The final girl of the slasher subgenre has evolved over time – from the quiet, virtuous survivor to the complex, self-aware heroines of more recent titles. Cultural shifts and changing ideas about gender have led to a final girl who was once passive into a proactive, layered figure.
If you’ve read Carol J. Clover’s Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992), which comes highly recommended from me because it’s a great entry text to the genre, you’ll know that Clover defines the final girl by having the following characteristics: survivorship, virtuosity, observance, resourcefulness, androgyny, and an active role. I’ll expand on these a little below.
- Survivorship: she is the only one left alive
- Virtuosity: morally upright and responsible
- Observance: aware of the threat earlier than other characters
- Resourcefulness: shows intelligence and ingenuity in order to survive
- Androgyny: likely has a unisex name and may show what is typically ‘masculine-coded’ behaviour
- Active role: in the final act, the final girl picks up a weapon and fights back
Survival through endurance
When Clover coined the term, she referred only to slasher films, however it’s interesting to see how the term has evolved since its conception in the early nineties. To start at the beginning, we need to decide who the first final girl was – however this is quite hotly contested. Clover herself identifies Sally Hardesty from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). In my perspective, Hardesty is more of a prototype final girl, because she lacks some of the key elements; there’s a lack of resourcefulness, androgyny, narrative control, and proactivity.
We can also consider Diane Adams from Silent Night, Bloody Night (1972), Jess Bradford from Black Christmas (1974), and Sue Snell from Carrie (1976), however each of these characters have slight deviations from the original criterium so for the purposes of this article I am going to consider Laurie Strode from Halloween (1978) to be our proto-type final girl.
Laurie Strode – Halloween (1978) • Laurie, portrayed by Jamie Lee Curtis, is a kindly seventeen-year-old girl on the introverted side. She’s smart, a bit shy, and of course she notices the threat before the other characters. She survives Michael Myres through a combination of observance and resourcefulness. She is portrayed as responsible and modest. Halloween draws a comparison between Laurie and her other friends as she is not sexually active and therefore more ‘worthy’ of surviving. This is indicative of the moralistic undercurrents in slashers from this period, and representative of wider views across the US in this time. Laurie is a unisex name, and her appearance is not overtly feminine, favouriting understated looks in contrast to her friends. Although many consider Strode as the first realised final girl, I actually think she’s more of a prototype, and stills falls firmly within the scream queen criteria. She is helped (by a man, no less) and really doesn’t exemplify much agency in the film at all.
Moral purity, intelligence, and fighting back
Alice Hardy – Friday the 13th (1980) • Alice, portrayed by Adrienne King, fits the criteria by being the only surviving camp counsellor at Camp Crystal Lake. She achieves this through resourcefulness, using the environment and her surroundings to survive. Like Laurie, Alice is portrayed as slightly more morally restrained than her cohorts, however not to the extent of Strode – there are hints about her romantic situation, but she does not present as overtly rebellious or irresponsible. Alice is also not a strongly-gendered name, comparable to other final girls. Besides the morality aspect, one way in which she strongly deviates from her predecessor Laurie is the fact that she decapitates Mrs. Voorhees with a machete, unlike Laurie who relies on Dr. Loomis. It’s also worth noting that as early as 1980, the killer themselves being a woman subverted expectations for the usual gender dynamic of the final girl trope.
Ginny Field – Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) • We say goodbye to Alice as she is quickly killed off in the second movie. Now that Jason is the killer and not Mrs. Vorhees, the franchise introduces Ginny as the final girl in the second film. Of course, Ginny (played by Amy Steel) is the last survivor, resourceful, and smart. Part 2 elevates the ‘resourcefulness’ aspect by going beyond what is essentially hiding in bushes and becomes psychological tactics like impersonating Jason’s mother. Ginny is quite restrained compared to her peers, she’s very responsible and caring but this is contrasted against her sexually promiscuous and reckless cohort. This feels a little bit like a step backwards in the evolution, but on the other hand, Ginny is portrayed as intelligent and capable, and she is not overly-sexualised. Building on that, she is one of the first final girls to methodically outsmart the killer in comparison to Laurie Strode who survives through instinct and luck.
