Interesting Fan Theories About Our Favorite Final Girls And Scream Queens

From Redditor u/FinalDemise:

-Sarah is the first to see the crawlers. Becca mentions hallucinations in caves and we know (at least in the UK ending) that Sarah hallucinates escaping, only to wake up in the cave.
-Sarah killed 5 crawlers and there are 5 other women in the caves.
-The titular "descent" could also be Sarah's descent into madness. Sarah didn't take her medication with her because she thought, like the others, that it would just be a day trip.
-The way she rises form the blood pool near the end is extremely similar to how the crawlers move.

From a former Redditor:

Carrie had the Shining. In the broadest strokes it goes like this:

• Based on a number of parallels between Carrie White and Abra Stone, I believe that Carrie had the Shining.
• Carrie's mother likely had this ability as well, but due to her extreme religious upbringing she attributed her premonitions to visions from God and they drove her insane.
• Margaret White had visions about Randall Flagg, and possibly the events of The Stand and the outbreak of the Captain Tripps virus.

Though often unexplained, I believe that the Shining is actually one of the oldest and most commonly occurring hallmarks in King's fiction, right up there with The Dark Tower and the state of Maine. You see it in almost all of his books. Characters with unexplained powers, or who just seem to know things, like when they're in danger or which door has a trap on the other side. One of the first things that Dick Hallorann tells little Danny Torrance at the beginning of The Shining is that a lot of people Shine to some degree or another.

Carrie was King's first novel, and its titular character is either gifted or cursed (depending on your perspective) with psychic powers that take her down a disastrous and bloody path. Carrie's powers are studied throughout the story, but never explained. For years I never connected Carrie's abilities, which were telekinetic, with Danny Torrance's Shine, which was predominantly telepathic in nature. I hadn't made the connection, that is, until last year when I read Doctor Sleep, King's sequel to The Shining.

In Doctor Sleep we meet a girl named Abra Stone. Abra, like Danny before her, has the Shining, but if Danny Shines like a candle then Abra would be more akin to a bonfire . . . or a lighthouse. Her gift is powerful, and in addition to the precognitive and telepathic abilities that Danny had, she also displays an aptitude for making things move. It's in reading about Abra that we see a number of similarities with Carrie.

Abra had exceptionally strong telekinetic abilities when she was a small child, but they faded as she grew older. Toward the end of the novel, when she's a teenager, they come back to her and grow even stronger than they were before. The way Abra's powers wax and wane directly parallels the narrative in Carrie. We know that Carrie had powerful telekinetic abilities as a small child, slamming all of the windows in the house at once without realizing what she was doing, or calling down a rain of stones onto her house when she was scared. These powers completely fade away until the opening of the novel, when Carrie, also a teenager, unconsciously uses them after she gets her first period. From this point on, just like Abra, Carrie finds her abilities becoming more and more powerful, leading ultimately to the bloody climax of the story where she uses them to massacre everyone at her prom.

There were also situations where Carrie was upset or angry and unconsciously used her powers to break things. At one point she smashes some of her mother's kitchenware. Abra too, in Doctor Sleep, accidentally uses her powers to smash a number of antique dishes during a fight with her parents.

From Redditor u/Grievus:

The Character Archetypes are Intentionally WRONG! So I missed this movie when it originally came out but finally decided to check it out on Amazon Instant. I absolutely loved it. But of all the things this movie had been praised for I couldn't find any mention of the fact that Cabin in the Woods completely turned my preconceived notions about these archetypes on its head!

It's been a while since the movie so let me catch you up. Cabin in the Woods posits that there are 5 archetypes represented in the horror movie genre. If the narrative is to be believed then the characters and their coinciding roles are as follows:

Dana = The Virgin

Holden = The Scholar

Curt = The Athlete

Jules = The Whore

Marty = The Fool

With this information in mind, completely disregard that list because its wrong and I believe the creators of this movie know that.

The Evidence

From the very beginning of the movie, we know that Dana is not a virgin. She slept with her teacher and it's even confirmed at the end of the movie by Sigourney Weaver's character. Dana may be virginal but she is certainly not a virgin. It's odd then that the fate of humanity hinged solely on this kind-of-but-not-really-a-virgin making it to the end. Aside from that, when's the last time you made a Virgin Sacrifice Cake that was 100% Virgin-Free?

It makes more sense that Dana would be The Scholar. Case in point: In the very opening scene she is hardcore into studying. She could've just taken some regular ol' books on vacation with her and had a good read, but instead they make it a point to establish that the only thing she's going to be boning up on is "Soviet Economic Structures". Within seconds of this information, her friend literally says, "No more learning!".

So then, if Dana is The Scholar, which archetype is Holden? He very easily defaults to The Athlete. If you remember from his fairly forgettable backstory that he's a transfer student and like Curt is also on the varsity team. In fact we know less about Curt's reputation as an athlete and more about Holden's. Don't be fooled by Thor's rakishly good looks. Holden holds the title of "best hands on the team".

Curt is undeniably athletic. His special attacks consist entirely of clotheslines! But lest we forget his girlfriend is dead because he and The Whore decided to get drunk and frolic through the woods in the middle of the goddamn night. He is hands down the drunkest person in the cabin and the symbol for The Fool is a dude drinking/dancing himself stupid. If he was simply The Athlete he could have just been portrayed as a horny jock with a penchant for body slamming the undead. There is no doubt in my mind that Curt is none other than The Fool. Also, "we should split up" and "I'm gonna jump it!" are factually the best ways to become a corpse in a horror movie.

