10 Best Horror Movie Final Girl Characters of All Time

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Out of all the tropes in horror movies, the concept of the “Final Girl” has to be one of the coolest. Some other contenders for the more entertaining elements of horror films (or, more specifically, slashers) include: the fact that “doing drugs and having intercourse” typically results in certain death, when you “kill” the killer the first time he’s definitely very much still alive, and if you run from your killer, he will still catch up to you while he simply strolls along (most of these were elucidated by Jamie Kennedy’s character Randy in Scream). Yet, the Final Girl archetype blows all the other horror go-tos out of the water (like, Crystal Lake), as her unassailable spirit is a true inspiration for all the horror-loving kiddies out there.

The first Final Girl is arguably Sally (Marilyn Burns) from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in 1974. She survived one of the bloodiest bloodbaths to ever (dis)grace the screen, and still lived to tell the tale. Yet, others posit that Jess (Olivia Hussey) in Black Christmas, released the same year, was the first Final Girl. Regardless, over the years, the Final Girl has evolved in a variety of highly compelling and intriguingly odd ways (Maxine Minx, we’re looking in your devious direction), but she’s always stayed true to her roots: being level-headed, quick-thinking, mostly sober and celibate, and blessed with the ability to endure basically every awful thing thrown at her. Here is a look at the top ten Final Girl characters in cinema history — each one featured here is as resplendent and resilient as the day they wrapped their final scenes (and, naturally, made it to the sequel).

10 Sarah Carter — ‘The Descent’ (2005)

A close up of Sarah as she looks beyond the camera in The Descent

Sometimes one must not only face a previously unheard of, ghoulish antagonist, but they have to simultaneously fend off a sneakily deceitful human one as well. This was the case for Shauna Macdonald’s Sarah Carter, the woman who had to battle not only the murky monsters held within the depths of the caves that she and her friends went spelunking in, but also the uncaring, selfish, and reckless lass in her group, Juno (Natalie Mendoza).

Sarah’s character here in Neil Marshall’s The Descent is a truly rich, layered, and fascinating one. She begins the film in a very fragile state, tenuously dealing with the fairly recent death of her husband. Her crew urges her to go on the cave-exploring trip with them, with the adrenaline-junkie Juno leading the way into a new, mysterious, and clearly dangerous cavern. Once they encounter a tribe of “crawlers” (carnivorous, bat-like, scary as hell humanoids), Sarah has to snap out of her funk and let her survival instincts kick in. Once it’s revealed that Juno not only intentionally abandoned their other friend Beth (Alex Reid), but that she also had an affair with Sarah’s dead hubby, Sarah really loses it and smashes Juno’s leg with a pickaxe, leaving her as lunch for the crawlers. Ergo, Sarah’s transition from meek to (murderously) mighty is quite spectacular. Sarah is not your typical, ethically and morally sound Final Girl, but she’s still a very intriguing and devilishly delightful one nonetheless.

9 Grace — ‘Ready or Not’ (2019)

Samara Weaving as Grace in Ready or Not, wearing her wedding dress and smiling

Samara Weaving has had a superb career so far in playing various brands of compelling women in horror. There’s the villainous Bee in The Babysitter, the free-spirited pop starlet Sofia in Borderline, and the murder-minded Lisa in Over Your Dead Body…to name a few. However, she is at her most lethally luminescent as the bamboozled bride Grace MacCaullay in Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett’s Ready or Not, and their subsequent film.

The storyline of the first film is that Grace marries Alex De Tomas (Mark O’Brien) and for their honeymoon they pop over to Alex’s family’s mansion at midnight (because, y'know, tradition). Here Grace meets Alex’s eccentric (devil-worshiping) relatives…and is invited to play a game. A lark…to the death. A hide-and-seek with some pretty high stakes. Grace begins the film a hopeful, blushing bride, ready to begin her new life. After having to take down each one of Alex’s kin, beating them all at their own sick game, she blossoms into a blood-splattered butterfly, who now seems ready (or not) to tackle anything. Kudos to the costume department for having Grace’s initially spotless white wedding dress reflect Grace’s changes, as it’s mangled and filthy by the film’s conclusion. Grace continues her harrowing personal journey of horrific enlightenment, and is joined by her scrappy sister Faith (Kathryn Newton) in the sequel, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.

