Final Girl Archetype
The last woman standing against the killer, a trope Halloween helped define.
The final girl is a horror-film trope, especially in slasher films, for the last surviving female character who confronts the killer. Carol J. Clover coined the term in her 1987 article "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film".
Quick Facts
- Term coined by
- Carol J. Clover (1987)
- Halloween example
- Laurie Strode
Reader's Guide
In Clover's original definition, the final girl is the sole survivor of a group chased by a killer who gets a final confrontation with them, whether she kills the killer herself or is saved at the last minute, a role she earns through implied moral superiority. Halloween is one of the trope's notable examples, and Laurie Strode in the 1978 film is a final girl who is saved by someone else.
The trope has changed over the years, from early final girls who were often damsels in distress rescued by a man to modern ones who are more likely to survive by their own abilities.
More in Themes & Legacy
Elsewhere in Halloween
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