One of the most well-known tropes in horror movies is the concept of the "final girl". Most common in slasher films specifically, the final girl is the character who survives the killer and makes it out alive. Usually, she is the sole survivor and is the one to put an end to whatever forces of evil her and anyone else she was with encountered. She walks away battered and traumatized, but with her life intact. She is more often than not smart, independent, and determined. Slasher films have gifted audiences with some of the most iconic final girls of all-time, such as Laurie Strode from the Halloween franchise and Sidney Prescott from the Scream franchise. These characters have paved the way for the heroes of every horror movie to follow them.
While the final girl is most commonly featured in slasher films, they are present in other subcategories of horror movies as well. Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise is the only one left standing after creatures from space slaughter everyone on her ship. Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of Ellen led to one of the most successful sci-fi/horror franchises in history and even earned her an Oscar nomination. There's also Suzy from Dario Argento's Suspiria, who doesn't escape from a serial killer, but instead flees her dance school as it irrupts into flames and kills the coven of witches trapped inside.
The final girl is not only instrumental in defeating the evil she faces, but also in carrying on a horror franchise. Some of the most influential horror movies would not be nearly as revered if not for the intelligent hero at the end. Scream would not be the beloved series it is without Sidney Prescott continuously outsmarting Ghostface. We also would not have the badass final girls introduced to us in recent years without Sidney, Laurie, and so on. Horror as a genre has evolved and changed over the years, and horror fans are able to consume many different forms of the genre and the characters they create. Here are the most badass final girls from modern horror movies:
9 Jay Height - It Follows (2014)
After an innocent sexual encounter, Jay (Maika Monroe) is plagued by strange visions and the inescapable feeling that someone, or something, is watching her every move. Burdened with this intense feeling of dread, Jay and her friends must find a way to avoid the horrors that seem to be following her around.
It Follows does not introduce the audience to a masked killer on the loose seeking vengeance. Instead, we are introduced to the feeling that there is a sinister presence at play that is targeting a young woman for doing something that most young people do. This presence threatens to follow her until she's ready to pass it on to someone else. Jay refuses to give in and tries to ward it off until the very end.
8 Maddie - Hush (2016)
One of the most intriguing horror films to debut this century, Hush follows a deaf and mute writer named Maddie (Kate Siegel) who has relocated to remote house in the woods to live of solitude and focus on her career. She is rarely visited by anyone, except by her neighbor Sarah. She is almost always alone, until she gets a text message with a picture of herself in her own house and discovers there is a masked man waiting for her outsider her patio door.
The use of sound in this film is incredible because it forces you to experience situations the way that Maddie would experience it. It's the quiet moments that cause the viewer the most unease. Despite being unable to hear or speak, Maddie is undeterred by her limitations and instead uses them to her advantage. She pushes past her fear and fights like hell to keep this intruder away from her and off her property.
7 Dani Ardor - Midsommar (2019)
A24 has produced some of the most incredible, thought-provoking movies of the last ten years. Most notably, their horror films are always innovative and unlike other horror movies in previous years. In Ari Aster's Midsommar, a grad school couple whose relationship is on the verge of falling apart visits a rural Swedish town to observe their mid-summer festival in a place where there is eternal sunlight. At first, it's an idyllic trip for grieving Dani (Florence Pugh), who lost her family to a tragic accident, but it slowly evolves into a bizarre, violent trip at the hands of a pagan cult.
The relationship between Dani and her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) is doomed from the beginning. She is racked with trauma and guilt after her parents and her sister are killed in an apparent suicide attempt by her sister. Her boyfriend complains to his friends about how she's changed and doesn't want to do anything fun anymore, which is why he invites her on the trip to Sweden. Even while on the trip, he's aggravated by her grief and emotionally abuses her. As it starts to become clear that there is something wrong with the villagers, their group is picked off one by one. They are forced to participate in twisted activities, leading Dani to fight for her life. What makes her an interesting final girl is that she isn't just a survivor of what she went through in that village, but she is a survivor of grief, depression, and manipulation.
6 Noa - Fresh (2022)
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) meets handsome and alluring Steve (Sebastian Stan) in the aisle of a grocery store. Given her frustration with the uncertainty of dating apps, she gives him her number. After the first date, Noa is enraptured by him and decides to accept his invitation for a romantic getaway at his vacation house, blissfully unaware of his unusual appetites.
