Final Girl Research Paper

Introduction
The Final Girl refers to the last girl standing at the end of horror movies. She usually has dark hair, is a virgin, has a unisex name, avoids drugs and knows the killer. The Final Girl are known to be the one to kill the monster or killer. They are the last one left to tell the story. Clover argues, “she becomes masculinized through “phallic appropriation” by taking a weapon, such as a knife or chainsaw, against the killer.” This shows that the Final Girl becomes independent, brave, and strong as she gets closer to kill the killer or monster. The Final Girl concept is most common in horror films. In this essay, I will give examples of Final Girls and how they are portrayed in horror movies.

Don’t Breathe
Three thieves- Rocky,

She goes to a B-horror movie, in which her mother was in 20 years ago. When a fire breaks out in the movie theater, Max and her friends break through the movie screen to find themselves in the film. They must use their knowledge to survive the horror movie itself.
The Final Girl in this film is Max, the innocent teen who’s the only one left to kill the killer. She happens to have a unisex name. She knows the killer and is a virgin. Also, she doesn’t have dark hair, but has blonde hair. Max portrays a young teen who misses her mother and gets a chance to see her again.
In the article, “The Final Girl”, by Carol J. Clover, she mentions, “ The Final Girl is no longer the damsel of distress.” Clover means that when the Final Girl is left, she is no longer in trouble. In the film, The Final Girls, Max and her friends plan ways to kill the killer. Although, everyone from the movie and her friends get killed, leaving Max the only one left. Her final battle with the killer begins and she stabs him with his machete.

Friday The 13th

Her brother Clay also survives, but all the college students died. Whitney has all the Final Girl traits, except for the name, and she has no idea who the killer is. When she comes face to face with Jason, she ends up stabbing him and finishing the story.

How Final Girl Movies Changed?
Final Girls in movies have changed overtime. In the article, The “Final Girl,” A Key Part of Every Great Slasher Movie, Explained, by Alex Abad- Santos, he states, “There is a lot of reasons horror movies are more explicitly self-aware than they were in the past… this awareness affected the creative process, and Final Girls with it.” Since then, horror movies weren’t the same. With the new improved Final Girls in horror movies, the whole concept isn’t the same as before.
The three movies, Don’t Breathe, The Final Girls, and Friday The 13th all have Final Girls who are in present time and suffer differently than the past horror films. What makes this change the Final Girl concept is that the girls from the films weren’t that scared by the killer, but suffered throughout the movie. Rocky from Don’t Breathe, suffered from escaping the blind man. Max from The Final Girls suffers from being stabbed by the killer. And Whitney from Friday The 13th, suffers from being tied in Jason’s hideout and