Directed by Alexandre Carriere, the latest Lifetime thriller, “The Boarding School Murders,” has an almost perfect storyline with a nice plot twist at the end. The story follows Frankie, a teenager with a troubled past, who recently got picked by a scholarship program at one of the most reputed schools in the world. Right after her entry into the school, mysterious incidents start taking place. So, it is up to Frankie to prove herself innocent. Hannah Galway, as Frankie, does an exceptional job with her charming performance, and the other actors also play a crucial role in making “The Boarding School Murders” a good watch for the weekends. Spoilers Ahead!
The Boarding School Murders (2024) Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis:
The film starts with the introduction of Frankie. She is one of the finest students of history in her class and has applied for Limoux Boarding School in Switzerland. It is one of the most epic schools in the world from where top entrepreneurs and CEOs come. Frankie is selected under the scholarship programme, but nevertheless, she and her roommate Trina think that she deserves this opportunity. Before leaving, Frankie reminds Trina about an incident where they were caught stealing a cheap plastic bracelet. But Trina gives her the same bracelet as a parting gift, only this time, she actually bought that bracelet for her.
When Frankie comes to Limoux, she soon understands that she will have to be very courageous to cope with the other students. Most of them come from the houses of billionaires, and Frankie comes from a very poor background. This class discrimination is pointed out on multiple occasions by Tinsley Wellington and her group. However, amidst the show-off comes one sweet, straightforward, weird girl named Jacqueline, who befriends Frankie. She helps Frankie to settle in quickly. However, some sinister plans are going on against Frankie, which she is unaware of.
How does Frankie become a suspect in Tinsley’s death?
One night, when Frankie and Jacqueline are hanging out in the garden, they see a mysterious figure looking at them from afar. Soon, the figure starts chasing them, and both the girls start running for their lives. However, later Frankie sees that Tinsley and her squad are messing with them. Tinsley mentions the shoplifting incident and Frankie’s father having a criminal record. Tinsley sort of starts blackmailing her, saying that if Frankie does not follow her rules, she will mention these to the school’s principal.
Later, Tinsley’s body is found in the corridor of the hostel. The panic looms large as Tinsley’s friends Maria and Annabelle start doubting Frankie’s motive behind the killing. Detective Krause enters the scene and starts investigating the matter. Maria mentions Frankie’s probable involvement in Tinsley’s death. When confronted by Detective Krause, Frankie directly tells him that they may have gotten off to a bad start, but this does not mean that she will kill someone because of being bullied.
However, even though Detective Krause believes her, there are other students, including some teachers, who do not trust Frankie since it is revealed that she has a past history of shoplifting. Frankie tells Jacqueline that it was Trina who stole the cheap plastic bracelet. Frankie just hit a guard as he was behaving badly with Trina. Anyway, the rest of the lot does not know about the original incident, so they start to look at Frankie like she is already convicted of Tinsley’s murder.
How does Frankie save Maria?
One night Frankie finds it very hard to sleep at night. So, she decides to walk in the corridor. Suddenly she sees something happening outside in the garden. She comes to the spot hurriedly and finds out that Maria is lying there. She screams for help, and soon Maria is hospitalized in a critical condition. Frankie says that she has seen someone pulling Maria’s body from the window of the basement.
When Frankie comes running, the mysterious figure is not there to be found at all. Detective Krause doubts Frankie is maybe lying. Since Maria continuously blames Frankie for Tinsley’s murder and she also knows about Frankie’s troubled past, Detective Krause has every reason to believe that Frankie is behind all of this. So, the detective seizes Frankie’s stuff, including her phone, for a thorough examination.
Why is Frankie arrested?
That night, Frankie takes the risk, picks the lock of the library, and contacts Trina to explain something that she has found. Frankie tells Trina that she doubts Miss Ainsworth as her appointment in the college somehow feels a bit dicey. Also, Frankie once stole Maria’s tablet to find out who killed Tinsley. From there, she finds a cutout of Miss Ainsworth, which intrigues Frankie. Later Frankie tells Jacqueline and Annabelle about the idea of Miss Ainsworth’s involvement in this.
Frankie goes inside Ainsworth’s bedroom while Jacqueline and Annabelle try to engage her in bizarre conversation. However, Frankie does not find anything inside her room, and she almost gets caught during the process. The following day, the police find the exact shoe they doubt the killer wore from Frankie’s room. Frankie is arrested as the prime suspect in one murder and another attempt at murder.
The following morning, Frankie is released as she is being exonerated, and she goes straight to Maria, who is in a coma right now. She seeks her help because deep inside, she knows that Maria knows who the killer is. Anyway, she comes back to her room and calls Trina, explaining that she has no clue how she is being exonerated, but she is willing to find out everything as she opens Maria’s tablet one more time.
The Boarding School Murders (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
How Does Frankie Prove Her Innocence?
In the tablet, Maria finds some interesting texts from Tinsley sent to Maria. The texts are from 2007, where Tinsley says that she has hired a private investigator who has come up with some significant information. The Dean of the school, Mr. Limoux, has an affair with a woman named Ainsworth, who was recently appointed as the principal of the school. However, Mr. Limoux paid her enough money to abandon her child and keep quiet about their extramarital relationship.
The reason behind Tinsley blackmailing Mr. Limoux was that she wanted to have good grades in her curriculum. In her family, she had been the black sheep, and she wanted to change that. Frankie thinks that Mr. Limoux is the killer, and so she and Annabelle try to get the tablet to the detective. However, they hear Jacqueline screaming from the principal’s office. When they enter, they find out that Jacqueline is holding a knife against Ainsworth’s throat while Mr. Limoux is trying to talk to her.
Later, we realize that Jacqueline is the daughter of Mr. Limoux and Miss Ainsworth. Miss Ainsworth fails to leave her daughter in foster care, so she brings her to the school. Mr. Limoux knew that Jacqueline would do anything to prove her worth to him, so he sought help in the Tinsley situation. Jacqueline thought that if she took care of Tinsley, her father, Mr. Limoux, would very much appreciate her efforts and would love her the way she had always wanted. She also revealed that she had planned it so perfectly that even Frankie’s admission was in the plan. So that, when the time comes, Jacqueline can put the blame on someone who already has a criminal record.
Read More: The Boarding School Murders: Cast & Characters Explained, Plot, Release Date, Time, Where to Watch & Other Details
Jacqueline admits to killing Tinsley and attempting to murder Maria. If it were not for Frankie, even Maria would have been dead by now. Annabelle records the whole confession on her phone, and Frankie is released from all the charges. At the end of the film, we see Maria and Frankie become best friends. Maria goes to the mental health hospital to meet with her father. She now thinks that her father, no matter what kind of life he has lived, deserves a second chance.
