Our Top 10 Horror Movie Final Girls for Women’s History Month

Spoiler alert: Some of the movie descriptions for each Final Girl below contain spoilers for their respective movies.

Since the early days of horror, women have been an integral part of the genre – particularly through the concept of the “final girl”. The Final Girl theory was first developed by in 1992 Carol J Klee, an American film professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in Modern Horror Filmshe defines the last girl as a young woman who is the sole survivor of her group and the only one left to tell the story of what happened (think Sally Hardesty). Texas Chainsaw Massacre). The definition has expanded over time, making room for damsels in distress and badass women who face and ultimately triumph over the antagonistic killers.

Horror fans know and love The Final Girl, with early examples including Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) from extraterrestrial and the last girl of all last girls, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) from the Halloween Franchise. Modern examples are Naru (Amber Midthunder) by prey and Veronica Henley (Janelle Monae) from prewar.

Now that we’ve established what a Final Girl is, in honor of Women’s History Month, let’s take a look at our Top 10 Final Girls!

Julie James is your classic final girl: young, tormented and morally unequivocal, with a large ol’ group of friends who may or may not survive to the end of the film. When confronted with a dark secret from the group’s past, she is determined to solve the mystery and save herself and her friends. And does she? Well, sort of.

Julie’s detective skills and her unique nautical final chase scene make her one of our favorites.

In barbarian, Tess finds herself in a double-booked Airbnb that also includes a system of underground tunnels, rooms, and traps. Though she doesn’t know who to trust at first, she quickly smartens up and does exactly what she needs to do to save her own life. And boy is it gross.

In our opinion, Tess’ situation is one of the most terrifying on the list, so she definitely deserves a place in the top 10.

Shelley Duvall’s Wendy Torrance is dear to every horror fan’s heart, and of all the ladies on this list, we think she had a pretty tough break. Imagine you are being chased through a haunted hotel by a murderer – and now imagine that murderer being your husband. Now imagine your husband was Jack Nicholson.

Although she doesn’t ultimately kill her murderous sweetheart, she escapes him and saves her son, and that’s enough for us.

As we’ve already said, Laurie Strode is probably the most iconic of them all. The babysitter-turned-badass has had her share of horror movies, and like a true Final Girl, she always lived to tell the story. Oh and *spoiler alert* She literally kills the immortal Michael Myers. NBD.

However, since she’s already receiving such high praise, we decided to keep her further down the list to give some other Final Girls a chance to shine.

Tree is part of the new breed of Final Girls on the roster and throughout Happy death anniversary, it certainly proves worthy of the title. Her biting sarcasm, determination, and relationship skills (apart from the whole living-the-same-day thing) have made her a fan favorite of the horror comedy subgenre.

Using a time warp to catch her college campus killer definitely earns Tree a spot on our list.

The menu‘s Margot is a master of manipulation, and she uses that ability to ensure her safety – and a delicious-looking cheeseburger – from Chef Slowik. While she uses her brains to outsmart the film’s main antagonist, that doesn’t mean a lot of blood isn’t shed on her hand. She also has to deal with her overbearing date Tyler, which would make anyone desperate to flee.

Margot’s ability to think her way out of such a scary situation deserves a spot in the top 5. Besides, who doesn’t love Anya Taylor-Joy?

Adelaide Wilson, masterfully played by Lupita Nyong’o, is certainly one of the most interesting characters on our list. We follow her and her family as her beach vacation turns deadly at the hands of her vengeful doppelgangers, and as she takes on her creepy counterpart in a dramatic final showdown, we fire for her the whole time – only to find out in the end that she might not is who she says she is.

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Remember when we said before that you should imagine your husband trying to kill you? Now imagine it’s all your husband’s family and they’re heavily armed. Just another day in the life of Samara Weaving’s Grace Le Domas, who on her wedding night finds out her new in-laws have a terrible tradition to uphold. One that involves ritual sacrifice.

Grace, like any Final Girl, takes it like a champ, surviving the night and ending a decades-old murder curse – all while wearing a wedding dress.

In a film that’s as heavily inspired by ’70s slashers as X, it’s no surprise that we have our hands on a legendary final girl in Maxine Minx. As an adult film star, she is a subversion of the archetypal “innocent” Final Girl featured in many classic horror films. She does drugs, she has sex and you know what? She survives (take that, Randy Meeks). Maxine is a dynamic, complex character who doesn’t let anyone get in her way.

With X Consequence MaXXXine currently a work in progress, we can’t wait to see how things pan out for you.

OK, we know we said we downgraded Laurie because she’s already received a ton of credit for being a Legendary Final Girl. So what’s different here? Why is Sidney Prescott our #1? Aside from the fact that she was canonically killed four Ghostfaces, Sidney has achieved a level of Final Girl dominance unmatched by any of our other top picks: the Wise Older Mentor. In scream vwe see that she has mostly overcome the trauma caused during the franchise, and she finally passes the torch of last girl on to Samantha Carpenter (Melissa Barrera).

We were super disappointed that Sidney wasn’t there scream VIand we’re keeping our fingers crossed for an appearance in the next film.