Whenever people think of women in the 1950s, especially in the entertainment industry, we think of tropes like the damsel-in-distress, or the supposedly strong heroine who ends up falling in love with the hero and doing everything humanly possible to bed him. Perhaps we even think of a girl who needs men to justify her and validate her opinions, whether it be the hero or the villain. Then, of course, there’s horror, where a special female comes to mind; the final girl.

The final girl is an iconic character in the horror genre. In a slasher movie, she is the last character left standing who is, of course, a female. In older movies and books, the final girl is seen as a sort of outcast against the crowd, though for pretty good reasons, since these characteristics usually end up saving her, at least in the writer’s eyes. Below are such characteristics.  

Has to be a virgin

Because of the (flawed) backlash against sexual freedom and drugs, the final girl is often seen as a virgin who has little to no experience with alcohol or other drugs. She is fully clothed, and is rather pure for someone her age. Although she might start off as timid and shy, she’ll eventually grow into a stronger, more independent, more confident female that can probably survive the killer’s relentless attacks. This kind of development is seen as endeavoring to push back against youth culture, promoting a message that states it’s better to wait and have sex, or even not have sex at all, than to just be passed out drunk or in a sex coma while waiting for the killer to come. Even College Humor has parodied this, saying it was almost a law that the virgin can’t die in horror movies. In a way, the final girl had been seen as a promotion of the old, conservative stereotype; that of how women “should be”, rather than who they really are. 

Has to be female

This is a given, considering the fact that the final “girl” has to be a “girl.” Because, once again, the girl is seen as a perpetuation of traditional stereotypes. They will often be saved by a strong man. However, this has changed in recent years, with a relatively good example being Emma Duvall from Scream: The TV series. 

Has an interesting backstory 

Typically speaking, a final girl is interesting and relatable enough to the point where we’d want to keep watching, or reading, about her. For instance, the girl would have a shared backstory with the killer. Other times, she’d exhibit a more resourceful and intellectual side that other victims don’t have. Final girls who subvert the trope of actually being a final girl are also incredibly interesting to watch, such as Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mary Winchester from Supernatural. 

Final girls have had a big impact on the horror genre, and how it represented female characters in general. Books by Stephen King, as well as movies like Aliens, also have examples of final girls, though they proved to be just as adept and capable as their masculine counterparts. Still, despite the legacy of the final girls, it was their ultimate downplaying and subversion that led females to become more represented, both in horror and in real life.