Who Is Your Favourite Final Girl?

Sounds Good!

The “Final Girl” is a trope in horror films – the term was coined by academic, Carol Jeanne Clover in her 1992 book, Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. I’ve just started reading this book – a brilliant examination of the slasher boom across the mid-70s and 1980s. It’s been on my list for a long time. The “Final Girl” trope is something I’ve been aware of for a while, I feel like you can’t really be a horror-movie fan without bumping into this idea. If nothing else, it’s often held up as an argument against the sexism of other horror-movie tropes; the survivor is female, the victim becomes the hero, defeats or at least outwits the monster or deranged killer.

But just recently this Final Girl trope has been everywhere in my reading and watching – and so I guess that’s what got me, finally, to Clover’s actual text.

I watched a movie called The Final Girls, a 2015 comedy-horror romp that I’d missed at the time – a solid watch actually.

Around the same time, I’d stumbled onto a book of poems called I Am Not Your Final Girl. If not entirely successful, it was certainly interesting. The poet, Claire C. Holland, a horror fanatic (of course!) wrote first-person poems from the point of view of famous Final Girls; Laurie Strode (from Halloween) for instance. (That’s Jamie Lee Curtis’ character, if you didn’t know).

And I’m currently listening to the audiobook of Grady Hendrix’s brand new novel, The Final Girl Support Group. A great story, this. Cool concept: The title all but points it out, but it’s a support group for women that have survived real-life horrors, overcome killers and stalkers. It’s being optioned for a TV show – and it’ll be great, has that very self-aware, reference-filled way of myth-busting horror that was so influential in the movie Scream. And then, that same self-aware, self-mythologising trope has been explored in a decade and a half’s worth of very bad horror films to the point of parody ever since.

But in a knowing-nod of a move, the audiobook is narrated by Adrienne King. She’s a voice actor with a bunch of credits doing voiceovers and ADR-work, but maybe you know her as one of horror’s ultimate Final Girls? She was Alice in the original Friday the 13th. She has an interesting history in the trope, given she appears at the start of the sequel (my favourite horror movie sequel, remember) only to become the first victim. That in itself becoming something of a trope.

Now, shortly after that, and with the success of Friday as one of the hip new slashers, King was the subject of a real-life stalker. Photos would appear under her door. A creepy loser following her about the neighbourhood. She moved to England. She gave up acting in front of the camera and became voiceover talent. Such was the impact. So it’s really something to have her narrating the Final Girls Support Club story. (I haven’t quite finished it as I write this, but I thoroughly recommend it).

I was going to suggest a list of the best Final Girls, when I started writing this. But then I remembered a great YouTube comment: “Ah the Final Girl…the ultimate grey area in film between sexism and feminism”. And I think that’s exactly what has me caught up in this at the moment, attempting to give it some thought.

Besides, people always seem to pick Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott from the Scream franchise. And I get it. She’s in four films. Always survives. She’s signed up for the fifth film – which is considered both a reboot and a continuation – and that’s due out in a couple of months, at the top of 2022. But I’ve just never been much of a fan. She’s the least interesting aspect of that franchise as far as I’m concerned.

I prefer Alice from Friday. I prefer the blood-soaked fury of Marilyn Burns’ Sally Hardesty in the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and of course Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from the Alien franchise (though some might argue its horror status, lining it up as sci-fi instead, but I reckon it counts). And I think my absolute favourite – if I’m going to go calling favourites –  is Nancy Thompson (as played by Heather Langenkamp) in the A Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. Nancy is the heroine of the first film. She returns to part three, to get the franchise back on track after the first sequel goes out west with a whole new cast (apart from Freddy). And then she’s there in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare too.

She was even the subject of a 2011 documentary film, I Am Nancy. Which I also just caught up with only recently.

Strange subject. Final Girls.

We had a meeting of our Fright Knightz club last Friday. This is me and my mate Sam and my son Oscar. We’ve had a horror movie sleepover and a fieldtrip to see Misery on the big screen. And a few other get-togethers to watch horror films. (We really need a Fright Knightz teeshirt!)

Last week we paired Friday The 13th and The Shining in a fantastic 1980 double-feature. Both gateway horror films for me. And for my son now. He’s seen them a few times, loves them. Both close to perfect in my mind – despite one being a low/ish budget film with a no-name cast and an amateur filmmaker, and the other being from Stephen King source material, helmed by one of cinema’s toughest auteurs and featuring two huge Hollywood stars.

Alice remains a great Final Girl I thought. But what about Wendy?

I know, I know, I’ll write about The Shining in full one day. But Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) is technically a Final Girl. A survivor of the film. And she is the most tormented character. Easily. Her fightback is hard-fought and such a victory. When all seems hopeless, she triumphs. She’s played completely differently (and more as King wrote her) by Rebecca De Mornay in the 1997 TV mini-series adaptation, and though it’s a dud-watch De Mornay’s effort – and seeing a Wendy that’s stronger, as per the book’s pages – is easily the best thing about that version. She also turns up in the prologue of Dr. Sleep (billed as a sequel to The Shining) but I don’t think Wendy has ever truly had the praise – or column inches – she deserves.

Hmm…so, I’m not ranking Final Girls. That does seem weird. But I’d like to know your thoughts and if you have a favourite. I’m going to stick with Nancy being my number one, purely because it had such an impact on the actor that portrayed the character. And because Freddy and the Nightmare series was my absolute horror gateway; my first fright. My first true horror love. But how about you?