8 Sally Hardesty — ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974)

Sally Hardesty in the back of the truck at the end — ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’ (1974)

Being the first of something doesn’t automatically make you one of the best at that thing. This is not the case with Marilyn Burns’ Sally Hardesty, however, since Marilyn killed the role and provided the roadmap for many a brilliant Final Girl to come. In one of the first real “slasher” films, Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Sally has to endure a literal night from hell. She begins the tale as a happy, bright-eyed, and smart college student looking to have some fun with her sibling and friends. Once their little road trip is taken off course, and Sally and crew come face-to-Leatherface with probably the sickest family in history (yes, that includes the Mansons), Sally’s true colors begin to show.

Sally’s mettle is put to the test, time and time again. The fact that she comes out on the other side with any semblance of sanity is a miracle in itself. Fighting with gusto until the very end, she is the sole survivor of the incident (hence, her Final Girl nomenclature). As Sally’s comrades are sliced and diced, one by one, Sally’s scrappy nature is revealed, and she does everything humanly possible to stay alive (including, of course, jumping through two windows). The image of the blood-drenched Sally screaming in the back of that pick-up truck after she finally escapes is certainly one of the most iconic in horror, further cementing her ownership of the premier Final Girl in film.

7 Clear Rivers — ‘Final Destination’ (2000)

Ali Larter as Clear Rivers, in the funeral scene, holding a white rose — ‘Final Destination’ (2000)

To end up as the Final Girl in a movie that’s literally about every main character dying is quite the feat. Clear Rivers, played by Ali Larter (one of the real It Girls of the early 2000s, aside from being a Final Girl), does a great job of evading (and even tricking) death through all of James Wong’s Final Destination. The basic premise of the film (and then the five other subsequent additions) is that someone has a premonition of a major disaster where everybody dies, alerts their friends, and temporarily saves them…but death needs to set things straight and systematically comes for each of their souls.

So, Clear begins the film as somewhat of an introvert; a hippie-ish artist just doing her own thing. By the end of the movie, she’s evolved into a savvy navigator of all things mortally dangerous. Clear makes it to the sequel by employing a (rather deranged) tactic in keeping death at bay. Sure, she may be a tad bit insane at this point, but she’s still surviving, holding on to that coveted Final Girl status for as long as she can…

6 Ginny Field — ‘Friday the 13th: Part 2’ (1981)

While the Friday collection is one of the greatest slasher franchises of all time, with a nifty cache of Final Girls featured in many of the films, there is one who stands out above all the rest: the cunning Ginny Field in Steve Miner’s killer sequel Friday the 13th: Part 2. Portrayed by Amy Steel, Ginny is a truly empowered, savagely clever person; a triumph for the Final Girl brand.

What makes Ginny’s character so unique and compelling is that she has a well-thought-out backstory that aides in her current predicament of dealing with an undead psychopath. Ginny is not just a camp counselor; she’s a child psychology student. She uses her education, along with her natural wits, to get into the mind of Mr. Jason Voorhees (Steve Dash) and really throw him for a loop. Ginny intuits that Jason is still a momma’s boy at heart, and wears a sweater that belonged to Pamela Vorhees, Jason’s deceased mom (Betsy Palmer), to lure Jay Jay into her trap. Ginny basically wrote the book on “turning the tables” on your opponent; she attacks Jason with his own beloved machete, sending him scurrying off into the shadows. So, while Jason murked basically all the other counselors, Ginny survived with true panache, and a great campfire story of her own…

Collider Exclusive · Horror Survival Quiz Which Horror Villain Do You Have the Best Chance of Surviving? Jason Voorhees · Michael Myers · Freddy Krueger · Pennywise · Chucky

Five killers. Five completely different ways to die — if you're not smart enough, fast enough, or self-aware enough to avoid it. Only one of them is the villain your particular set of instincts gives you a fighting chance against. Eight questions will figure out which one.

🏕️Jason

🔪Michael

💤Freddy

🎈Pennywise

🪆Chucky

TEST YOUR SURVIVAL →

Something feels wrong. You can't explain it — you just know. What do you do? First instincts are the difference between the survivor and the first act casualty.

