Watch enough horror movies and you begin to see common themes emerging. Quite likely the most common is the notorious ‘final girl’.
You’ve seen her- she’s the (frequently hot) damsel in distress, the hunted one, the ‘it’s all in your head’ one…...take your pick.
That’s not to say that this horror trope is played out.quite the opposite- the final girl is an almost expected part of modern-day horror movies.
In fact, we love it so much we decided to share our list of the top 50 best final girls from horror movies. Expect to see all the classics, along with some new girls on the block.
So, ladies first. Or last, or whatever.
50. Amy Adams - The Woman In The Window
The Woman In The Window is a modern-day retelling of Hitchcock’s classic Rear Window with a few tweaks and plot alternates. Yet still, a great watch.
Amy Adams has been around longer than you would think and in the last few years, she’s REALLY grown her profile.
Anna spends the whole movie basically as a final girl
As Dr Anna Fox is moving house and meeting the normal-seeming neighbours from across the way, her constant interactions with young Ethan (Fred Hechinger) begins to sow seeds of doubt about his safety.
We as the audience question the movie’s chain of events through Anna’s shaky grip on reality. It isn’t until the very end that all the pieces of the puzzle fall together and The Woman In The Window stands apart from its predecessor
Well played Amy.
49. Anabelle Wallis- Annabelle
The story of Annabelle. In Annabelle.Basically- she’s really good in this movie.
John and Mia Form (Ward Harton/ Annabelle Wallis) are a happy Californian couple expecting their first child.
Annabelle vs Annabelle.
One night the pair wake up to the dulcet tones of attempted murder next door. Trying to save their neighbours from homicidal cult followers leads to a home invasion and self-sacrifice by one of the Manson wannabes.
When the couple move house and have their daughter, an old doll they threw away suspiciously finds its way back to the pair in one of the boxes. Pretty soon it becomes clear that their problems are just beginning.
48. Lupita Nyong'o - Little Monsters
Dave (Alexander England) likes Miss Caroline(Lupita Nyong’o). He likes her so much that he offers to chaperone the charming teacher’s field trip to a farm.
Dave’s a nice guy. We’re sure there are no ulterior motives there.
Except there were-and turns out sweet (miss) Caroline is assumably engaged. Bummer. Then the zombies come over the hill and start attacking the kids. Double bummer.
Get your parents to sign your permission slips for this one
Now the two have to work together to save as many of the children as they can from being zombie snacks. Yes, triple bummer right there.
Lupita puts in a really good, balanced performance. She’s playful and kid-friendly when she has to be, while also being serious enough to stop the offset Little Monsters’ comedic overtones.
Oh, she kicks ass too. In fact, she smashes her axe right through the ‘non-white characters always die first’ criticisms.
47.Sanaa Lathan - Alien vs Predator
Sanaa’s character in survival/horror flick Alien vs Predator is so badass that the opening scene shows her casually climbing a 10000+ ft mountain for the banter.
Leading a group of men on an expedition into Antarctica is further proof she’s not your typical female character. Discovering evidence of an ancient alien species, all kinds of stuff hit the fan when the team learns that not all of what they find beneath the ice is completely frozen.
Alex is a final girl that really takes no nonsense.
Alex’s role in this movie is ‘the hunted’ but thanks to Sanaa's interpretation of the character, Alex never feels quite like the helpless damsel we see in so many films of the genre.
Alex’s crowning moment happens in the last ten minutes of the movie, which we won’t spoil here.
But man, the satisfaction.
46. Nancy Thompson/Heather Langenkamp- Wes Craven’s New Nightmare 1994
The beauty of New Nightmare is in how the franchise story itself is used as a metaphor for this episode. The crossing of worlds idea is meta and at the time was really fresh-Freddie Kreuger (Robert England) invades reality the same way he invades the children’s dreams.
Heather Langenkamp’s stint as one of the OG final girls Nancy Thompson was at a time where slasher horror hit its peak.
A grim pantomime scene if there ever was one
Letting us see behind the curtain elements such as Heather playing herself and her interactions with other film crew gives you that hooking realism that’s like a dip on your Doritos- om nom nom.
For being the only ‘final girl’ we’ve found so far that was so beloved that the actress basically played herself in a sequel, we put this movie above the rest of the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise.
45.Jessica Rothe- Happy Deathday
How do we explain this one...
Mix one part of Sandra Bullock’s Premonition and two parts ‘mean girls’. Add a dash of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day. Leave to simmer.
Presto! Happy DeathDay.
College girl and borderline narcissist Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) wakes up in a stranger’s room on her birthday with a feeling of Deja Vu and no cake. (Welcome to the adult world.) By day’s end, she’s viciously murdered, only to wake up back in the same place. This happens over….and over….and over again.
