2022 has been a big year for slashers, with the newest Scream movie starting the year, followed by X, Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and other takes on the genre. Many of these have involved major critiques of the classics of the genre, particularly with regard to the "final girl" trope. The idea that only one perfect and virginal woman can survive a tragedy is becoming increasingly dated, with major films like The Cabin in the Woods having had literal decades to put a nail in the trope's coffin.

There are a number of different perspectives on the final girl trope, with some finding them empowering to women while others argue that they force women into the Madonna-Whore Dynamic. To contend with some of the more negative perspectives, many modern films have subverted the trend, using the trope to either surprise fans with capable and aggressive women or portray men, particularly marginalized men, as valuable and virtuous.

Owen (Cry Wolf)

Cry Wolf 2005 Owen looking off camera

Following the traditional horror trope of rich people's games turning deadly, Cry Wolf follows boarding school students whose Mafia-style game becomes all-too-real. After many of the students have been picked off, survivor Owen finds and shoots the man who seems to be the killer, only to find out it was all a prank, and he is going to jail for murder.

Though many characters survived the game, the only innocent one ends up paying for the crime. Owen played the role of the final girl by trying to protect himself and his friends and by putting down a man who seemed to be a monster, which could have presented an interesting message about the way horror heroes aren't built for a non-horror-movie world, had it not been taken away by the twist ending.

Brianna (Candyman)

Brianna Cartwright stands in her art gallery in the 2021 film Candyman.

Candyman is a terrifying figure, but he becomes more of a vigilante than a bogeyman in the 2021 version of the classic film. And final girl Brianna sees and understands that shift, using the Candyman to take out a group of corrupt cops.

Historically speaking, Black women don't get to be final girls, so Brianna's role is subversive by nature. In addition, she uses the killer against the real monsters, an action that gives her more agency and power than nearly any final girl before her, explicitly because of the racial and economic background that has taught her how to survive.

Erin (You're Next)

Erin holding an axe in You're Next

The traditional final girl is able to survive through her virtue, but Erin has some carefully-curated skills that she puts to work. She grew up in a survivalist compound, which allows her to fight, set traps, and even kill her attackers without much difficulty.

This subverts the traditional final girl ideal by making Erin the unquestioned stronger party. The slasher heroine tends to be a reactive character, but Erin handles the situation head-on, willing to take out threats offensively, rather than staying in self-defense mode. The killers end up falling prey to her far more often than she does to them, in an empowering twist on the genre.

Eddie (Hellbent)

Hellbent was one of the first in a wave of "gay slasher" films, giving audiences some of their first gay male survivors. Like a traditional final girl, Eddie mostly evades the killer by running, hiding, and being rescued. His crush, Jake, rescues him the first time, but they both put up a serious fight to survive the final confrontation.

While both men survive the film, Eddie is clearly cast in the role of the final girl. Seeing a gay man put into this position casts the virtuous light of the traditional role onto a character who would historically have been portrayed as deviant and deserving of death.

Tommy Jarvis (Friday The 13th)

Thom Mathews as Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th Part 6

One of the first significant "final boys" in the genre, Tommy Jarvis is the main protagonist of three Friday the 13th films. After Jason Voorhees attacks their neighbors, Tommy and his sister have to fight for their lives, with Tommy brutally hacking Jason apart with a machete. Tommy is later shown to be extremely competent at stopping killers, though he has a dark side of his own.

Tommy's biggest subversion of the final girl trope is being male, but he still represents a sense of innocence that distinguishes him from other male action heroes. However, actually killing the serial killer ends up making others see him as trouble, rather than as a victim, a critical difference from the standard.

Kazan (Cube)

Dr. Holloway, Kazan, and Leaven.

The Canadian sci-fi thriller Cube looks at how people attempt to survive in a maze of trap-filled rooms. The group deduces that the layout is based on mathematic patterns, which can be calculated by Kazan, a neurodivergent man who is extremely talented with numbers.

Kazan breaks all the molds for slasher survivors, using his intelligence rather than his virtue or strength as a way to survive. There is very little autistic representation in media, so seeing a neurodivergent final boy who can survive using his talents and knowledge is a major statement regarding what behaviors should be valued.

Jill Robert (Scream 4)

Sydney lies on the fllor with a passed out Jill in Scream 4.

It shouldn't be surprising that an installment of the Scream franchise successfully subverted the final girl, and while Sidney did a lot with the trope in the 90s, her cousin Jill really turned it on its head. After several years of hearing about Sidney's trials, Jill decided to become famous by organizing a slasher movie of her own.

Likely inspiring Margaret Booth in American Horror Story: 1984, Jill's character was truly psychotic, killing her friends and family just for the sake of fame. This choice showed the danger in assuming the character who seems to be the final girl would truly possess the values associated with the position.

Brent (The Loved Ones)

Brent in The Loved Ones 2009 looking up

The Loved Ones does a full genderbend in its tropes, leaving final boy Brent to survive the female killer Lola's reign of terror. After turning down her invitation to Prom, he is kidnapped and tortured by Lola and her father.

By swapping the traditional genders of the killer and victim, this film puts a young man through an exaggerated version of a very real female fear, being hurt and/or killed for rejecting a man's romantic advances. Rather than trying to make the audience see the male victim as innocent as a final girl, it uses the male protagonist to make the audience listen and care about problems that are usually ignored as isolated womens' issues.

Taylor Gentry (Behind the Mask)

Taylor Gentry from Behind The Mask

Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon presents the slasher movie as a mockumentary, which is a great chance for the audience to really get to know their killer. But they also, unknowingly, get to know the final girl long before she's seen as such. Journalist Taylor Gentry hears every step of Leslie's plans, including his own death, before she's unceremoniously thrown into the role.

While Taylor does fit many of the stereotypical traits of the final girl, she is also ambitious and somewhat desensitized to the violence she's filming. She knows the entire script for the night, which she uses to try to out-maneuver Leslie. While she was forced into the standard pattern, it was her cleverness, not her virtue that got her out, and she managed to keep two others alive at the same time, rather than becoming the sole survivor.

Chris Washington (Get Out)

Chris crying and looking scared in Get Out

When Chris Washington visits his white girlfriend Rose's house, he's walking into a horror show. Rose has a history of luring Black people to her house, where her parents push their minds into the "Sunken Place" and give their bodies to wealthy white people. Chris realizes something is wrong, but it's almost too late, forcing him to fight for his life.

Get Out does a lot of work with the idea of the final girl, since Black men have traditionally been seen as aggressors and white women as their innocent victims. Knowing that history, Rose tries to claim the role of final girl to the police, but the audience knows the truth. Chris is the true innocent, who had to run for his life and kill the monster. The film uses the trope both to highlight Chris's innocence and critique the presumed virtue of the white woman.

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