ALeave immediately. I don't need to understand a threat to respect it. BStay quiet and observe. If I can see it, I can understand it. If I can understand it, I can avoid it. CStay awake. Whatever this is, I am not going to sleep until I feel safe again. DConfront it directly. Fear grows in the dark — I'd rather know what I'm dealing with. ECheck everything, trust nothing. The threat might be closer than I think — and smaller.

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Where are you most likely to find yourself when things go wrong? Setting is everything in horror. Where you are determines which rules apply.

ASomewhere remote — a cabin, a campsite, off the grid and away from people. BA quiet suburban neighbourhood where nothing ever happens. Except tonight. CIn my own head — the most dangerous place of all, depending on what's already in there. DWherever children are — because something about this place attracts the worst things. ESomewhere ordinary — a house, a toy store, a place where the last thing you'd expect is a threat.

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What is your most reliable survival asset? Every survivor has a quality the villain didn't account for. What's yours?

APhysical fitness — I can run, I can swim, I can outlast something that relies on brute persistence. BSpatial awareness — I always know the exits, the hiding spots, the fastest route out. CPsychological resilience — I've faced my worst fears before. They don't have the same power over me. DEmotional steadiness — I don't panic. Panic is what gets you caught. EScepticism — I don't underestimate threats because of how they look. Size is irrelevant.

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What kind of fear is hardest for you to fight through? Knowing your weakness is the first step to not dying because of it.

AThe unstoppable — something that will not stop, cannot be reasoned with, and is always getting closer. BThe invisible — a threat I can feel but can't locate, watching from somewhere I can't see. CThe psychological — something that uses my own mind and memories against me. DThe unknowable — something ancient, shapeless, that feeds on the fear itself. EThe mundane — a threat so ordinary-looking that no one will believe me until it's too late.

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You're with a group when things start going wrong. What's your role? Horror movies are brutally clear about who survives group situations and who doesn't.

AThe one who says "we need to leave" first — and means it, even when no one listens. BThe one who stays quiet, watches the others, and figures out the pattern before anyone else does. CThe one who holds the group together when panic sets in — because someone has to. DThe one who asks the questions nobody wants to ask — because ignoring them gets people killed. EThe one who takes the threat seriously when everyone else is laughing it off.

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What's the horror movie mistake you're most likely to make? Honest self-assessment is a survival skill. Denial is not.

AGoing back for someone — I know I shouldn't, but I can't leave them behind. BAssuming I'm safe once I've found a hiding spot. That's when it finds me. CFalling asleep when I absolutely cannot afford to. Exhaustion is its own enemy. DLetting my curiosity override my instincts — I always need to understand what I'm dealing with. EDismissing the threat because of how it looks. That's exactly what it wants.

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What's your best weapon against something that can't be stopped by conventional means? Every horror villain has a weakness. The survivors are always the ones who find it.

AThe environment itself — I use the terrain, the water, the geography against it. BPatience — I wait, I watch, and I strike at the one moment it doesn't expect. CLucidity — if I can stay in control of my own mind, it loses its primary weapon. DCourage — facing it directly, refusing to run, taking away the fear it feeds on. EImprovisation — I use whatever's at hand, however unconventional. Creativity over brute force.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final scene. You're the last one standing. How did you make it? The final survivor always has a reason. What's yours?

AI kept moving. I never stopped, never hid for too long, never let it corner me. BI figured out the pattern before anyone else did — and I used it against the thing following it. CI stayed awake, stayed lucid, and refused to give it the one thing it needed most. DI stopped being afraid of it. And the moment I did, everything changed. EI took it seriously from the start — and I never once made the mistake of underestimating it.

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Your Survival Odds Have Been Calculated Your Best Chance Is Against…

Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.

Jason Voorhees

Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.

He moves in straight lines toward his target. He doesn't strategise, doesn't adapt, doesn't outsmart. He simply pursues.
Your ability to keep moving, use the environment, and resist the panic that freezes most victims gives you a genuine edge.
The Crystal Lake survivors were always the ones who stopped running in circles and started thinking about terrain, water, and distance.
You think like that. Which means Jason, for all his indestructibility, would face someone who simply refused to be where he expected.

Michael Myers

Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it's too late for anyone who isn't paying close enough attention.

