There’s a trope throughout horror movies called the “final girl,” the girl who outsmarts and outlives the killer. She’s there in classics like Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street. She’s revolutionized in postmodern horrors, such as Scream. She is characterized by one thing: survival. She’s often smarter or faster than her peers, who she usually watches get killed off sequentially. She deals with her trauma, whether that be in the literal sense with a killer present and stalking her, or metaphorically, recounting repressed memories or experiences. The final girl is resilient, she defends herself and against all odds defeats the villain, sometimes even with his own weapon.
Carol J. Clover in her non-fiction novel, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, gave the final girl her name. Clover countered other’s beliefs about the final girl, that, instead of being subject to violence as a source of entertainment for the male-dominated audience, but as a form of female empowerment. Often, she is the character that male viewers come to identify with and root for as she overcomes her oppressor. Even further, Clover states that the final girl reverses the usual tradition of cinema of having the girl as the spectacle while the male is the spectator. The final girl instead becomes the spectator, making a spectacle of the killer.
The final girl is complex. In some instances, she’s prudish, like with Laurie Strode from Halloween. She does not see the need to have sex and drink and do drugs, unlike her peers, which often leads to their untimely demise. Meanwhile, the final girl of Black Christmas has premarital sex, becoming pregnant and considering having an abortion. The final girl might even have sex with the killer, as is so with Sidney Prescott in Scream.
Sex plays a big part in exploring the final girl. Most likely the final girl is young, in high school or college. She’s surrounded by her peers, most of them participating in premarital sex, which is sometimes seen as immoral or unnecessary by the final girl or an outside eye (usually the killer’s). As a character in Scream states, “Sex always equals death.” This is apparent in Halloween with the chaste Strode, but contrary to Scream itself, as Prescott has sex and still survives the killer.
Going hand-in-hand, sexuality and gender identity can define the final girl. According to Clover, she’s an interesting union between masculine and feminine, and she even tends to become more masculine looking as the film goes on. In some cases, as is with Ellen Ripley from the sci-fi horror Alien, the final girl is androgynous and asexual. Other final girls may even use their sexuality to their advantage.
The final girl varies. She’s timeless, ranging in films from the seventies to the present day. She can be a feminist icon, or she can be a character solely there for the killer to chase. She can be empowering, and she can be demeaning. She can be found in a range of genres, not just horror. But, above all, no matter her variation, the final girl survives. She, more often than not, is a symbol of resilience to the audience. She’s inspiration for those dealing with their own “killer”.