Fresh is a modern horror-comedy as it isn't just about the cannibalistic killer, but it serves as a commentary on the horrors of online dating, specifically for women. Noa wants to have a normal, authentic dating life rather than just meeting people through an app. Steve is handsome, tall, charismatic, and seems like a perfect fit for her. Which he is, until he drugs her and takes a chunk out of her behind to use a part of a meal. Instead of succumbing to his freakish hobby and letting herself waste away in his basement with the other girls he has kidnaped, she fights back in a way unexpected by Steve.
5 Emerald Haywood - Nope (2022)
Jordan Peele's third horror entry is perhaps his most bizarre. After random objects fall from the sky resulting in the death of their father, rancher siblings OJ (Daniel Kaluuya) and Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer) investigate a frightening unidentified flying object that has been the cause of multiple disappearances in the area. They enlist the help of tech salesman Angel Torres and documentarian Antlers Holst to capture video evidence of the strange flying creature.
Nope is a refreshing change of pace for the horror genre where it doesn't lean to heavily on the horror aspects or on the science fiction aspects, but blends them together seamlessly and is even able to add in humor that doesn't feel out of place. In a lot of horror movies, usually the comic relief or the non-white characters are killed off first, and final girls are almost always white. Emerald Haywood breaks that mold by being a humorous black woman who not only makes it out alive, but gets to be the one to bring the creature down.
4 Tree Gelbman - Happy Death Day (2017)
College student Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) must relive the day of her death over and over again until she figures out who her killer is in Happy Death Day. Tree was a carefree person prior to being in college, but after her mother lost her battle with cancer, Tree became bitter. Although popular and part of a sorority, she struggles to live everyday college life. When her life becomes a Groundhog Day-esque time loop, she is insistent on figuring out who her killer is and stopping them from taking her life from her.
Tree does not care what anyone thinks of her or who she has to ask for help in order to prevent her death. Even in moments of extreme frustration when it seems like her fate is to relive her death forever, she only gets angrier, which fuels her dead-set determination. She will do whatever she needs to stop her death loop.
3 Mia - Evil Dead (2013)
Remakes have become commonplace in Hollywood, and they often do not measure up to the original. That is not the case for Evil Dead, the modern remake of Sam Raimi's B-movie classic, The Evil Dead. This remake takes Raimi's original concept but changes all the characters, including the sole survivor, who this time around is a final girl.
Five twenty-somethings discover the ancient Book of the Dead while staying in an old cabin in the middle of the woods and unknowingly summon the dormant demons living within the walls of the cabin. The demons pick off and possess the friends one by one until only Mia (Jane Levy) is left standing. Mia goes from being possessed by the menacing entities to being their only enemy. Even as she realizes that all of her friends are dead around her, and that it was her body that caused some of the deaths, she fights her way out of that awful cabin and faces off with the Deadites, ultimately taking them down in a bloody rainfall.
2 Tess - Barbarian (2022)
In town for a job interview, Tess (Georgina Campbell), against her better judgment, decides to stay the night at the Airbnb she booked despite a guest already being there. She soon realizes there is much more in that house to be afraid of than the stranger staying there.
Barbarian is a breath of fresh air in the horror genre. It has revitalized the genre that not many films have. It brings both style and substance to the screen and is utterly unexpected. Whatever you think this movie is actually about or what you think while you are watching the movie, you are more than likely wrong. Without spoiling too much, Tess has the opportunity to get out, but chooses not to. What follows is absolute chaos as she literally crawls her way to survival.
1 Maxine Mink - X (2022)
Clearly, 2022 was an incredible year for horror. Ti West's X, and the prequel Pearl, have horror fans absolutely hooked an eagerly waiting the final installment, MaXXXine. In 1979, a young group of adult filmmakers rent out a barn from an elderly couple in rural Texas to use as a location for their latest film, unbeknownst to their hosts. When the couple catches them in the act, the group finds themselves fighting for their life on the huge property.
Ti West pays homage to classic slashers of that time while still adding original thoughts and ideas into this new narrative. All of Maxine's friends are put off by the older couple, but Maxine notices firsthand that the couple is not at all what they appear to be, especially the wife. The couple isn't disgusted by what the group is doing, but rather envious that they aren't part of it. Maxine is the sole survivor of her peers, and takes the psychotic couple down in an epic final showdown.