But you are paying attention. You notice the shape in the window, the car parked slightly wrong, the silence where there should be sound.
Michael's power lies in the invisibility of ordinary suburbia — the fact that nothing ever looks wrong until it already is.
Your spatial awareness and instinct to map every room, every exit, and every shadow before you need them is precisely the quality Laurie Strode had.
You are not a victim waiting to happen. You are someone who already suspects something is wrong — and acts on it.

Freddy Krueger

Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.

You are harder to destabilise than most. You've faced uncomfortable truths about yourself and you haven't looked away.
The survivors on Elm Street were always the ones who understood what was happening and chose to face it rather than flee from it.
Freddy's greatest weakness is that his power evaporates in the presence of someone who refuses to give him the fear he feeds on.
Your psychological resilience — the ability to stay grounded when reality itself becomes unreliable — is exactly the quality that keeps you alive here.

Pennywise

Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.

The Losers Club didn't survive because they were braver than everyone else. They survived because they faced their fears together, and faced them honestly.
You ask the questions others avoid. You look directly at what frightens you rather than turning away.
That directness — the refusal to let fear fester in the dark — is Pennywise's worst nightmare.
It chose the wrong target when it chose you. You are exactly the kind of person whose fear tastes like nothing at all.

Chucky

Chucky's greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it's already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.

You don't have that gap. You take threats seriously regardless of how they present — and you never make the mistake of underestimating something because of its size or appearance.
Chucky relies on surprise, on the delay between recognition and response. You close that delay faster than almost anyone.
Your instinct to treat every unfamiliar thing with appropriate scepticism — rather than dismissing it because it seems absurd — is the exact quality that keeps you breathing.
Against Chucky, not laughing is already winning. You are very good at not laughing.

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5 Maxine Minx — ‘X’ (2022)

Mia Goth as Maxine Minx in ‘X’ (2022), getting ready at a mirror before the shoot

One of the most fascinating things about cinema is the way in which the form evolves — and then pays homage to the films of yesteryear that laid the groundwork for new, modern classics. Scream queen Mia Goth’s fiercely driven character Maxine Minx is a prime example of the artistry of this evolution. Subverting the standard Final Girl trend right out the gate, Maxine is anything but a, well, virgin. In Ti West’s 70s slasher throwback X, Maxine is an aspiring pornography star, willing to do just about anything to make a name for herself.

When Maxine arrives at an old farmhouse for her first shoot, things quickly take a dark turn. An elderly couple owns the place, and the mentally unstable woman, Pearl, in this pair takes a shine to Maxine. See, Maxine looks just like Pearl when she was a young’n. Mia Goth plays Peal, too, in very well done, very creepy old makeup, so she gets extra points for that. In any event, bodies start piling up, but Maxine has too much vigor and drive to let herself become one of the corpses. Her ferocity is a thing of sheer beauty, and the way she not only sidesteps being killed, but goes on the brutal attack herself, is really delightful. Mia Goth reprised this fantastic Final Girl role in 2024’s MaXXXine, and further added to the character’s complex history — but before she even did that, she played the young (psychotic) version of Pearl in 2022’s Pearl. Overall, Maxine is a daringly dynamic, irrepressibly alluring character all around.

4 Nancy Thompson — ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984)

Nancy Thompson on the phone — ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ (1984)

Nancy is such a righteous 80s babe…and one of the most inventive Final Girls of all time. Yes, Heather Langenkamp’s Nancy Thompson is a real dream girl…just not the kind you’d hope for. As the lead character in Wes Craven’s original A Nightmare on Elm Street, her terror is palpable as she comes to learn the unsettling truth about who her eventual nemesis, Freddy Krueger (the legend himself, Robert Englund) truly is. Luckily, she resisted the sexual advances of her super-cute boyfriend, Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp’s first role!), and maintained her virgin status…

So, Freddy terrorizes Nancy throughout the majority of the film (knife-glove bath drop-in, tongue phone hijinks, etc.), yet Nancy’s resilience shines through and she undergoes quite the dramatic transformation. Initially a girl cowering in fear at the thought of being murdered in her sleep, Nancy reaches inside herself and finds a level of courage that the most hardened soldiers would have trouble unearthing. By the end of the movie, Nancy has Home Alone-d her house so well, with booby traps galore, that the nightmare-marauding, scar-faced villain is bested. As basically the last teen standing in this actual nightmare-inducing film, Nancy’s Final Girl status will forever be savagely carved into our hearts.

