The Final Girl
The Final Girl
by Joanna Bruno
Originally published October 2019.
Embedded Files
The Final Girl is one of the most recognizable tropes in the horror genre, especially in the revolutionary subgenre, the slasher film. Not only has the final girl evolved dramatically over the years, but there are a few theories attempting to explain the underlying meaning behind the sole survivor’s role.
Slashers usually follow the same linear plot of several victims being killed one-by-one by a killer amid increasing terror, which builds up to a climax where the last surviving member of the group (the final girl) defeats the killer or escapes. Merriam Webster’s dictionary definition of the final girl is “a trope in horror movies, referring to the female protagonist who remains alive at the end of the film after the other character’s have been killed, when she is usually placed in a position to confront the killer”. The term was first coined by University of California professor Carol J. Clover in her 1992 book, “Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film”. Clover suggests the viewer shares an identity with the killer at the beginning of the film, but about halfway through it shifts to the final girl.
But who is the final girl? The first recognizable final girls were Sally Hardesty from arguably the most influential slasher film of all time, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974) and Laurie Strode from Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978). The characteristics of these final girls are they are almost always, obviously, female and almost certainly a virgin, thus avoiding the death by sex trope. They dress modestly in comparison to their stereotypical promiscuous blonde counterpart, and is morally superior than her friends. She most likely will not participate in the drinking, smoking and/or illegal drug use of her group and is the most resourceful and intelligent.
As for interpreting what the stereotype actually represents, theorists have come up with two opposing interpretations. The first being that the female character appears to be the embodiment of “womanly ideals”, and falls into stereotypical, conservative ideals regarding what a woman should be. She’s a damsel in distress, she’s pure, she’s smart and she doesn’t partake in any rebellious behavior as her friends might. On the other hand, some feminists actually believe the trope to be empowering for women. They argue that the males in the audience (and horror is mostly directed toward male spectators) are forced to identify with a woman in the climax of the movie.
However, this is where it gets tricky. It is unclear whether slasher films are to be taken as an act of feminist rebellion by employing the final girl trope, or if it is a sexist fantasy meant for the male dominated audience. The reason being that the end of horror films is often ambiguous. Usually, it is unknown if the evil entity is ever killed if the survivor does attempt to do so, or the final girl simply escapes her personal hell and the killer is left at large. This ending signifies that the final girl isn’t actually a hero, but merely a survivor of unfortunate circumstances. Even though she lives to see another day after the movie ends, the final girls are likely to be killed off in the sequel (like Alice Hardy in Steve Miner’s Friday the 13th Part 2 or even Sally from Hooper’s sequel to the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre). This fate questions the representation to be an expression of patriarchal society; that where possible, independent women must be destroyed or, at the very least, contained.
Yet in recent years, the habit of killing off final girls in sequels has faded. Instead, they often live to face off with their attacker again and again. Wes Craven’s Scream (1996) is one of the first teen slasher franchises not to kill off Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in any of the following films. Prescott also defies not only the final girl trope but also the death by sex trope in the way that she has sex with Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and survives. As the subgenre has evolved, Drew Goddard’s 2012 surprise hit The Cabin in the Woods, poked fun at slasher stereotypes, while also challenging the final girl’s fate. Dana (Kristen Connolly) doesn’t only survive until the end of the film, but she has the option to choose how it will end by either saving only herself as the last woman standing, or letting the world end.
The final girls of today are different than those audiences met 30-40 years ago, but they remain just as badass. The difference in recent years though, is that final girls are choosing their own destinies. The women of these films are forced to confront their fears, but still they push forward and it shows women watching that their fears are not only survivable but conquerable. The stereotype may have originated as a fantasy of male directors made with the intention of being viewed by a male dominated genre, but over the years women and their characters have seemed to reclaim the trope and make it their own, empowering audiences and women in theaters everywhere.
IMAGES
Top: Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (1978). Sony Pictures.
Left: Marilyn Burns in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). New Line Cinema.
Right: Neve Campbell in Scream (1996). Dimension Films.
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