Sharp axe, sharp cheekbones.
Jessica Rothe plays the wannabe mean-girl Tree in a way that makes her quite unlikeable, but not irredeemable. As Tree is consistently slaughtered, the character evolves as the movie draws on.
There’s a real feeling of ‘she’s learnt her lesson ‘ by the end and you see the ego layers peeled away as she tries to wiggle out of her situation.
44. Katrina Bowden- Tucker And Dale Vs Evil
More of a farcical comedy than outright horror, but there’s enough jumpy gore to not make Tucker And Dale vs Evil a total joke.
A couple of slightly stereotypical hillbillies find themselves in the mother of all misunderstandings when a bunch of college kids assume they’re responsible for a mass murder 20 years ago. After the boys save Allison (Bowden) from drowning, the kids assume she’s been kidnapped and resolve to rescue her.
Wrong type of bondage mate.
From that point on begins one tragic miscommunication after another.
Katrina Bowden is tasked with playing the role of a gorgeous all-American college hottie that falls in love with an overweight, bumbling backwoodsman. She does this well enough to the point where the suspension of our disbelief is stretched but not snapped.
43. Danielle Harris/ Tamara Feldman- Hatchet trilogy
Who wore the gore better? Danielle Harris or Tamara Feldman? Tough call.
At the time of its release, Hatchet was described as ‘the next big icon of horror.’Despite drawing heavy parallels with Friday the 13th’s Jason Voorhees the movies are solid viewings, with THE archetypal ‘final girl’ in Marybeth Dunston (Harris/Feldman).
2 girls. One hatchet.
In the end, we put both actresses as co-owners of this listing.
An innocent walk through the New Orleans swamps leads to a collision with a vengeful, axe-wielding spirit. After that, it’s hack-slash-hack.
All 3 films follow IMMEDIATELY after each other. So binge-watching the Victor Crowley/Marybeth saga is recommended., Marybeth as a character earns her spot here for the sheer amount of punishment she takes over the trilogy.
42. Neve Campbell - Scream Franchise
What’s your favourite scary movie??
The franchise that rebooted the dwindling appeal of the humble slasher horror.
Scream is often parodied for its genre-transcending references. Combining horror and satire by reminding us of all the things we were getting too comfortable with, it also gave us two equally compelling ‘final girls’.
Most people's top 3, every legit 'final girl' list has Neve in the top 5
Sidney (Neve Campbell) spends nearly the entirety of the first Scream as the helpless damsel in distress in true homage to the saga’s self-aware writing. In terms of the ‘final girl ’ trope, she checks all the boxes:
- All her mates are dead and/or dying
- Very little character beyond the need to survive
- AAAAAAAHHHHHH
All things considered, she can’t NOT be part of this list
41. Sandra Bullock- Bird Box
Not only is Mallorie (Sandra Bullock) the final girl in Bird Box, she and her daughter might well be the final girls left in the world.
Battling an evil they can’t see, a group of survivors fight a mysterious presence that’s so horrific to look at, it forces them to commit suicide as fast as a person can.
Usually, in as gory a way as humanly possible.
#Youcan'tsee me (cheque's in the post Mr. Cena)
From start to finish, we see an increasingly desperate and weary woman fighting to survive a dog-eat-dog apocalypse. So apathetic is Mallorie about the future that she hasn’t even named the two young kids she’s protecting.
What sets her apart from the typical ‘please save me’ characterology is her one vague hope of reaching a ‘safe zone’- a thousand miles away. Coupled with a mothers love is a heavy heart with a little ray of hope shining through.
It’s a beautiful thing.
40. Lin Shaye- Insidious 3
Lin Shaye's character Elise Rainier gets points here for two main things. One is for being a quality part in the first two Insidious movies.
The second is for being her most badass self in Insidious 3
In the third instalment, Elise is a vulnerable badass. Unwilling to face the evil that’s been stalking her, it takes a pep talk from her buddy Carl (Steve Coulter) to find the courage to confront what is lurking in the spirit world.
Proving age ain't a problem since Insidious 1
From a viewing perspective, it’s gratifying to see a sweet old lady waging spiritual warfare with the astral plains’ biggest and baddest.
Lin Shaye took an unassuming elderly psychic and gave us a seasoned, experienced demon-ass kicker. Not only is she out to save herself, but her actions also save the other characters.
39. Taissa Farmiga- The Final Girls
Taissa Farmiga is no stranger to horror, being a core part of the first two seasons of American Horror Story.
Taissa plays orphaned Max, daughter of the lead actress in a cult classic B movie. One night she’s convinced by her buddies to go and see her long-dead mother in a public screening of the flick.
