For horror fans, the “Final Girl” is one of our favorite tropes. She is an inspiration: she survives all the trauma and blood splatter of the film and comes out on the other side to tell her story. The term was first coined in the early ‘90s, but the use of the character goes back to works by genre masters like Wes Craven, John Carpenter, and Alfred Hitchcock. These heroines paved the way for the final girls of today who are self-aware, smart, and resilient in the face of monsters and madness.
In response to a genre that’s exploited both the female body and sexuality, the final girl has evolved into a feminist folk hero. With salutes to Halloween’s Laurie Strode and Nightmare On Elm Street’s Heather Langenkamp, the contemporary final girl takes full agency of her situation and ultimately wins. Here are the 7 2010s final girls that will stand the test of time for horror lovers everywhere.
Warning! Spoilers ahead.
Dana -The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
2011's The Cabin in the Woods blended horror, satire, and straight-out comedy to become a huge hit with genre fans. In a film built around common tropes and poking fun at horror, Kristen Connolly's Dana is the classic virginal final girl. She's pretty but repressed, and her charm comes from her girl-next-door quality. She's smart, nerdy, and pure, honoring the classic final girls of the '70s as '80s.
As we learned in Scream, having sex is one of the rules to horror film survival, and Dana makes it to the end of the film for this reason. While the film succeeds in highlighting horror cliches, it's still an inrecibly fun watch that qualifies as a horror film.
Erin -You're Next (2011)
The clever 2011 slasher You're Next was a huge hit for director Adam Wingard and it helped introduce the world to a new horror subgenre: mumblegore. Shot on an incredibly low budget, the film was an indie success that has since gained a cult following.
When Erin (Sharni Vinson) goes with her boyfriend to his family vacation celebrating the anniversary of his parents, things don't go as planned. By the end of the story, Erin has survived her boyfriend's murderous family, thanks in part to her childhood living on a survivalist compound. The film has great kills, witty dialogue, and a great soundtrack featuring repeat plays of Dwight Tilley Band's infectious song "Looking for the Magic."
Jay, Kelly, and Yara - It Follows (2014)
2014's It Follows brought fans a new spin on a classic trope: a curse that spreads person to person through sex. When Jay unknowingly contracts it from her date, she and her sister Kelly and their close friends Paul and Yara must fight the curse and survive the entity that's following them.
The film has a timeless, ethereal feel, a banging synth score by Disasterpeace, and killer performances by its leads. At the heart of the film is the bond between Jay, her sister, and her friends. The film ends on an ambiguous note, unsure whether the teens have truly beaten the entity and broken the curse, but fans hope that they survived beyond the credits of the film. A sequel is set to begin filming this year.
Mia - Evil Dead (2013)
When 2013's Evil Dead remake was initially announced, fans were hesitant to mess with a film series that was so beloved. First-time director Fede Álvarez took that seriously in his writing of the script. The resulting film is everything an Evil Dead movie should be: gross, gory, horrifying, and fun.
Tweaking the central plot, the 2013 version sees the protagonists traveling to a cabin in the woods so that final girl Mia (Jane Levy in an incredible performance) can detox from her drug addiction. This plot layer adds to the ultimate experience, as her brother and friends initially struggle to determine if she's emotionally haunted or possessed by demons.
It's a fun watch for fans of the original film series, and is a genuinely terrifying viewing experience. In the end, Mia gets away from the demons and survives the ordeal...for now.
Abra -Doctor Sleep (2019)
After the success of their first collaboration Gerald's Game in 2017, writer Stephen King and director Mike Flanagan teamed up again for 2019's Doctor Sleep, the long-awaited sequel to King's masterpiece The Shining. The story follows Danny Torrance grown up and still struggling with his childhood experiences at the Overlook Hotel. When a young girl named Abra telepathically contacts Danny through their ability to "shine", the two join forces to fight the evil psychic vampire cult called the True Knot.
Kyliegh Curran shines (pun intended) as Abra, whose strength and determination helps convince Ewan McGregor's Dan that they can work together to defeat the True Knot. It all adds up to an epic showdown at the Overlook Hotel that incorporates both elements of the novel and Stanley Kubrick's reknowned adaptation. In the end, Abra is the final girl fans deserve; her power proves stronger than the Overlook, the True Knot, and the forces of evil she faces.
Dani - Midsommar (2019)
Ari Aster quickly became a kingpin in the late 2010s with his visceral psychological horror. After the success of 2018’s Hereditary, his follow up Midsommar cemented Aster as a master of family and relationship dynamics from Hell.
In Midsommar, we meet Dani (Florence Pugh) as she faces unthinkable grief in the wake of tragedy. She and her boyfriend’s friends head to Sweden, and what follows is a tangle of gaslighting, gore, and drug-induced sex mania. The film is so effective at unsettling viewers with its relentless light and sunshine; it’s bright, sunny terror. Dani handles a cult (not to mention her awful boyfriend) like a champ and survives the ordeal, even acclimating to the life and claiming her power.
Thomasin -The Witch (2015)
Another contemporary auteur leading the horror genre is Robert Eggers, who stunned audiences and critics with his debut in 2015. At the heart of the film is Anya Taylor-Joy’s Thomasin, the eldest daughter of a family banished by their religious elders and forced to face the land of a new world on their own.
A fable of religion, persecution, and identity, The Witch is a brilliant work in suspicion and faith. Thomasin quickly falls under suspicion of being a witch by the members of her family. Scared, confused, and ultimately swayed to darkness, Thomasin is the only survivor of this one—and comes out freer than ever.