List RulesVote up your favorite female characters who are still breathing 'til the end...
If you're a fan of scary movies, this is your opportunity to vote for the best final girls in horror movies. A "final girl" is a female character who manages to survive the wrath of the killer -- human or otherwise -- when most, if not all, of the other characters have been wiped out. Although the term originated in the 1990s, final girls were around for decades before that, as Laurie Strode in 1978's Halloween, Sally Hardesty in 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and Lila Crane in 1960's Psycho prove.
Horror movie survivors of this type are most commonly found in slasher flicks. The Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween franchises commonly make use of the final girls trope. Traditionally, these characters tend to be the purest and most virtuous of the group or cast of characters. That's because, for reasons known only to the filmmakers themselves, the abundance of '80s slasher movies usually had the villain target teens who were amorous with each other. Friday the 13th, in particular, was notorious for that and became part of the trope.
The threats final girls face are not always psychos wielding knives, machetes, or hooks. They can survive interstellar creatures, as Ellen Ripley does in Alien. What counts is that the final girl gets through the ordeal, leaving her to tell the tale of what happened.
Vote up your favorite final girl horror characters from the list below.
1
1,634272Laurie Strode
Jamie Lee Curtis/Scout Taylor-ComptonHalloween (1978), Halloween II (1981), Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998), Halloween: Resurrection (2002), Halloween (2007), Halloween II (2009), Halloween (2018)
2
1,528311Ellen Ripley
Sigourney WeaverAlien (1979), Aliens (1986), Alien 3 (1992), Alien Resurrection (1997)
3
1,588375Grace Le Domas
Samara WeavingReady or Not (2019)
4
1,191297Maddie
Kate SiegelHush (2016)
5
1,577421Sidney Prescott
Neve CampbellScream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), Scream 4 (2011)
6
1,007354Nancy Thompson
Heather LangenkampA Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
7
912335Erin Hanson
Sharni VinsonYou're Next (2011)
8
827325Sarah Bailey
Robin TunneyThe Craft (1996)
9
1,037454Tree Gelbman
Jessica RotheHappy Death Day (2017), Happy Death Day 2U (2019)
10
991445Gale Weathers
Courteney CoxScream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), Scream 4 (2011)
11
588270Heather Langenkamp
Heather LangenkampWes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)
12
764385Clear Rivers
Ali LarterFinal Destination (2000)
13
644324Sarah Carter
Shauna MacdonaldThe Descent (2005)
14
461225Carol Anne Freeling
Heather O'Rourke15
634330Buffy Summers
Kristy SwansonBuffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)
16
801437Dana Polk
Kristen ConnollyThe Cabin in the Woods (2011)
17
552304Mari Collingwood
Sara PaxtonThe Last House on the Left (2009)
18
585338Anita Needy Lesnicky
Amanda SeyfriedJennifer's Body (2009)
19
384208Lila Crane
Vera Miles, Julianne MoorePsycho (1960), Psycho (1998)
20
514298Sally Hardesty
Marilyn BurnsThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
21
678417Julie James
Jennifer Love HewittI Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998)
22
494310Mia Allen
Jane LevyEvil Dead (2013)
23
422272Jamie Lloyd
Danielle HarrisHalloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988), Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989)
24
390250Max Cartwright
Taissa FarmigaThe Final Girls (2015)
25
348227Helen Lyle
Virginia MadsenCandyman (1992)