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The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

All of them have earned their right to be here, either by standing on the shoulders of giants or wildly impaling creatures of the night.

Alien
Photo: Columbia Pictures

Happy Halloween, folks. Hope you’re enjoying our epic horror list, which is counting down the best of the best in a genre that’s near and dear to our hearts. As an added bonus, I thought I’d pay tribute to one of my favorite horror tropes—the Final Girl, a very specific type of heroine who’s usually left to deal with the cops when they come to clean up the bodies. There are newbies, legends, and even a comedienne on this roster, but all of them have earned their right to be here, either by standing on the shoulders of giants or wildly impaling creatures of the night. Sadly, I Know What You Did Last Summer’s Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) didn’t make the cut, but as she would say, “What are you waiting for?!?!” Read on.


The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

10. Cindy Cambell (Anna Faris) in the Scary Movie Series

Yes, she’s a total construct of earlier scream queens, and a kooky conduit for this spoof saga’s constant lampooning, but Cindy Campbell toughed it out through more sequels than most of her bona fide, blood-bathed sisters, before finally bowing out after Scary Movie 4.


The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

9. Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) in the Saw Series

A dark twist on the Final Girl formula, Saw’s Amanda Young stands as a case of Stockholm Syndrome gone zanily awry. Emerging from the first movie as the sole survivor of Jigsaw’s hijinks (specifically the reverse bear trap), Amanda went on to be her “mentor’s” accomplice, offing others before biting it herself in Saw VI.


The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

8. Laura Guerrero (Stephanie Sigman) in Miss Bala

Don’t think Miss Bala is a horror movie? Tell that to Laura Guerrero, who enters a Mexican beauty contest only to be caught in the middle of a drug war, smuggling money for the gang that’s holding her family hostage, and watching the bodies drop until she’s one of the last few standing.


The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

7. Nancy Thompson (Heather Langencamp) in A Nightmare on Elm Street Series

I totally know what it feels like to be Nancy Thompson, sucking back pots of coffee to keep from falling asleep, as multiple deadlines loom. I’m not saying that being a writer is like evading a dream demon with knife fingers, but I might have become so delirious once that I thought my phone was licking me.

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The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

6. Alice (Milla Jovovich) in the Resident Evil Series

It appears that as long as Milla Jovovich and Paul W.S. Anderson are living under the same roof, the sharpshooter-cum-dominatrix Alice will continue kicking zombie ass. So what if the Resident Evil franchise is starting to mirror the ethically deprived Umbrella Corporation? All the fanboys care about is that Alice looks good while unloading rounds.



The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

5. Erin Harson (Sharni Vinson) in You’re Next

She may be a new recruit, but You’re Next’s Erin proved, with one film, that she’s woman enough to hang with the top five—the Heathers of the Final Girls. Handy with an axe, machete, or any household item, this yuppie-slaying badass was even raised on an Australian survivalist compound.



The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

4. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) in the Scream Series

She’s been called “everyone’s favorite little victim,” but, then, the guy who said that is dead. Sidney Prescott has pressed on through the murders of her mother, two sexy boyfriends, and a sorority’s worth of gal pals, not to mention the nasty ink that critics have hurled at her later adventures. But the Ghostface-killing Californian seems indestructible, surviving one Stab after another.



The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

3. Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Thanks to the agonizing relentlessness of Tobe Hooper’s masterpiece, which zooms in on Sally Hardesty’s horrified eyeballs just as it amps up her surrounding aural terrors, we know the sound of a chainsaw is never going to leave the head of this spared, yet scarred, woman. Similarly, of all the gals in this lineup, it’s Sally’s whose shrill screaming is most indelible. Or do I mean her laughter?

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The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

2. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) in the Halloween Series

“What’s the Boogeyman?” Unfortunately, it’s your brother, young Laurie Strode. He’s unkillable, and he’s going to make your life miserable. But don’t worry—you still have 24 years and seven sequels before things really go to shit.



The 10 Best Final Girls in Horror Cinema

1. Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) in the Alien Series

“This is Ripley. Last survivor of the Nostromo. Signing off.”

R. Kurt Osenlund

R. Kurt Osenlund is a creative director and account supervisor at Mark Allen & Co. He is the former editor of Out magazine.

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