During the screening, the theatre is set ablaze and Max and Co. escape to wake up in the woods somewhere. That’s when the penny drops- somehow, they’ve been sucked into the movie!
The Final Girls achieves 'Cabin In The Woods' levels of amusing self awareness
It’s up to Max and Co to put their B-movie knowledge to the test in an effort to escape their new roles.
The Final Girls is a meta-horror in the same vein as Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, but not on the same level. Farmiga’s interpretation of Max has an emotional range in it that it keeps the movie from being just another cheap parody.
38.Florence Pugh - Midsommar
Dani (Florence Pugh) is struggling with a lot on her plate. Filled to the brim with everyday struggles, the dessert to go with this giant +!@# sandwich is her sister gassing their parents to death and killing herself.
Heavy.
Bad timing too, because her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reyner) was looking to split with her. Guilt stops him from doing it, but he does the next best thing to break it off- they go on a couple’s retreat to their mutual friend’s Swedish commune.
Sending the wrong signals there maybe.
Summer days, cryin' away.
The seeming paradise of Midsommar slowly shows its real, ghastly face. Pretty soon Dani finds herself re-evaluating everything she ever felt was important.
Florence Pugh’s work to show all of the little plot points that affect the character is quality. You constantly see the wheels turning in Dani’s brain
37. Marilyn Burns- Texas Chainsaw Massacre
One of the earliest final girls in the horror genre- Sally Hardesty of Texas Chainsaw Massacre fame. Just the tagline tells you all you need to know:
‘Who will survive, and what will be left of them?’
Anybody who’s seen this movie will agree that the shot of Marilyn Burns’ delirious, borderline psychotic laughter towards the end is one of the strongest visuals in the slasher game.
Hard day, Hardesty.
Sally learns her father’s grave has been vandalised and so she takes her brother Frank (Paul Partain) to check it out. When they get there, they stumble across the legendary Leatherface, who promptly tries to sell them real estate.
Nah, just joking. He tries to kill Sally. He tries really hard.
A blood and guts classic, RIP Marilyn. You set a standard for a lot of final girls.
36. Vera Farmiga- The conjuring 1 (and the series)
A different spin on the ‘final girl ’ trope can be found in the world of The Conjuring.
Playing the role of demonologist Lorraine Warren, Vera Farmiga’s character makes it her business to take the fight against all kinds of evil. Alongside husband Ed (Patrick Wilson), the couple deal with spirits, demonic possession, the politics of the catholic church and more all in a day’s work.
Til death do you part
The Perrons and their five daughters move into a new home with a dark history. Pretty soon, scary stuff starts happening and the family recruits the Warrens to aid them in dispelling whatever evil lurks there.
Stone-faced with a certain empathic softness, Lorraine is a hooking character that never gets one dimensional throughout her time on screen
35. Jennifer Love-Hewitt- I Know What You Did Last Summer
Julie James (Jennifer Love-Hewitt) and her buddies take an innocent drive to the beach. Just a bunch of kids looking to make the most of their 4th July.
And then they run over a man. Fun’s over.
Instead of calling an ambulance, or the police, or even a lawyer….they dump the poor guy in the water, vowing to NEVER speak of it again.
Looking a little defensive there Julie
Cut to a year later and the kids start getting vaguely worded letters telling them that their dirty secret is out. As Julie tries to work out what they’re dealing with, one by one her friends get viciously murdered.
The eternally parodied I Know What You Did Last Summer still has decent rewatch value today. Jury’s out on just how likeable Julie James is but she fights tooth and nail for her life.
34. Ali Larter - Final Destination 1/2
On a bustling flight to Paris, Alex (Devon Sawa) has a nasty vision of the gruesome death of him and his classmates. Getting his whole class booted off the plane a brawl breaks out.
Until about five minutes later and the plane explodes mid-air.
Saving his whole class is met with nothing but suspicion from everyone but Clear (Ali Larter). Cut to about 40 days later and their friend accidentally hangs himself in the shower. Alex and Clear face the grim reality that the grim reaper is after them.
It's Clear-Clear's a great final girl.
Having cheated death for so long, the pair plot to survive an enemy greater than anything in the physical world. It’s Clear and Alex vs Death.
Look forward to tense and surprisingly cerebral survival horror in the form of Final Destination.
33.Manuela Velasco - Rec series
Rec is a Spanish found-footage style zombie horror, intimately set in an apartment block in Barcelona. Manuela Velasco plays Angela Vidal, news reporter and doccy maker. Alongside her cameraman (Pablo Rosso) they’re covering the local firemen for a fly-on-the-wall report.
If axe is found, plese return to the Barcelona fire department
The action ramps up when they follow the firemen to a routine call in a dodgy-looking building, where el policia quickly quarantine the building when an old woman savages half the squad.
