The Eight Best Final Girls in Horror Movie History
From Florence Pugh to Sigourney Weaver these ‘final girls’ are not the ones you want to mess with
Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott in Scream 2 (tMDB)
No genre is defined by its tropes more than horror films: the drive for revenge, the malevolent spirit, and of course the ever-classic jump scare.
One of the most popular tropes in horror is the Final Girl. The term, coined by Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film, refers to the last woman standing (or limping) who goes up against the villain.
As horror evolves as a genre, so does this infamous trope. Final Girls were once required to be virginal and innocent, using their moral superiority to overcome the bad guy. Thankfully women in horror are no longer confined to those patriarchal restraints.
The modern interpretation of the Final Girl allows audiences to see the full scope of a character’s potential, making female characters more consistently subversive and exciting. That’s why the Final Girl trope is so enjoyable today.
This year has seen its fair share of final girls in films like Ready or Not, Crawl, Escape Room, and even Midsommar. Where will they land on the lists of all-time great final girls? Only time will tell. Until then, here’s our primer on the eight best Final Girls in horror history.
The Descent: Sarah Carter (Shauna Macdonald)
Shauna Macdonald as Sarah Carter in The Descent (tMDB).
In one of the most chillingly innovative and fun horror films of the millennium, six old college friends come together for their annual outdoor retreat. Sarah (Macdonald) is struggling with memories of her husband and daughter who were killed in a crash just over a year before. As the six friends spelunk deeper into the cave, their buried resentments towards one another come out until they’re reverberating off the walls. It isn’t until flesh-eating cave monsters begin preying on the group that Sarah channels her frustrations and traumas towards fighting the monsters in an attempt to find her way out. The film’s claustrophobic setting amps up the intensity tenfold, so turn out the lights and hold your breath. You’ll get a clear sense of why Sarah deserves her spot on this list.
The Halloween franchise: Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis)
Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode in 2018’s Halloween (tMDB).
Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the most notable scream queens in horror film history. There’s a reason why Ryan Murphy cast her in his short-lived but incredibly fun television series of the same name.
Curtis is most known for her role as Laurie Strode, the babysitter-turned-survivor being perpetually stalked by her serial killer brother, the infamous Michael Meyers. While the franchise’s installments range in quality, all of the entries that star Curtis are worth checking out, especially the original 1978 film and its retconning 2018 sequel. Of the latter it is incredibly satisfying seeing Curtis go toe to toe with her old foe decades later, this time packing a good amount of firepower and employing booby-traps to help fight her way to final girl status. With two more Halloween installments on the way for 2020 and 2021, it looks like we’ll be watching Laurie and Michael duke it out for some time.
The Witch: Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy)
Anya Taylor-Joy as Thomasin in The Witch (tMDB).
Likely the most unconventional final girl on this list, Thomasin is a pious young girl in midcentury New England who is accused of witchcraft after a series of mysterious occurrences on her family’s homestead. Thomasin does not exhibit the standard final girl qualities. Most of her fighting is done internally, and the film’s villain is not an evil superbeing but rather the suffocating toxicity of her family; their expectations of her; and the constraints of a strict religion. Thomasin binds herself to darkness but reclaims her autonomy in a triumphant, eerie ritual. She’s a complex and quietly strong character — the perfect final girl in both 1630 and 2019.
Alien: Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)
Sigourney Weaver as Ellen Ripley in Alien (tMDB).
While Sigourney Weaver’s headstrong space explorer Ellen Ripley appears in every subsequent film in the Alien franchise, we’re going to highlight the first movie as it best fits the horror genre.
In Alien, Ellen is the most rational crew member on the space station Nostromo, making her the only one with enough sense to make it to the end. She stays one step ahead of both a deadly extraterrestrial force and a traitorous crew member until she comes (literally) face to face with the alien trying to wipe her out. Weaver is brilliant in each Alien film, but it’s Ridley Scott’s classic that made her a household name and one of the most famous final girls of all time.
10 Cloverfield Lane: Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead)
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle in 10 Cloverfield Lane (tMDB).
In the “spiritual sequel” to the 2008 creature feature Cloverfield, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Michelle, a girl who wakes up in an underground bunker after crashing her car late one night. The bunker’s architect (John Goodman) tells Michelle he brought her there to protect her from the nuclear warfare laying siege to the earth above. As time goes on, Michelle grows suspicious of what lays beyond the bunker’s steel door and decides to take her chances on the outside. She constructs a homemade hazmat suit out of shower curtains and water bottles to deflect possible radiation, making her the craftiest final girl on this list. But getting outside is no easy task and what waits for Michelle above the bunker is beyond what she could ever imagine.
You’re Next: Erin (Sharni Vinson)
Sharni Vinson as Erin in You’re Next (tMDB).
You’re Next has become synonymous with the final girl trope less than a decade since its release. Sharni Vinson stars as Erin, a woman accompanying her boyfriend to a family reunion for his parent’s wedding anniversary. When a gang of masked killers descends on the family’s country house, it appears they’re doomed to be plucked off one by one. However, neither the killers nor Erin’s new family suspects that she may have an innate talent for survival. Erin uses arrows, home appliances, traps, and more to fight her way through this bloody good time.
The Scream franchise: Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox)
Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox in Scream 2 (tMDB).
A well-deserved twofer! Wes Craven’s Scream series breathed life back into a genre many believed to be dying. Not only did it bring fun back into the horror slasher, but it gave it an element of realism as well. Two of the franchise’s main characters, Sidney and Gale, make their way through four films together, both growing like real people would following the events that occurred in the film before. Sidney is a resourceful and smart survivor determined to move beyond the past that haunts her and Gale is the quick-thinking news reporter constantly looking for an angle. Sidney and Gale are always stronger when they work together, making them an unstoppable team of final girls and a fitting way to close out our list.
[Originally published by Taste on October 28, 2019]