Scarlett Dunmore on Scream Queens and Final Girls
Laurie Strode. Sidney Prescott. Ellen Ripley. There have been some iconic final girls that have hit our screens over the years. And some equally inspiring final scenes featuring these incredible women.
Grace in a torn and bloodied wedding dress equipped with a one-liner in Ready or Not (2019). Ripley’s last stand in Alien (1979). Margot watching the restaurant burn in The Menu (2022) while she takes a large bite of her cheeseburger.
As a horror film fan myself, there is something so satisfying about watching the main protagonist outsmart the killer in the last sequence. And survive.
The trope of the Final Girl has come far since the earlier label of Scream Queen, which tends to have mixed opinions on its meaning and use. Personally, I think the term Scream Queen does not do these kickass ladies justice. No longer are we hearing the shrill shrieks of a damsel in distress. We are now hearing the thud of their weapon striking the villain: Sidney with a handgun in Scream (1996); Jamie with a nail gun and a spinning time machine in Totally Killer (2023); Laurie Strode with a variety of melee weapons across the Halloween franchise. And we are watching them exit stage as the sole survivor of the final stand-off.
The journey is not always so smooth for our protagonist. The true final girl often starts off as victim. Targeted and hunted by the killer. Sometimes the new girl, quite often the school misfit. Vulnerable but also curious. One of the few that questions the events unfolding, even if no one believes her at first. Her character has the greatest arc, evolving into an unwavering and resolute being, hardened from watching her friends fall, now focused purely on survival in the most animalistic way. But the final girl does not win by physical strength. She wins by intellectual strength. She wins by tricking the antagonist, and by trapping them.
There have been some notable subversions of the Final Girl, a term coined by Carol J. Clover in the late eighties. The Evil Dead franchise saw the introduction of the Final Boy with the chainsaw-wielding character of Ash Williams, the more recent X (2022) played with the trope’s criteria: moral superiority, and the body-swapping chaos in Freaky (2020) left viewers confused about who to root for. In my novel How to Survive a Horror Movie, the role of the Final Girl is desperately coveted by two characters, not just one. Best friends Charley and Olive are avid horror film fans and know the tropes well, particularly the significance of the last one standing, and it’s through their knowledge of the films, and their adherence to the basic survival rules (‘Don’t Open the Closet’), that puts them favourably at the front of the queue for the crown of Final Girl, or as they call it in my book: the ‘Smug Final Girl’.
But will they earn a spot next to icons Sidney Prescott and Laurie Strode?
Well, you’ll just have to read it to find out.
But what I will say, is that although my novel pays tribute to the Kings of Scream, to Romero, Craven and Carpenter, it is ultimately an homage to the Final Queen.
How to Survive a Horror Movie is out now in paperback