Angela is caught in the middle of a viral outbreak that nobody understands. All the two videomakers know is that they HAVE to get out of the building.
32. Jane Levy - Evil Dead (2013)
A film that was thought to be so obscene it was banned in at least TEN countries!
Mia (Jane Levy), has a heroin habit she’s desperate to kick. So her loved ones resolve to be there for her during her cold turkey withdrawal. Together, they wait it out with her in a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere.
Then Mia’s buddy Eric (Lou Pucci) summons a demon from an ancient spellbook.
Look at all that bloody rain. Slayer would be proud.
Dick move Eric.
This frightening entity begins its mission of claiming five souls to cross over into the real world and find physical form. There’s murder, sex and pure horror everywhere you look here. Jane Levy’s portrayal of Mia’s gradual possession is one of the most horrifying things we’ve seen.
In every best way!
31. Aubrey Plaza - Child's Play
Set yourself a challenge- watch an interview compilation of Aubrey Plaza and TRY not to like her. Can’t do it, can you? It’s OK, we can’t either.
She’s possibly the most relatable girl next door type and in Child’s Play, that really comes across.
Karen (Aubrey) is a struggling single mother to Andy (Gabriel Bateman), a lonely kid struggling to make friends after moving house. To help him out, Karen buys him a seemingly harmless toy ‘Buddi’ doll, which quickly becomes Andy’s best friend.
Be our girlfriend, Aubrey.
What nobody knew at the time was that this doll was programmed by a spiteful ex-employee to go on a murderous rampage. Suspecting little Andy to be responsible for a recent spate of killings, detective Norris (Brian Henry) vows to get to the bottom of events.
30. Naomie Harris-28 Days Later
Jim (Cillian Murphy) has been in a coma for a month. When he wakes up, the hospital is completely vacant. In the time between, a rage-inducing virus was released from a captive chimpanzee and has spread throughout the country, turning the population into ravenous zombies.
Intensity 11/10
Survivors Selena and Frank (Naomie Harris/ Noah Huntley) save his ass and group up with him in an attempt to navigate post-apocalyptic London and hopefully find sanctuary.
Naomie Harris plays a final girl that is unflinching in her willingness to bite back. Selena’s role in the movie isn’t just to be a magnet for the zombies to chase- her character has a relevant place in the progression of the story.
29. Danielle Harris - Halloween 4
Responsible for one of the biggest ‘I did not see that coming’ moments in horror history, Halloween 4 takes the shock value up a notch.
It does this by making the killer’s target a SIX-YEAR-OLD-GIRL.
Being the youngest final girl on this list, little Jamie (Danielle) is being hunted by estranged uncle Mike (George Wilbur)- slasher/psychopath extraordinaire. He’s woken up from a ten-year-long coma and still has an axe (knife) to grind.
Won't SOMEBODY think of the children?
With the sheriff's department and eventually the whole town on high alert, the hunt is on to find Michael Meyers.
Before he finds his niece.
Playing such a serious ‘not for kids’ role at such a young age is enough to warrant a spot here on this list.
28. Rebecca Ferguson - Life
Alien DNA from Mars is brought to a specialist team for evaluation. The super-smart scientists decide to electrocute it, repeatedly.
And what a shocker (haha) it is to know that this DNA sample responds by reanimating itself, breaking free and slowly slaughtering the whole station.
Picture a mix of Gravity and Alien- that's Life
We thought scientists were meant to be smart.
Quarantine officer (Rebecca Ferguson) desperately tries to save as many of her colleagues as she can and prevent this extraterrestrial life form from escaping from the ship and wreaking havoc back on Earth.
27. Samantha Scaffidi - Terrifier
Terrifier is almost like a horror retelling of the Greek fable ‘Theseus And The Minotaur’, just replace the minotaur with a diabolical clown.
Every Halloween night, a serial killer known only as ‘Art the clown’ stalks, terrorizes and murders people in horrific ways.
Terrifer is NOT for the easily grossed-out
When two women have their tires slashed after a Halloween party, they call Vicky (Samantha Scaffidi) to pick them up. A chain of events leads all three of them trapped in a derelict building and slowly picked off, one by one.
Terrifier is well-paced and the constant bloodshed and carnage makes Vicky’s fate increasingly uncertain- the whole film, her fate could swing either way.
26. Jocelyn Donahue - The House Of The Devil
Sam (Jocelyn Donahue) is a typical teenage girl desperate to earn some money (calm down, it’s not that kind of movie), so she takes up a shady babysitting job to scratch up some catch.
Arriving at the house she learns there is no baby, but in fact, her job is to ‘babysit’ a fully-grown, able-bodied old woman.