3 Sidney Prescott — ‘Scream’ (1996)

Neve Campbell on a phone looking concerned in 'Scream' as Sidney

We’ve now made it to the “Final Girl in Trilogies or More” section of this list. As far as fetching Final Girls who undergo incredible character arcs go, Neve Campbell’s Sidney Prescott is one for the horror history books. Sidney begins Wes Craven’s classic slasher flick as a typical, if somewhat shy, teen — except for the fact that her mother has fairly recently passed away. Then, unprompted violence hits her town, and Sidney is put on the defensive. Once all her chums start getting offed, Sidney naturally retreats into herself and becomes terrified. However, her internal fortitude breaks through, and she not only survives the master murder plan of her smarmy, greasy boyfriend, Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), and his super annoying sidekick, Stuart (Matthew Lillard), but she dispatches with Loomis herself.

As the sequels piled up (and boy, did they ever), Sidney remained steadfast in her courage, and even became a counselor to help other kids deal with grief and their own tragedies. Sidney is a great role model for those who have had to endure twisted mental manipulation and, of course, murder plots. Her character continues to grow in each and every Scream installment, and is still fun to watch develop to this day. Honorable Final Girl mention here, of course, goes to Courtney Cox’s wisecracking reporter Gale Weathers, who also outsmarted many a Ghostface Killer in just about all the Scream films, too.

2 Ellen Ripley — ‘Alien’ (1979)

Sigourney Weaver as Lieut. Ellen Ripley aboard a spacecraft in the science-fiction–horror film Alien.

While it may be true that no one can hear you scream in space, that wasn’t that much of a concern for Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley, as she managed to somehow keep her cool in Ridley Scott’s first four Alien films. In terms of her Final Girl-ness, she really shines like a quasar in both Alien and Aliens (the spacey sequel). She begins the first film as a “safety-first,” no-nonsense lieutenant of a spaceship and quickly matures into an alien-battling badass — and what is considered the first female action hero seen in Hollywood.

Ripley continues her intergalactic voyage/personal growth journey in what is probably the best sci-fi-horror-action film of all time, Aliens. Here she becomes a true feminist icon, as her inner strength is put even further to the test. Ripley’s maternal instincts kick in (as she battles the mother Xenomorph (uh, alien), who’s projecting major mom vibes too), and she emerges victorious, yet again (as all the dudes around her are mercilessly flayed). By the time Alien 3 comes around, Ripley has shaved her head and has fully transformed into a killing-machine warrior that nobody wants to mess with. Even decades into the future, as a clone in the quirky fourth film, Alien: Resurrection, Ripley’s pragmatism remains intact, along with her keen self of survival, and, naturally, her laconic rock star persona.

1 Laurie Strode — ‘Halloween’ (1978)

Laurie Strode holding a knife and looking scared in Halloween (1978).

Here she is…Ms. Finallll Girrrlll… It’s no secret that while Jamie Lee Curtis wasn’t the first Final Girl, she basically perfected the concept of it with her role in the 1978 horror classic Halloween as the indefatigable teen Laurie Strode. Before even getting into the sequels where Laurie played a major part — over a 44-year period — the original film needs to be dissected to explain just how and why Laurie Strode is the ultimate Final Girl.

Laurie starts off as a bit of a nebbish introvert (even if she is uniquely pretty). She regularly opts for studying (and babysitting) over partying with her raucous (and soon to be dead) classmates. When Michael Meyers (Tony Moran) sets his murderous sights on her, Laurie is forced to undergo change at an alarmingly quick pace. Utilizing her wits, she outmaneuvers the relentless, when-will-he-just-die-already Michael throughout the course of the film, eventually emerging as the bruised but emboldened, quintessential Final Girl. Then, over the decades that this franchise spanned, her character morphed even further. Laurie became even tougher, and, unfortunately (and rightly so) fairly paranoid. By the early 2020s, Laurie has become very protective of her own offspring, and has even educated them on how to dodge and (fingers crossed) dispatch with the supernaturally omnipresent Michael. Overall, Laurie is a force to be reckoned with, and definitely the Final Girl you’d want by your side when dealing with a masked maniac.