In Jules' case, the humans got this one right. She's still The Whore

It's originally implied that The Fool is the stoner in the group but Marty proves to be the least foolish character in the movie. Every decision and whim he has is the right one. By the end of the film, he is the one being directly confronted by The Director. His prominence at this point in the movie has escalated to lead protagonist; a role often reserved for The Virgin archetype. I haven't seen every horror movie but I can't recall the hero pulling a gun on a friend with his back turned, even if it is to save the world.

One final clue that Marty is indeed The Virgin: Once Marty has been checked off the list of sacrifices, the very next scene is the one and only time that the gods react to anything before the end of the movie. They sure would have been pissed had Marty actually been slain in that moment.

So sure, none of this effects the final outcome of the movie, but it very well COULD HAVE. If at any point Marty died (and he very nearly does) the movie would have been over, resulting in a premature ending and screwing up the whole movie. If Dana would have died in the final 8 minutes by the hands of the werewolf or even before at the lake, humanity would have continued, being none the wiser. Don't get me wrong; I loved the ending but there aren't too many endings where everyone dies and it did take about 2 years for this movie to be released so its not hard to imagine that in writing this movie, they must at least toyed with the idea of the "good" ending (good being relative).

TL:DR Version

Go back and watch the movie with this revised list in mind:

Dana = The Scholar

Holden = The Athlete

Curt = The Fool

Jules = The Whore

Marty = The Virgin

All-in-all I feel this information is important because as a movie that is entirely a commentary on the horror genre, it would have been crazy to have this theory confirmed in the end, blindsiding modern horror conventions in the process. I mean, how insane is it that they stuck to the typical horror tropes while simultaneously subverting them?

From Redditor u/clutzyninja:

In Alien, we know that The Company (Weyland Yutani) knows that a Xenomorph is on LV 426 and that they are desperate to acquire one. We also know that the Company has vast resources at it's disposal. Why send an unprepared ore hauler crew to bring it back? They have a least some idea of how deadly the alien is, so what outcome were they hoping for? Even if it would have taken longer, wouldn't it have made more sense to send a trained extraction team to ensure they brought the alien back alive, and with minimal loss of life? (Not that they care in a moral sense, but it's still logistically more difficult to cover up the deaths of an entire crew) So why? Unless there was something special about the Nostromo...

After defeating the alien, Ripley spends 57 years in cryo-sleep until she is rescued. During that time, a terraformer colony was set up on LV 426. The same planet that The Company knows for a fact has a Xenomorph presence. Yet, the colony gets along just fine for whatever portion of that time they were there. Practically the moment Ripley is found, a team is sent to investigate the crash site, and soon after the colony comms go dark. It's hard to believe that is a coincidence. This is the same company that was so desperate to acquire an alien, they sent an unprepared hauler team after one, but now they've sat on it for over half a century doing nothing? Why now, after all this time? Why now, immediately upon the realization that Ripley is alive and well?

My theory is that impregnation with alien queens is not random. It occurs only in genetically suitable hosts. I submit that the Company knew this, and discovered that Ripley was such a potential host. She surely received a medical exam when she was hired, and after some time her genetic profile would have certainly been flagged. DNA profiling in an era of interstellar space travel is a given.

A queen would be VASTLY more valuable to the Company than any one drone they could hope to receive through a normal host, but the casualties and manpower that would be required to extract an already entrenched one, like the one on LV 426 would have been prohibitive.

So, they put Ripley in contact with the Xenomorphs as often as they could.

You might ask, "But what if they just killed her instead?" We know from Alien 3 that the Xenomorphs can sense an impregnated host. The alien left Ripley alone in the medical ward, and she was carrying a queen at the time. Is it much of a stretch to assume a drone may also be able to sniff out a potential host to a queen? Given their apparent rarity, they would be almost as important to the xenomorphs as they are to the company.

So they put her out there in hopes she would get impregnated. First on the crashed Architects ship, and then later with a platoon of marines to bring her back, then later still on the prison planet.

From Redditor u/how_about_no_hellion:

Why was there a time loop? After reading trivia that said there were easter eggs regarding why Tree was stuck in the time loop, my husband said it had to do with the candle. He pointed out that each time we saw Lori hand Tree the cupcake, the candle blew out. Even when Tree placed the cupcake on the table, the shutting of the door made the candle blow out.

Then I remembered what Tree said about the birthday tradition she and her mom had. They’d blow out the single candle together on their birthday cake.

I think Tree’s Mom is protecting her from dying on their birthday by having her live the same day over and over again. Somehow the tradition/ritual of blowing out their birthday candle is allowing this to take place.

From Redditor u/ridingshotgun:

Ok so upon rewatching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre I had a sudden realization that while Sally and Franklin had been visiting or living at their grandad's house...all the terrible murders by the Sawyers were happening less than a mile away. Look at it, Sally says they used to visit all the time, this would've been what early 60s, looking at both of their ages now? This would've been a younger Leatherface just starting out and grandpa likely making some of his "famous" kills. Does this mean Sally and Franklin's grandparents never had a hint that any of this was going on with the neighbors? No screams or chainsaws going through the night? This idea creeps me out more then it should. Its obvious the Sawyers were expanding their decorations too with the chicken bone mobile at their grandpa's door so you know they weren't that far away.