Weird, but for $400, it’s a deal.
Just a girl. On a couch.
Throughout the night, weird becomes creepy, and creepy becomes dangerous. Young Sam learns that the family she’s working for tonight are not as harmlessly weird as she first thought.
Look forward to a great display of naivete and shock fear from Jocelyn’s turn as a hopeful young college girl almost half her age.
25. Shauna McDonald - The Descent
Shauna McDonald has a niche rep as one of the best modern ‘final girls’ for her work in The Descent- a film so bloody that it’s said to have used over 300 GALLONS of the stuff.
After the horrific car crash deaths of Sara’s (Mcdonald) husband and baby girl, her life feels like it’s pretty much over. In an attempt to help, Sara’s friends invite her to North Carolina to go exploring in the local caves together.
Looking a little red in the face
What seems like a good idea quickly turns deadly when the gang stumble across a mysterious race of carnivorous predators. This is the moment the survivors learn two terrible things:
They should’ve brought a guide
They’re probably going to die.
The Descent has two endings for UK and US audiences. Both are worth a watch!
24. Sara Paxton - The Last House On The Left
Mari (Sara Paxton) goes through one HELL of a trauma. Being innocently invited to a stranger’s hotel room leads to her bestie (Martha Macisaac) being slaughtered in front of her eyes and Mari being viciously raped and shot in the back.
Thinking nothing more of Mari, the culprits escape a brewing storm by seeking shelter in a stranger’s home. But what the thugs are yet to discover is that they’re staying with the family of the girl they just raped and left for dead in the water.
Revenge is sweet, for Mari and the audience.
And when the Collingwoods learn what happened to their baby girl, they decide to get their own back.
In homage to flicks like I Spit On Your Grave, The Last House On The Left shows a shocking level of abuse. Whether or not it’s gratuitous, we’ll leave up to you, but one thing’s for certain.
Your stomach is going to flip for Sara’s revenge.
23. Virginia Madsen - Candyman (1992)
Grad student Helen (Virginia Madsen) is researching urban legends. When she learns the supposed myth of the Candyman (Tony Todd), she decides to go all-in with her friend Berni (Kasi Lemmons) and say his name into her bathroom mirror.
Doubling down, Helen decides to write her thesis on the impoverished of Chicago and how they allegedly use the Candyman story to cope with being broke.
Sweet as the sugar from the Candyman
The more the pair research into the legend, the more they begin to realise the strong possibility that they’ve stupidly thrown themselves in the Candyman’s crosshairs.
Very rarely is the final girl’s motivations even more complex than just surviving. But in Candyman, Helen’s motivations develop enough to re-prioritise.
Nifty stuff.
22.Naomi Watts - The Ring (2002)
Next up is the forever-parodied The Ring- a movie that since release in 2002, has made a solid mark in the genre and still stands up today.
Reporter Rachel (Naomi Watts) keeps hearing stories of a mysterious videotape that kills anybody that watches it in exactly seven days. When her sweetie-pie niece is one of the victims, she vows to investigate what exactly happened.
Ssssseeeveeennnnnn daaaayyyyyyysss
Enlisting her ex-boyfriend to aid her, Rachel’s curiosity gets the better of her and she watches the deadly tape.
Now she’s got a week to live unless she cracks the most important case of her life.
21. Caroline Williams-Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Your man Leatherface (Bill Johnson) is at it again and this time he’s revving his engine for hot young radio DJ ‘Stretch’ Brock (Caroline Williams).
One night while she’s getting ready to leave the station, she’s confronted by ‘Chop top’ (Bill Mosely) and ol’ Leatherface himself. Using her feminine charms saves her from being murdered but not kidnapped and taken home for god-knows-what.
More limb-ripping fun coming your way in Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Stranded smack-bang in the middle of a huge abandoned carnival surrounded by murderous maniacs is exactly where Stretch DOESN’T want to be. So she’s forced to use her wits and whatever she can get her hands on to escape her captors.
The sequel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre is well-acted and checks all the boxes you need when you’re looking for a final girl.
20. Sigourney Weaver - Alien Franchise
Is there any more badass female lead in a horror franchise than Ellen Ripley (Weaver) in Alien? We defy you to not feel the intensity in Ripley’s kitted out confrontation with the Xenomorph.
‘Get away from her you bitch!’
The Nostromo crew are woken from cryostasis to respond to a distress beacon from an extraterrestrial ship. As they investigate, they stumble across a nest of unidentifiable eggs that explode into about ninety minutes of imminent death and pregnant tension.
Ellen Ripley. Engineer, astronaut, Xeno-slayer
Sigourney Weaver played an innovative character inside an innovative movie. In 1979, women were little else in horror movies other than fodder for whatever evil wanted to prey on them. In a lot of ways, Ellen Ripley broke the mould when she debuted.