Nancy Thompson – A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) • Nancy, played by Heather Langenkamp compares to Ginny, as she defeats Freddy Krueger by being smarter. She is highly resourceful, rather than reacting, she actively plans and takes control. Instead of using brute force and physical strength, Nancy strategises how to defend against Freddy in the dream world and determining that he lives on fear, it shows a strong sense of mental resilience however this aspect is not as overt as the Laurie Strode archetype and also does not rationalise her survival, demonstrating more agency that her predecessors.
Self-awareness, challenging purity, and agency
Sidney Prescott – Scream (1990) • The evolution of the final girl kicks things up a notch in the 1990s with the introduction of Sidney Prescott, played by Neve Campbell, in the Scream series. This is the first time we see a self-aware final girl, which is possible through the film’s meta identity. The ‘rules’ are spoken to the audience and the characters within the film are aware of the slasher playbook. Another new thing we see with Sidney, is the fact that her trauma plays a large role in the narrative, displaying her resilience and scars. Because the film is so self-aware, it also makes sense that Sidney would have a unisex name to fit the trope.
Hyper-competence and active vengeance
Sarah Carter – The Descent (2005) • Sarah is another subversive final girl, however in a different way from Sidney. Sarah, portrayed by Shauna Macdonald, is the sole survivor (although ambiguously) and begins as an emotionally vulnerable character experiencing grief and trauma from losing her family. She is shown to be more sensitive and moral than her peers, highlighting her as the final girl. The way in which Sarah subverts the trope is that by the end of the film she doesn’t merely survive but actively becomes more aggressive and disturbed. She does not cleanly emerge from the narrative in a satisfying arc but instead descends into violence and madness. This is one of the earliest instances of a final girl slasher really exploring how trauma can consume a person.
Deconstruction and subversion
Erin Harson – You’re Next (2011) • Erin, played by Sharni Vinson, is a proactive final girl who not only survives but fights back and outsmarts the animal masked assailants. Also like Sidney, Erin has a more developed backstory than previous final girls – her survivalist background gives her a tactical edge, reversing the roles so that she becomes the hunter, ultimately making the antagonist her prey. You’re Next does particularly moralise in the same way as earlier slashers, but she is portrayed as grounded. Well also see here the further development of isolation as factor in the final girl’s evolution.
Max Cartwright – The Final Girls (2015) • Max, played by Taissa Farmiga, is a grieving teen who finds herself in the middle of an eighties slasher. The Final Girls is also first genre bending film we’ve look at so far. With an androgynous name and a traumatic backstory, this film within a film final girl is a clear example of a meta final girl. Max is aware she’s in a slasher giving her a level of agency from early on. Whereas most final girls are the result of fate, she also has the opportunity to become a final girl by choice and growth. There’s also an interesting dynamic between Max and her mother (Nancy – sounds familiar) who appears as a scream queen in Camp Bloodbath, requiring Max to let her go in order to defeat the killer and leave.
Grace de Lomas – Ready or Not (2019) • Grace de Lomas, played by Samara Weaving, is another outsider final girl. She begins the film likeable and grounded, in contrast to the family she is marrying into. Her morality is based in her reticence to behave violently, but she has to transform both emotionally and physically quite quickly. Her white wedding dress demonstrates the journey from pure white to being more and more blood soaked as she is forced to become more cunning and fierce. Ultimately, Grace ends up angry and proactive, taking pleasure in destruction. We never see her after the events, but it would seem that after her systematic annihilation of the normalcy of a corrupted system she is more of a reckoning than a survivor.
