Top 5 Friday: Final Girls

All horror fans know that one of the most important ingredients in a good slasher movie is the final girl. A good final girl goes through an emotional change through the carnage, using her resources to make it to the final showdown against the chainsaw-wielding villain. It's been noted, most specifically in pop culture, that the final girl is sexually repressed and displays more masculine traits that set her apart from her more emotional, feminine friends as they get dismembered left and right. After viewing as many horror movies as I have (both good and bad), I started to think of which horror movie heroines effectively made the transformation from helpless victim to hardcore avenger. In no particular order:

Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell)-Scream

I can't have a list of final girls and not include Sidney Prescott of Scream fame. She is the main target of a knife-wielding maniac obsessed with the conventions of horror movies for three (soon to be four) whole films. Throughout the movie she goes from feeling sorry for herself to actually stabbing, shooting, and slicing in order to get her life back.



Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis)-Halloween

Michael Myers' estranged little sister is the quintessential final girl. She conveys all of the qualities that the ideal final girl should: she's responsible, virginal, and tough. She is one of the few horror movie victims that wins the audience over through the danger she puts herself in so that she can rescue her friends and the children she babysits. By the end of the movie, she's forced to stop running and face her fear of "the boogeyman" head on.


Ripley (Sigourney Weaver)-Alien

Ripley proves to be the final girl that inspired them all throughout the Alien series. She's androgynous, perceptive, and her ability to keep her head in a crisis keeps her alive.



Erin (Jessica Biel)-The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

Say what you will about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, but it was an enjoyable romp through the rural hell of Leatherface and the Hewitt family. Jessica Biel played Erin, a young woman on her way to a concert with some friends before they ran into some trouble in the form of a cannibalistic maniac with a chainsaw. She manages to be the first and only survivor of Leatherface's wrath through sheer strength and her ability to fight back.



Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp)-A Nightmare on Elm Street

Going up against a nightmare-haunting demon isn't exactly easy, especially when your dad and boyfriend continually let you down. Nancy has to take matters into her own hands to defeat the sadistic Freddy Krueger. She is perceptive and doesn't depend on anyone to help her which makes her a perfect final girl.

Granted, everyone looks for different qualities in the famous final girl. So what final girls would you put on your list?