Then she broke a lot of other stuff after.
19. Olivia Hussey - Black Christmas
(Note- creative modernization of original trailer)
Jess (Hussey) and her sorority buddies are gearing up for their Christmas break. While they’re sorting holiday plans, the girls begin getting dirty anonymous phone calls that aren’t exactly season’s greetings.
When Barb (Margot Kidder) starts slagging the creep off, she accidentally kicks it up to a whole new level and he promises to murder her and the girls.
Your abuse is important to us. Please hold.
The guy might be a creep, but he’s an honest creep. Over the break period, Mr Dirtywords takes his time to make good on his promise
Black Christmas was one of the very first slasher style movies. The technology may feel a little outdated, but any horror die-hards will love this morbid slice of horror history.
18.Ashley Laurence - Hellraiser 1/2
When Frank (Sean Chapman) buys a puzzle box in Morocco, odds are strong he isn’t expecting to find himself ripped apart by phantom chains and opening a portal to hell.
Fate can be funny like that.
After his death, Kirsty’s (Ashley Laurence) parents move into the house of the incident to work on their tattered marriage. Mama Kirsty discovers the undead spirit of ex-lover Frank and agrees to start killing for him.
A curse to all but the most extreme kinksters
When Kirsty accidentally discovers the dirty deeds being done, she’s thrust into a life or death battle against a bunch of oversexed, sadomasochistic demons.
Which, as we all know, are the best demons.
17. Emily Blunt - A Quiet Place
Man do people love A Quiet Place. Despite being three hours and barely six minutes of dialogue, it keeps you hooked the whole way through.
Evelyn (Emily) is the pregnant matriarch of the Abbot family. She and her husband Lee (John Krasinski) are trying to survive a brutally quiet world filled with vicious alien predators, hunting by sound.
SH! What was that?
The Abbots are just trying to survive this post-apocalyptic hush-space and screaming old lunatics aside, they mostly do a good job.
Emily Blunt’s trials as an expectant mother are made all the more serious by the looming reality of noisy childbirth. The way the character is played with a sense of fatalism is a real hook for the audience.
16.Amanda Seyfried - Jennifer's Body
High school sex bomb Jenny (Megan Fox) is the envy of all the girls and the desire of all the guys. One day, she gets a little bit too wild and ends up as a virgin sacrifice in the middle of the woods.
Except she wasn’t a virgin. That’s a big thing for the devil.
So, now she’s a blood-sucking succubus preying on the boys in school!
Slaying demon brides inbetween study seshes
Her best friend Needy begins to twig that something’s wrong. When she stumbles across her buddy covered in blood in the middle of the night, she’s pretty much certain something’s up.
Eventually needy makes peace with the fact that the only way she’s going to save her friend, and the lives of her classmates, is by killing Jennifer when she least expects.
15. Elizabeth Moss - The Invisible Man
Grappling with the ghost of her supposedly dead tech mogul husband,(Oliver Jackson), Cece (Elizabeth Moss) wants nothing more than to put the past behind her. But strange and unexplainable things begin happening that make her question whether her ‘dead’ husband is…..dead?
Slowly the little things build into a pattern of isolating, gaslighting and outright torturing poor Cece, to the point where the grim reality of her situation is clear- one of them has to die for the nightmare to end.
Cece's abuser is everywhere.....and nowhere.
Invisible Man makes for uncomfortable viewing that gives the viewer firsthand experience of what an abusive relationship looks like. The movie’s highlight is watching Cece rebound from a lifelong victim into an empowered, liberated woman. It’s a beautiful little moment in a genuinely frightening flick.
14. Anya Taylor-Joy - The Witch
Set way, waaay back in the early 17th century, The Witch manages both to be a period movie AND a horror movie.
Thomasin (Anya Taylor Joy) lives on an isolated colonial-era farm with her family, living a simple life. When her baby brother goes missing one day, it destroys life as everyone knows it.
In New England, you're a witch until proven innocent.
Overnight Thomasin becomes a figure of suspicion to her family, having hushed conversations about her involvement in witchcraft and dark magic. Threatened with a trial, which back then equated to a death sentence, freaky occurrences are getting so bad that it would be an act of god if Thomasin ever saw the inside of a courtroom.
13. Jamie Lee Curtis - Halloween franchise/ 2018 reboot
Guaranteed top 3 and most people’s number one- Jamie Lee Curtis is one of horror’s best and longest-tenured final girls. Because of her longevity, it’s hard to pick her best showing. We settled for the 2018 soft reboot.
Forty Halloweens have passed since Michael Meyers first attacked Laurie Strode (Curtis) and she hasn’t been coping well. Turning to the bottle and closing herself off from the world, Laurie still struggles to put the past behind her.
