Best Final Girls In Horror
- Chase Gifford
- Oct 30
- 6 min read
"Get away from her, you bitch!" - Ellen Ripley (Aliens, 1986)
There are male dominated horror films and there are female. Like it or not, the man is expected to be the hero. Unfair? Yeah but it is what it is. But the Final Girl is a fantastic horror trope that subverts expectations creating an unexpected twist on what characters may initially be perceived as damsels in distress. Well these eleven damsels have had enough and will stand ten toes down against their most daunting, horrifying, hyper-intelligent, extraordinarily violent and torturous antagonists unthinkable to the average human. And they will do so in convincing fashion. These are my picks for the Best Final Girls in Horror. Anyone who says the ladies can’t kick some serious ass have never seen these bitches in action.
(I say that encouragingly.)
11. Clarice Starling - THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS 10/10
Clarice makes the list simply because of her limited circumstances and still going toe to toe with not only a genius, but a psychotic, cannibalistic serial killer, Dr. Hannibal Lecter. And she holds her own. If this were a heavyweight bout, Lecter would have had Starling against the ropes much of the fight. He would have even had a knockdown as well. But ever vigilant, tougher than she looks or is ever given credit for, Starling always gets back up. And it’s her instinct, trauma, and willingness to placate a cannibal that ultimately allows her to triumph in the pursuit of Buffalo Bill.
10. Maddie - HUSH 9/10
Much like Clarice, Maddie is limited, but in her own unique way: she is deaf. For many of these ultimate survivors it boils down to how they use their strengths and exploit their weaknesses to gain the upper hand. For Maddie, her adversary is a conceited, overtly arrogant psychopath who believes Maddie’s handicap is nothing but an advantage for him. But she is silent, cunning, and determined to survive. He underestimates her, something she has likely experienced all of her life. She will utilize the traits and habits she has formed from a lifetime of auditory limitations and turn them against him.
9. Sarah Carter - THE DESCENT 10/10
She may just be the character who endures the most impossibly arduous, unbelievably terrifying, relentlessly evil antagonists on this entire list. And much to her misfortune, that’s antagonists, plural. As in an unknowable amount of Crawlers, a horde of humanoid cave dwellers. Although their eyesight has diminished over the generations, their hearing and sense of smell are heightened and sharpened. Sarah cannot see, her breathing is labored, and the cave system is unbelievably complex and immense. She is outgunned in just about every sense and yet, her sheer toughness and determination will carry her farther than she could have ever imagined. Whether she makes it out alive is another question entirely.
8. Sally Hardesty - THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 10/10
So in the world of horror, there are two schools of thought on who is the original final girl – Olivia Hussey as Jess Bradford in Black Christmas or Marilyn Burns as Sally Hardesty in TTCM. I’m putting Sally on my list simply because of her suffering. Jess is not only a survivor but a fighter too. Both suffer but in my opinion, Sally endures something far more unimaginable. Her very environment feels dirty, rusty, and abandoned. There’s no help for her so isolated in rural Muerto County, Texas. And perhaps worst of all, she’s outnumbered. Purely for her physical survival, her psychological state is an entirely different story, she wins this particular race.
7. Nancy Thompson - A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 8.5/10
Unlike the others on this list, Nancy Thompson has the unique task of facing her adversary in another world entirely. No matter how long she can hold out, she will eventually fall asleep and in her dreams is where Freddy is king. Not only must she survive him, she must survive his madness as he manipulates her dreamed reality, defying normal physics and having the ability to transform himself into the grotesque and bizarre. Her survival is dependent simply on if she is afraid of him. If she can prove his efforts to terrify her are failing she can “win.” Of course as we all know, A Nightmare on Elm Street is only the beginning of Freddy’s reign of terror.
6. Mia Allen - EVIL DEAD (2013) 9/10
Does dying and being resurrected count as surviving? I think Mia Allen would argue it does. Of course along the way she will endure an array of horrors that could only originate from the depths of hell. And she will witness her friends and family perish painfully, slowly, torturously. It will come in the form of those very same friends as they are puppeteered by demons whose only purpose is to create chaos, to inflict suffering, and to kill as brutally and mercilessly as physically possible. And they will do so with a gleeful fucking grin. Mia is in for it bigtime.
5. Grace Le Domas - READY OR NOT 9/10
Imagine having the love of your life being ripped from you by the most twisted game of hide-and-seek. Not only that but it happens on your wedding day by the very family you’ve just married into. For Grace, the dirty looks and anxiety she has worrying about remembering her vows will turn out to be the best part of her day. Lucky for her, her newly extended family aren’t the most capable. But with the threat of death looming over them, they are certainly determined to find her. Ready or not, here they come!
4. Erin - YOU’RE NEXT 7.5/10
With the exception of Ripley, Erin may just be the most capable on this list. From the very moment it becomes clear that she must kill to survive a night of home invaders, she utilizes skills she has accumulated over her lifetime. Rather than becoming a victim, she turns the tables on her assailants, laying out the most heinous version of Home Alone traps she can conjure up. She is a complete and total badass. She will be battered and bruised, stabbed and maimed but she will wreak a kind of havoc on them they never could have dreamed in a thousand years. They should have just stayed home.
3. Sidney Prescott - SCREAM 8/10
If you pinned Sidney Prescott against some of these other women on this list, she might not last. But in her own horror universe, she’s quite the bad ass. And I think her greatest strength is perseverance. We are at seven Scream films this coming February. She is a fighter. She is able to push through the inevitable psychological trauma that comes with surviving a whopping thirteen different Ghostfaces. All of which seem determined to terrorize her before brutally killing her. Ghostface - 0 / Sidney - 10 (Would be 13 but they didn’t want to pay the star of the franchise what she deserved). I think Ghostface needs to quit his day job.
2. Laurie Strode - HALLOWEEN 10/10
One of the OG final girls. She walked so the other girls could run. Rather than becoming a living victim of The Shape she turned her trauma into power. Although an outcast as a result, she remains ready for the day He returns to Haddonfield. From your average smalltown babysitter to serial killer heroine, she is the ultimate realistic survivor.
1. Ellen Ripley - ALIEN 10/10
I would argue there is a benefit to being on Earth when facing a murderous foe. You can usually call for police backup, call on your neighbor for help, or get in a car and drive away if only to find time to plan and go on the defensive. But if you recall, In Space No One Can Hear You Scream. You also can’t escape. Pretty much everything will kill you. Your very environment is deadly. And the killer in this case is an unstoppable extraterrestrial with deadly, acidic blood. It’s borderline unkillable. But Ellen Ripley is as formidable as they come. She is isolated. She is untrained. She is unwilling to die. In fact, at one point in the franchise, she returns from the dead as a clone.
She is a master of overcoming her surroundings and utilizing what she has to hopefully win against a villain who if wounded becomes even more dangerous. So the question becomes: How do you kill something that can destroy your space vessel making it uninhabitable should you wound it? If anyone can figure it out, it’s Ellen fucking Ripley. In my opinion, the ultimate Scream Queen. The ultimate FINAL GIRL.
I’m sure I’m wrong (about my own opinion somehow?) and I’m sure you’ll let me know. And I’m certain you’ll do it in a calm, articulate fashion because that’s the internet, peaceful and intelligible.
Anyway…
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃
Comments