Fans of the horror genre will be familiar with the term: final girl. It refers to the last woman alive in a horror film, the person who either has the final showdown with the villain, or lives to tell the story to the world. Over the years, there have been many memorable final girl performances, from Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in the Alien franchise.
At best, final girls can become some of the most iconic characters in genre cinema history, and the last ten years have been filled with an abundance of memorable and exciting final girls.
Grace - Ready Or Not (2019)
Before they directed the newest, critically acclaimed installment in the Scream franchise, directors Tyler Gillett and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin made Ready Or Not, one of the most unique horror films of recent years. The film follows Grace (Samara Weaving), a bride forced to play a sinister game of hide and seek with her eccentric in-laws on her wedding night.
Despite being hugely outnumbered and incredibly unprepared to fight for her life, Grace manages to consistently overpower and outwit her tormentors. Ready Or Not is a gruesome, twisted delight anchored by an incredible performance from Weaving that every horror fan should make sure to check out.
Dani - Midsommar (2019)
Director Ari Aster's first film, Hereditary, made one thing perfectly clear to audiences: he knows how to make a groundbreaking horror film. It's no surprise then that his second film, Midsommar, both terrified audiences and provided us with one of the most nuanced final girls in years. Midsommar follows Dani (Florence Pugh), a young woman who travels with her boyfriend and his friends to a Swedish mid-summer festival, which turns out to be the work of a pagan cult.
Dani's transformation from a lost soul into the May Queen is slow and suspenseful, making the dramatic decision she makes at the film's climax all the more rewarding for the viewers.
Laurie Strode - Halloween (2018) and Halloween Kills (2021)
One of the most iconic final girls of all time returned to the screen in 2018 when Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee-Curtis) reignited her deadly rivalry with masked killer Michael Myers. The 2018 sequel is set 40 years after the original (and thankfully, it pretends the other sequels don't exist), introducing audiences to a new and improved Laurie. She's spent her entire life knowing that one day Michael would escape, training to ensure that she will be the one to kill him.
After a fierce performance in her long-awaited return, Laurie was largely wasted in Halloween Kills, spending almost the entire run-time confined to a hospital bed. Here's hoping she's given more to do in the final installment, Halloween Ends.
Casey - Split (2016) and Glass (2019)
After The Visit reminded people just how talented a writer/director M. Night Shyamalan is, he pleased audiences and critics alike with horror/thriller hybrid, Split. Anya Taylor-Joy's Casey is one of three girls kidnapped by Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man diagnosed with twenty-three distinct personalities. Casey immediately shows herself to be resourceful, intelligent and determined to survive as she helps one of the other kidnapped girls attempt to escape the clutches of one of Kevin's most sinister personalities.
Both physically and mentally scarred by her tragic past, Casey only manages to escape the clutches of The Beast because he deems her pure-hearted, which is a nice twist on the final girl trope.
Tree - Happy Death Day (2017) and Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
It's incredible to think that we had to wait until 2019 for somebody to combine a classic slasher film with a time-loop story. Thankfully for fans, Happy Death Day came along and scratched the itch we didn't know we had. The film follows college student Tree (Jessica Rothe), who's forced to relive the day of her death on an endless loop until she discovers the real identity of her killer.
Unfortunately for Tree, she wasn't the nicest person before the time loop, so it seems as though everybody she encounters has a reason to kill her. Over the course of the film, Tree transforms into a more thoughtful, well-rounded person who cultivates relationships that are good for her while leaving her old toxic ways firmly in the past.
Jay - It Follows (2015)
Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, It Follows is one of the most original and thematically rich horror films of recent times. The story revolves around Jay (Maika Monroe), a young woman who is relentlessly followed by a supernatural entity after a sexual encounter. It Follows places Jay in an impossible position; she either has sex with somebody else to pass on the curse and potentially save herself or spend her entire life running away from the entity that's chasing her.
This moral dilemma is passed onto the audience too, as they are encouraged to consider what they would do should they ever find themselves in Jay's unfortunate position. In addition to its excellent final girl, It Follows also boasts a hugely memorable soundtrack.
Dana Polk - The Cabin In The Woods
The Cabin In The Woods is a horror film clearly at odds with the archetypal gender roles that are ever-present within the genre. Every classic trope and archetype is included, but the characters are manipulated into becoming these overly-simplistic caricature characters. For example, final girl Dana Polk (Kristen Connolly) begins the film as a strong, intelligent and liberated woman but the villainous organization pulling the strings drug her to turn her into 'the virgin.'
The fact that The Cabin In The Woods manages to tear the final girl archetype to shreds, while also providing audiences with a truly memorable and unique final girl, is a remarkable achievement and one everybody involved with the film should be immensely proud of.
Sidney Prescott - Scream (2022)
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) encapsulates everything audiences look for in a final girl. Not only is she seemingly indestructible (how many times has she been stabbed now?), but she's also a clever, fierce, and witty character who's also surrounded herself with loyal friends, namely Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette).
While Sidney was very much the star of Scream 4, the last installment in the franchise to be directed by the late Wes Craven, she returned to Scream as a legacy character. Despite not having an abundance of screen time, Sidney still finds time to mutter a handful of iconic lines and kick an extraordinary amount of ass. Fans expect nothing less from "Sidney f*cking Prescott."
Mia - Evil Dead (2013)
Ok, so Mia (Jane Levy) may not be a typical final girl portrayal, but she's undoubtedly one of the most interesting. The reboot of Sam Raimi's iconic film sees Mia and four friends travel to a remote cabin, where they discover The Book of the Dead, that they unwittingly use to summon a horde of undead demons.
So, what makes Mia such an unusual final girl? Well, for one thing, she spends most of the film possessed by a demon which is relatively unheard of for a final girl. Still, she manages to overcome the possession and save the day by using a chainsaw to kill her evil doppelganger. Mia may not be a classic final girl, but long live the new normal.
Elizabeth Shaw - Prometheus (2012)
Prometheus had to overcome the almost impossible obstacle of making a film within the Alien franchise without Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), arguably the most beloved final girl of all time. Thankfully, director Ridley Scott did not simply create a carbon copy of Ripley (although that's what happened in Alien: Covenant), instead introducing audiences to Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace). We first meet Shaw as she and her boyfriend (Logan Marshall-Green) discover proof of alien life, which they then use to convince the Weyland Corporation to fund a trip to try and meet their creators.
Shaw's thirst for knowledge separates her from Ripley entirely, allowing audiences to enjoy Rapace's nuanced, grounded, and tortured performance without drawing comparisons to Ripley. Dr. Shaw was a great new addition to the Alien franchise, and it was a colossal mistake to kill her character off-screen in Covenant.