Jamie reprises beloved final girl Laurie Strode- and it's getting even tenser this time around
But when the past comes face to face with her again, something switches in her. She’s ready to put murderous Mike down for good.
Whether you think Halloween is getting stale or not by now, you have to admit you cheer for Laurie.
12. Lupita Nyong'o - Us
The only actress to feature twice on this list- so congratulations to Lupita Nyong’o. If you’re reading this- your medal is in the post.
Adelaide (Lupita) and her family return to her hometown for a holiday, but she can’t seem to shake the shadow of childhood traumas. Everywhere she goes carries a feeling of fear, until one night she is confronted with her own personal hell.
Us might confuse, but it also entertains
A group of attackers descend on her home, holding the family hostage. When the masks are removed, Adelaide is confronted with her biggest fear- and they look EXACTLY like her.
Double-teaming always looked hard to do in movies, but the cast of US do an awesome job of maintaining continuity throughout the story. WTF ending aside, US is a great movie.
11. Samara Weaving - Ready Or Not
Every girl daydreams about her perfect wedding, but for Grace (Samara Weaving) it becomes a nightmare pretty quick.
Imagine if at the end of Pride And Prejudice when Elizabeth marries Mr Darcy, that his parents are so opposed to their union that they hunt Elizabeth down with weapons and try to kill her.
Nice day for a......white wedding
That’s the sum total of the plot for Ready Or Not. Except the wedding isn't the issue, it’s an age-old curse that requires them to slay the newcomer before sunrise.
Someone’s gonna die tonight. Either Grace or the rest of her new Beau’s family.
And Grace is gonna make damn sure it ain’t her.
10. Lucy Hale-Truth Or Dare
Never have the words ‘Truth Or Dare’ felt so creepy as they do in this movie.
Olivia (Lucy Hale) joins her friends on a hedonistic trip to Mexico and meets a seemingly charming guy (Landon Liboiron). After taking his offer to play truth or dare in an abandoned church, the friends begin to be haunted by a malicious hallucination forcing them to continue the game.
Goody goody Olivia doesn't wanna play anymore
Locked in a game of life or death, the guys and girls play to survive. Truths come out and ruin friendships, dares come with horrible consequences.
If you forfeit, you die.
Our personal favourite scene is Olivia’s lightning-quick thinking in the face of her and her bestie Markie’s(Violett Beane) imminent death.
9. Sharni Vinson- You're Next
You’re Next plays with the final girl trope in a way a lot of horrors haven’t- by progressively making the defender the aggressor.
Erin (Sharni Vinson) offers to support boyfriend Crispian (A.J Bowen) during his estranged family’s reunion. Things are touch and go right up until dinner, where all hell breaks loose.
Such a great 'what is she thinking?' shot
Suddenly, the family home is under siege by a group of assailants sporting animal masks. Rapidly they begin killing half the family and the blood-stained message on the wall makes the intent clear- You’re Next.
Well done to Sharni Vinson for selling the character’s betrayal towards the end of the flick. A well-acted discovery that legitimizes Erin’s change of motivations.
8. Maika Monroe-It Follows
After Jaime (Maika) chooses to live a little and sleep with her new boyfriend Hugh (Weary), he drugs her and ties her to a wheelchair.
Waking up in an abandoned building, Mr Loverman tells her that she’s carrying the most horrific STD known to mankind. Nope, not pregnancy. An incurable, relentless curse that hunts/murders everybody you sleep with. In hindsight, she probably wishes she got pregnant.
'OK seriously, untie me.
Soon Hugh’s grim warning comes true- the young college student starts seeing often-naked figures that nobody else can.
And they’re steadily advancing on her, constantly
It Follows is a legitimately scary story with interesting points of social commentary. If you ever needed proof that a woman's sexual history can haunt her forever, you’ll find it here.
7. Courteney Cox - Scream Franchise
The OTHER final girl from Scream- and a solid contender for the ‘best actress with worst hair’ shortlist.
Yes, it’s Courteney Cox as line-stepping reporter Gale Weathers. Whether she’s rocking up uninvited to a crime scene, or staging confrontations between victims and potential murders- on paper, she’s a hard one to like.
Best way to know the line? watch Gale cross it.
As the franchise evolves so does she- by scream 3 she begins showing signs of reevaluating her priorities and of becoming a not-totally-irredeemable human being.
Something like the ‘anti final girl’ Gale’s amoral pandering for fame and glory acts makes you want the hunted victims to survive just to see her not get her way.
6. Mila Jovovich - Resident Evil franchise
Ever wanted a take-no-nonsense, fire and fury female lead in your horrors? Then Resident Evil is the franchise for you!
