse so that he and his friends could get their girls alone elsewhere.Billy uses his school keys to move their private party into the Theater department's auditorium. Billy takes Annie into the costume storage closet and becomes aggressive when she resists his advances. Loren enters and hits Billy over the head with the school spirit baton to save her friend from being raped. Loren locks Billy in the closet and everyone runs outside. A knocked over candle starts a fire in the closet. Principal Dan Patterson, his wife Mrs. Patterson, and teacher Miss Russell join the teens in attempting to rescue Billy once they see the smoke, but it is too late.3 Years Later - Winston High School prepares for its first Homecoming dance since Billy was killed in the fire. Annie has been taking antidepressants and avoiding her friends since the incident. Fred the janitor catches Robby and Nora having sex in the custodial closet where the couple also discovers a fireman's uniform. Loren and Steve attempt to visit Annie, but she refuses to answer the door. A killer dressed in the fireman's mask and jacket then kills Annie in her garage by stabbing her through the mouth with the school spirit baton.Cheerleader Cheryl and her friend Darcy insult Nora in the girl's locker room. Loren and the others discover messages in their lockers with the words "Happy Homecoming" written in blood. Principal Patterson opens Annie's locker, but does not find a message. In Mrs. Patterson's English class, Jaclyn tells Loren and Steve that she suspects Allen put the messages in their lockers because he is still upset about Billy's death. Principal Patterson tries to get Cassie alone in his office, but she avoids his advances. Sheriff Corbin, who was Billy's father, visits the principal to see the mysterious letters. The sheriff blames the kids for his wife Vivian having spent the last three years in a mental hospital.Wade, Cassie, Loren, Steve, Nora, Robby, and Jaclyn go to Annie's house, but they do not find her. Mrs. Patterson almost catches her husband looking at pictures of Cassie on his computer. The two of them discuss the Billy Corbin tragedy. Jaclyn calls her boyfriend Karl, now a deputy, and asks him to meet her. He claims that he is unable to, but that he will come find her at the dance when he finishes his patrol. Jaclyn is later upset when he does not show up because she needs to tell him that she is pregnant.The killer murders Robby and Nora after they have sex in a pickup truck outside the football game. Loren, Steve, Jaclyn, and Cassie meet Wade for a pre-party with Wade's stolen bottle of alcohol.At the dance, Miss Russell insults Coach Larry Connally after he makes a pass at her. Steve spikes the punchbowl using Wade's booze. Cassie is crowned as the Homecoming queen. Wade is murdered when he goes back to look for his bottle. Cassie sees the killer and runs through the hallway. Janitor Fred briefly grabs her, but the killer then stabs him in the neck. Cassie is chased back to the dance floor where she dies just before making it to her friends.Karl is killed while patrolling outside the dance. A dancer falls in the pool of Cassie's blood just as Jaclyn discovers Cassie's severed head in a toilet. The killer grabs Jaclyn, but Steve rescues her. Jaclyn collapses while Steve and Loren flee. Steve and Loren separate. Steve is crushed by the retracting bleachers in the gymnasium. The killer captures Loren as she hides in the locker room. Jaclyn recovers and finds Karl's dead body in a supply closet.Loren comes to and finds herself bound to a chair surrounded by her dead friends and a captive Principal Patterson. The killer reveals herself to be Mrs. Patterson. She had a relationship with Billy and has been taking revenge for his death. Mrs. Patterson covers the circle of live and dead bodies with gasoline. As she lights a match, Jaclyn arrives and begins a struggle with her. When Jaclyn is knocked aside, Mrs. Patterson stabs her husband through the heart with the spirit baton. Jaclyn recovers, frees Loren, and kicks Mrs. Patterson onto the spirit stick, which impales her through the chest. Loren and Jaclyn find Janitor Fred wounded as they escape.Loren and Jaclyn attend their graduation ceremony. Meanwhile, someone dressed in a cap and gown stalks the girls while clutching the spirit baton.