Final Girl

The final girl is a convention in thriller and horror films that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer and the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in dozens of horror films, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, Final Destination, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and its remake and many more. The term was from Carol J. Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Clover suggests that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.

Clover says the final girl is typically sexually unavailable or virginal, avoiding the vices of the victims (sex, narcotic usage, etc.). Sometimes has a unisex name (e.g., Teddy, Billie, Georgie, Sidney). Occasionally the Final Girl will have a shared history with the killer. (Halloween II, Michael Myers is revealed to be the brother of Laurie Strode).