Trauma-informed, legacy stories, complex morality
Sam Carpenter & Tara Carpenter – Scream (2022) and Scream VI (2023) • Tara Carpenter, played by Jenna Ortega, is an interesting diversion from the final girl trope, and not only because we now have two final girls. Tara is morally complex but relatable, sarcastic and vulnerable. She has a more rebellious streak, fulling diverting from the purity aspect of final girl foremothers. Sam Carpenter, played by Melissa Barrera, shows a much larger evolution of the final girl as a direct deconstruction. She’s the main target and the daughter of Billy Loomis, introducing a legacy of violence. Unlike many final girls, Sam has dark impulses, skills with brutality and further complicates the morality previous iterations have shown. Sam and Tara subvert the typical final girl by breaking the sole survivor rule and sharing trauma and psychological complexity over virtue. The main difference between Sidney and Sam is that the former survives by wit and resilience, whereas Sam survives by embracing darkness.
Mia Allen – Evil Dead (2013) • Despite this film coming out in 2013, I’ve saved Mia for last because her character is the most complex I’ve talked about so far. Played by Jane Levy, Mia completely subverts the trope in almost every way. She of course fits the trope by being the sole survivor, emotionally vulnerable, and resourceful, however, early in the film Mia is possessed, leading her to become the monster, deviating from the idea that the morality of the final girl is a constant throughout the film. Obviously all final girls experience trauma within their own films, but never to the extent of being killed, buried, and resurrected. Mia is rebirthed, like a religious figure. Most of the final girls I’ve talked about are reluctant killers who use conventional weapons, unlike the antagonist who is usually more outlandish and inventive in their killings. Mia uses a chainsaw, which is a nice bookend for when we consider the final girl origins all the way back to Sally Hardy. The morality contingent trope has also completely evolved. Not only does Mia deal with addiction, but she must heal in order to survive. Mia Allen is the most evolved final girl because she transcends the teen to survivor and victim to fighter pipelines, becoming a reborn avenger.
Modern and metaphorical final girls
The final girl has evolved so much since Clover coined the term in the early nineties. Retroactively, we can fit more characters into the category if we consider the term to encompass more than slasher films, including Ellen Ripley from Alien (1979) and Kirsty Cotton from Hellraiser (1987). This demonstrates how evolving horror values frame not only modern characters but also those of the past. With this in mind, let’s look at a few more final girls from other genres.
Rial – His House (2020) • Rial, played by Wunmi Mosaku, introduces a character in the midst of real-world horror. She flees war and seeks asylum in the UK, highlighting her endurance as a key aspect. Rial is forced to confront grief, guilt, and moral ambiguity in order to be proactive against the antagonistic Apeth.
Adelaide Wilson – Us (2019) • Adelaide, played by Lupita Nyong’o, is a reinvention of the final girl. There’s the final confrontation, endurance and survival, but on top of that she’s proven to be emotionally intuitive and practical in crisis. It is ultimately revealed that Adelaide was really her doppelganger all along, complexifying the final girl character by starting her life by escaping and taking someone else’s – this flips the classic dynamic, because the monster is the hero.
Sexism, identity, and the future
The final girl has transitioned from a character who survives through endurance and moral purity. After the 1980s, we begin to see more self-awareness, agency, and a challenging of the purity myth. A little later in the 2000s and 2010s, active vengeance emerges, until to our current decade where we see the final girl (or girls) have become shaped by trauma, legacy, and explore more complexity in terms of morality.
The earlier final girls were clearly more rooted in sexism, surviving because they are pure of soul in contrast to their recklessly corrupted peer group. This enforces conservative gender norms, which is underpinned that the more masculine the character is, the more likely she is to survive, whether by name, style, or supposed competency. We also have to remember that before the birth of the final girl lived the scream queen, who was often portrayed as a helpless victim.
All in all, the pretext here is that female characters in slashers are weak and insufficient, and that’s without highlighting overly sexualised and objectified characters. By comparing to more modern iterations, we can see that the final girl trope isn’t inherently sexist but born out of a sexist society. The final girls we see today reflect broader conversations about trauma, empowerment and identity, and I look forward to seeing the final girls of tomorrow who champion diversity and individuality.
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