Alice (Milla Jovovich) has gone through a lot in her twenty-stretch as a female lead/final girl. From a slightly naive one dimensional character to a layered ass-kicker of evil UmbrellaCorp. Fans of the game series owe it to themselves to watch these movies.
BANGBANG! Have a nice day
Alice and her small commando unit have three hours to shut down Umbrellacorp’s ‘hive’ - an underground genetic science lab that’s been contaminated with a zombie-making virus.
Taking no prisoners, Alice storms the hive and messes up everything in her way. Raccoon City, and the world itself, is in very safe Glock-wielding hands.
5. Jessica Chastain - IT, Chapter II
27 years after their first run-in with the despicable Pennywise, the loser’s club is honour bound to return for round two when IT comes back.
And IT’s hungry.
Having long gone their separate ways after their initial meeting, it’s up to the group of misfits to finally confront their greatest fears.
Chastain's turn as flame hair loser Beverley sees her confront her biggest fears
Beverley (Chastain) is one of the only female characters in the second instalment and easily the character you can most easily invest in. Having visited death’s doorstep 27 years earlier, she arguably has the biggest axe to grind with IT.
Despite being in the limelight with four other well-respected actors, Chastain does it for the girls in the closing chapter.
4. Kate Siegel-Hush
Award for ‘best comeback from the brink of death’ goes to Kate Siegel’s Maddie in Hush.
And DAMN Hush is good.
Maddie’s (Siegel) a deaf-mute. When she was 13, she caught a bad case of meningitis. But mostly her condition hasn’t been a problem. Until a sadistic murder (John Gallagher) starts hunting her and everyone turning up to check in on her.
Sound of silence
Largely unaware of the danger she’s in for a good twenty minutes. When the penny drops and she finally SEES the danger she’s in, she’s petrified. Petrified, but defiant.
The image of Maddie taunting her would-be killer by writing window messages in her blood sticks with us even now.
Such a simple concept, effortlessly executed.
3. Kristen Connolly- The Cabin In The Woods
Another one of those self-aware ‘meta’ horrors, Cabin In The Woods was everything horror fans needed it be when Joss Whedon produced it some ten years back.
A bunch of college kids (duh), go to an isolated cabin (of course), when zombies attack, (standard) killing the kids off one by one.
Don't Panic, it's all part of the plan.
Where this movie deviates from the formula is in its meta-level satire- the engineers responsible for these murders function as critical audience members too. Everything has to be done in a VERY specific way, or else it’s the end of the world. A sardonic take, but in this movie that's true.
And Dana Polk (Kristen Connolly), learns this truth after witnessing her favourite people in the world dying. Despite the stakes, you still want her and her slow-witted stoner mate Marty (Fran Kranz) to survive.
Game over man!
2. Amy Steel- Friday The 13th Part 2
One of the most famous visuals in the slasher niche is the sight of Amy Steel, dishevelled and fear-worn, brandishing a pitchfork in Friday The 13th Part 2.
Camp Crystal Lake is opened five years after the murder of Alice Hardy. One night, the counsellors are sitting around the campfire when leader Paul (John Furey) decides to try and frighten everybody with the tale of Jason Voorhees.
STAY BACK
Which backfires greatly, because exactly zero people believe him. Life cracks on as usual, the bigger kids go out to play, and Jason slaughters all the camp counsellors he can find. #IRONY
When Ginny (Steel) returns to camp and finds her dead colleagues, she realises the ‘urban legend’ is true. Coming face to face with Mr Choppy himself, it’s your classic fight for survival- which, considering it was the 80’s, is shot and acted REALLY well!
1. Linda Blair- The Exorcist
Surprise! Yes, Reagan IS a final girl. On top of that, she’s one hell of a survivor.
Little Reagan MacNeil starts acting strangely after playing with an ouija board. Subtle things start seeming unusual- her aggressive language, her general attitude….the way she would levitate.
Dare you to check her temperature
Eventually, she’s bound to her bed and her mother calls in the medics. They use all their combined skills to diagnose her as ‘needing a priest right now.’ When the priests eventually make their appearance, their faith and skills are tested to the limit in the face of pure evil.
The Exorcist might be the most well-known horror of ALL time. So treat yourself to the ‘unseen’ director's cut and appreciate this movie in all its glory.
Enjoy our list of our top 50 best final girls from horror movies?
We’re not saying that one day our articles are going to save your life. But let’s be real-
Do you REALLY want to take that risk?
https://www.gamersdecide.com/articles/best-free-horror-games-1
2)https://www.gamersdecide.com/articles/best-horror-comics
3)https://www.gamersdecide.com/pc-game-news/10-genuinely-frightening-fresh-horror-movies
