"Fallen Queen" (a.k.a., "Fatal Beauty") was at its best as a dark comedy. The Gustafson family welcomes their new neighbors, Kaylie and Ray Drake, with a nice dinner. But there are hints during the meal that Kaylie is overly fond of using the word "princess." It turns out that she had an obsession pertaining to beauty pageants and the aspiration of becoming Miss America.

Trevor (Trev) Gustafson was the judge who accused Kaylie of ethical misconduct, costing her the prize at a minor beauty contest. She never forgave him, and now returns with her brother, an ex-con, to enact revenge.

The best part of the film was the first half in which Kaylie was successful in blackmailing Trev into cutting off his finger as payback. But in the second half, the film turned far too dark in the abduction of the daughter of Trevor and Renée, little Clio. The enactment of a beauty pageant with the dolled-up Clio center stage was a sick and unpleasant experience in the closing sequence in the rented Rialta Theatre.

In her twisted mind, Kaylie always felt that she was entitled to be Miss America. But Renée was much more perceptive in referring to Kaylie as "a bitter, has-been trash queen." In the film's denouement, it is clear that the trash queen may now look forward to her education as a princess while wearing not an elegant gown, but an orange jumpsuit.