As much as the masked men and gloved nightmare ghouls pursuing them, final girls have been a huge and important staple of the horror genre. They exhibit vulnerability, strength, and tenacity in the face of horrific pressure, and it certainly helps if they have one hell of a scream. Every foe needs someone on the side of right to go toe-to-toe with, and when they happen to be a heroine, they usually put everyone else to shame. As Halloween begins and spooky season draws to a close, it feels like the right time to name the five best horror movie final girls ever to have your back when the boogeyman is coming!
Honorable Mention: Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) in Hellraiser (1987) and Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988)
Kirsty gets a mention here because she not only has to come face-to-face with the Cenobites, but she also has to deal with her devilish uncle Frank (Sean Chapman) and her dreadful step-monster Julia (Clare Higgins). In the movie written and directed by Clive Barker, based on his novella The Hellbound Heart, the film follows the mystery behind a puzzle box and the creatures it summons, who happen to be sadomasochistic beings with only one goal: to offer you your greatest desire—pleasure or pain. Frank’s partially resurrected body happens to be residing in the new home that has been moved into by Kirsty’s father, Larry (Andrew Robinson), and Julia, with the latter once having an affair with his brother Frank and is now supplying him with men for fresh flesh so his body can be whole again.
It all gets a bit complicated, but Kirsty already has no time for Julia and suspects something is off with her, and once Kirsty accidentally summons the Cenobites after solving the mysterious puzzle box, she’s quick on her feet to offer them Frank, who has escaped them, if they leave her be. She has to hold her own against a lot. From family dysfunction that has turned to murder, and now making a deal with demons led by the charismatic Pinhead (Doug Bradley). By the time she’s headed into the Lament Configuration in Hellbound: Hellraiser II, she has become a resilient pro at standing up to all kinds of evil.
5. Ginny Field (Amy Steel) in Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
A lot of final girls have been a part of the Friday the 13th franchise, and several have held their own against Jason Voorhees (and once against his mother) admirably, but there is just something about Amy Steel’s Ginny Field in Friday the 13th Part 2 that makes her rise above the rest. Directed by Steve Miner in his directorial debut from a screenplay by Ron Kurz, Friday the 13th Part 2 picks up five years after the events of the first movie and follows camp counselors at a training camp near Crystal Lake who begin being stalked by an unknown killer. Ginny steps into the film full of sass, especially for her would-be-love-interest Paul (John Furey) but when it comes to the urban legend of Jason Voorhees (Steve Daskewisz, masked, Warrington Gillette, unmasked) and him seeing his mom beheaded that fateful night on Friday the 13th despite having drowned at Crystal Lake years prior, she wisely believes that it’s no legend and suspects that Jason is very much real.
His existence is something that Ginny believes could be a reality long before he begins going to town on the counselors while wearing a potato sack mask. She’s the first to go up against Jason and does so with a bit of intelligence by using psychology during the film’s final act when she poses as his mother by wearing her old blood-stained sweater to subdue him long enough to strike a deadly blow with his very own machete. She’s empathetic, yet strong, making her one of the best horror movie final girls and the best final girl of the Friday the 13th franchise.
4. Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
The audience doesn’t get to learn much about Sally Hardesty in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but she makes this list because she endures severe psychological torment and lives to tell the tale. Directed by Tobe Hooper from a screenplay he co-wrote with Kim Henkel, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre follows a group of friends who unwittingly fall prey to a family of cannibals while checking on her grandfather’s grave following a series of grave robberies. Sally’s friends are dispatched one by one by Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) before he begins pursuing her with his chainsaw in the cover of darkness as her piercing screams echo through the night. Not only does she have to get away from this hulking menace, but she also has to endure torture from The Hitchhiker (Edwin Neal), Drayton “The Cook” Sawyer (Jim Siedow), and Grandpa Sawyer (John Dugan), during the film’s iconic, yet horrific, dinner party. Not only does Sally have one of the best final girl screams in the business (Marilyn Burns has pipes and utilizes them), but she also finds the strength through everything she goes through during the latter part of the film to escape by crashing through a window and running for her life.
As The Hitchhiker follows close behind, slashing away at her back, she still doesn’t relent and continues her journey towards safety. With the help of a trusty truck driver, she’s able to escape Leatherface and the rest of his cannibalistic family. She might be covered in blood and has gone a bit mad as she drives maniacally in the back of her savior’s truck, but what’s important is that she makes it out alive, and anyone who makes it out of an ordeal like that deserves her final girl flowers.
3. Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987), and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)
Nancy Thompson has taken on Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) in the land of film and dreams in A Nightmare on Elm Street and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, while also having a meta confrontation with him that allowed the character and actress to come to terms with the scope of his evil in Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. In any situation, she proves to be resourceful and is a formidable thorn in Freddy’s side. Written and directed by Wes Craven, A Nightmare on Elm Street follows a group of teenagers who are all being targeted by a man named Freddy Krueger in their dreams, and if they die in the dream, they die for real. It’s all retribution against the parents who torched him alive following his being let go on a technicality after he committed a series of child murders in the area, something Nancy is the first to catch wind of from her mother, Marge (Ronee Blakley), when she demands answers about the man she’s been dreaming about.
She’s smart enough to know there’s more to it and doesn’t rest until she gets the answers she needs. As her friends begin to die at the hands of Freddy around her, even a severely sleep-deprived Nancy stops at nothing to fight back and take ownership of her subconscious. After she learns that she can pull things out of her dreams and Freddy will be weaker in the real world, she goes all Home Alone style on the dream stalker and begins to put him in his place. Her finest moment comes at the end of the film, when she realizes that the only true way to vanquish Freddy is to take back all the energy and power she gave to him by being afraid. In Dream Warriors, she returns with even more knowledge as a psychiatrist to help a group of kids at Westin Hills Psychiatric Hospital who are now being stalked by Friday.
She loses her life in the third installment, but does so heroically by taking Freddy down with her. In New Nightmare, Langenkamp is playing a variation of herself as the seventh film establishes that the Nightmare franchise is a series of movies, and Freddy’s evil is so strong it can’t be contained to the pages of a screenplay. Even though the film features Langenkamp, the actress, she has to find the inner strength to portray Nancy one last time, Freddy’s greatest adversary, to stop him once and for all. Not all final girls get to jump from the screen to “real life,” but Nancy does, making her one of the most unique final girls on this list.
2. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the Halloween franchise
There is no doubt that Jamie Lee Curtis is our quintessential scream queen, and that is due in large part to her taking on the role of Laurie Strode in 1978’s Halloween. Directed by John Carpenter from a screenplay he co-wrote with Debra Hill, Halloween concerns a mental patient named Michael Myers (Nick Castle) who escapes from a mental hospital the day before Halloween after being locked up years prior for murdering his sister. Now, on Halloween night, he stalks the streets of Haddonfield and has set his sights on a teenage babysitter named Laurie Strode (Curtis) and her friends as his former doctor and psychiatrist, Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), is in hot pursuit. Laurie Strode begins her Halloween journey as someone who may not be a fun and street savvy as her friends, but she’s intelligent, kind, and loyal. She’s also keenly aware that “something” just isn’t right on Halloween night when activity across the street with her friends feels extremely off.
Soon, Michael is in pursuit of her after murdering her friends, and despite the ordeal traumatizing her and destroying her youthful innocence, she’s strong in the face of this unknown evil and fights back at every turn. Laurie’s journey is interesting because the films take on different timelines, but what’s common in all of them is that years after the events of the first movie, the ordeal has broken her in such a way that she retreats from herself and can’t live a seemingly normal life until she realizes she has to confront her monster head-on again to survive. There’s nothing stronger than confronting your demons, and Laurie does so on more than one occasion with Michael and continues to triumph by not allowing herself to be a victim.
1. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in the Scream franchise
Sidney Prescott tops the final girl list because audiences have seen her grow across several films through her teenage years, all the way into adulthood. Through it all, Sidney has remained a beacon of strength against a gaggle of killers who decide to take their love of scary movies one step too far. Directed by Wes Craven from a screenplay by Kevin Williamson, Scream follows high school student Sidney Prescott (Campbell) and her friends as they’re being stalked by a killer with an affinity for horror movies on the anniversary of her mother’s murder. Sidney displays a level of innocence in the first installment, but her strength and will to fight shine even brighter as a killer (or killers) tries and fails to take her down.
She’s smart, resourceful, and is a complete pro at slamming doors and taking out Ghostface with precision and ease. Audiences rarely get to track a final girl as she grows over the years, but the Scream franchise allows this by seeing her through high school, college, a stint as a crisis counselor, book author, and just all around final girl bad-ass. The constant Ghostface attacks could harden her, but the last time she was seen in Scream (2022), she’s someone who knows the drill and isn’t afraid to match wits with whomever is taking up the Ghostface mantle. She makes a triumphant return in the upcoming Scream 7, and it’s clear from the film’s first trailer that she’s as intelligent, tough, and inspiring as she ever was.
Happy Halloween!
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