Makani Young (Sydney Park) is a high school student with a secret. When students at Osbourne High are killed off one by one by a Malevolent Masked Man hellbent on exposing their lies, she has to protect herself and her secrets.
Film tropes:
- Adaptational Modesty: In the book, Ollie is regarded as a sociopath for trying to kill himself after a failed attempt at having sex with a prostitute and he fights the killer naked after he and Makani are having sex prior to being attacked. Both of these elements are removed by the film.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Rodrigo is a Troll in the book. In the film, he's a friend of Makani's and a brief Love Interest for Alex.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: Ironically done by a dye-job not happening. In the beginning of the book, Ollie makes headlines in the school gossip circle by dying his hair pink right before school starts again. Ollie is a brunette all through the movie.
- Adaptation Personality Change: The masked killer is a vile monster in both the book and film, but his personality varies between mediums. In the book, he is a cold and detached sociopath, while the film adaptation makes him more emotional and openly psychotic.
- Adults Are Useless: Makani's grandmother goes to a nightly sleep trial when students from Makani's class are being killed off by a psychotic murderer, and doesn't even think about getting someone to stay with her or to go stay somewhere else. Zach's father is an ambiguously abusive tyrant. Ollie's brother seems okay, but even he mentions that his parents were neglectful alcoholics prior to their deaths.
- Asshole Victim: At first the killer appears to be invoking this trope by going after people with legitimately bad secrets, like the jock who beat up the gay kid, or the choir girl who recorded a bigoted podcast. But then the killer continues to kill people with secrets even if they are only problems to themselves.
- Big Bad Friend: In the movie, Zach, a member of Makani's friend group, is the killer.
- Chekhov's Gun: Ollie takes his brother's taser gun, and it's an important distraction for the fight of Makani against the killer.
- Corny Nebraska: In the film adaptation, Zach's father owns the corn fields of their small Nebraskan town, and the corn is set on fire at the end in Makani's confrontation with the killer.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Zach's father is a local corn baron who's buying up everyone's land at a pittance and is trying to replace the cops with a private security force.
- Daddy Issues: Zachary Sandford has issues with his father, who views him as a disappointment. It drives him to become a Serial Killer and murder his dad in cold blood.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Makani was hazed by a bunch of older varsity girls at her old school in Hawaii, who forced her to drink heavily, resulting in her accidentally pushing a friend into a bonfire and severely injuring her. This results in Makani moving to Nebraska, and is the killer’s “reason” for wanting her dead.
- Evil Is Petty: The killer's monologue in the finale, the killer complains that Makani and Ollie interrupted and forced him to kill his dad quickly instead of hearing him grovel more and giving Zach a chance to deliver a one-liner. Later complaining that setting up all the murders was really hard work, and making the victim masks was a difficult and horribly dull chore. Culminating with a petty gripe after being called a sociopath, and that "a sociopath wouldn't be emotionally invested in the killing, which I definetly am".
- Faux Affably Evil: The masked killer acts like a pretty cool and affable dude, but is revealed to be a psychopath who would even murder good friends for petty reasons.
- Five-Token Band: Makani is Black and Korean, Alex is Black, Darby is non-binary, Rodrigo is Latino, Caleb is gay, and Zach is the Token Rich Student, and also the Sixth Ranger Traitor.
- Forced Out of the Closet: At the start of the film, a hazing ritual conducted by Jackson is leaked to the school, alongside the reveal that Caleb is gay.
- Foreshadowing:
- After the first murder, the killer is shown printing up custom masks. This is not a cheap piece of equipment, showing the killer has to be fairly well-off.
- In a Shout-Out to Scream (1996), Zach’s hair is styled similar to Skeet Ulrich’s character Billy Loomis, subtly foreshadowing his status as the killer of the film.
- Katie’s speech in the cafeteria about Darby’s Coming-Out Story and their bravery in doing so is done in a way that appears to be well-intentioned but ultimately humiliating to Darby, unbeknownst to Katie. Of course, Katie was trying to humiliate Darby, considering her status as a bigoted Bitch in Sheep's Clothing that leads to her demise.
- Just Hit Him: When a car pulls up outside as he's about to set Makani on fire, the Osborne slayer hesitates, looks outside, and runs away rather than simply dropping the lit-up newspaper on her.
- Lights Off, Somebody Dies: Rodrigo is murdered after the lights go out at Zach's party.
- Loners Are Freaks: Ollie is viewed as such to the point of being a Red Herring.
- Malevolent Masked Man: The Serial Killer wears a special plastic mask modeled after the face of the victim he's about to kill.
- Police Are Useless: Invoked and played straight, the police department is at risk of being dissolved and replaced with private security. Throughout the film, they fail to stop the killer, and even release Ollie without much explanation why or warning, causing Makani to flee in panic. Ollie's brother the deputy even loses a taser through the evening while questioning students. That said, in the climax of the film we see several private security guards hired to protect the corn maze dead, while no police are shown harmed.
- Preserve Your Gays: Caleb is seriously wounded by the killer, but ultimately survives. Darby, on the other hand, is never directly targeted by the murderer and survives as well.
- Privilege Makes You Evil: Reconstructed. Zach appears to be a subversion, as the nice son of a predatory farmer. However, in reality, he was driven to insanity by his dad and by what he saw as his classmates' hypocrisy, as he could "help" being born with privilege. So he went on a killing spree. Makani chews Zach out for this “motive” when she’s stabbing him at the end.
- Red Herring: There's a couple of scenes that make two characters seem like the killer. Ollie's brother while interrogating Makani seems menacing and intense, before breaking out in a goofy moment to write down a cool line. The lone Uber driver is incredibly creepy, fishing for Makani to reveal her secrets while badmouthing prior victims.
- Sixth Ranger Traitor: The group (except Makani) suspects that Oliver is the killer, but he isn't. Zach is the actual traitor.
- Slashed Throat: Rodrigo is killed this way.
- Spared By Adaptation: Alex survives the film, whereas she dies in the novel.
- Tyrannical Town Tycoon: Zach's dad has been buying up land at a loss for the seller to expand his corn fields and has the money to hire a private security firm.
- Within Arm's Reach: When Makani is about to be set on fire by the Slayer, she manages to reach out and grab their ankle to stop them from attacking her. Then a car drives up and they bolt to avoid being caught.
- You Keep Using That Word: People keep using "sociopath" to describe the killer and any potential suspects. The killer points out how no one knows the definition of sociopath anymore and that if they were one, they wouldn't have any emotional investment in their kills which they certainly do.
Book tropes:
- Corny Nebraska: Makani moved from Hawaii to Nebraska and repeatedly notes in the book that there is nothing in Nebraska but a lot of corn.
- The One Who Made It Out: Invoked. The killer saw all his victims as having the potential to do this, which caused him to kill them.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: The killer goes on a killing spree because he has no other hope of getting out of town or gaining respect or attention.
