The 'Final Girl Theory

The 'Final Girl' is a horror and thriller movie, which specifically refers to the last girl or woman alive, to confront the killer, and to present the rest of the story to the audience. The 'Final Girl' has been observed in several films, including 'Halloween,' 'Friday the 13th,' 'A Nightmare on Elm Street,' 'Scream,' 'Final Destination,' 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre,' alongside many more. The term was created by Carol J Clover, in her book 'Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.' In this, Clover implies that in these films, the audience begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the 'Final Girl' partway through the film. According to Clover, the girl is usually a virgin, therefore, making her unavailable sexually, which then leads her to avoid the vices of the victims, for example, sex. Furthermore, she can also have a unisex name, such as Teddy, Billie, Georgie or Sidney. Sometimes, she will have a shared history with the killer, which then makes the killer inclined towards her in particular. An example of this can be found in 'Halloween II,' as Michael Myers is found to be Laurie Strode's brother. The 'Final Girl' is the 'investigating consciousness' of the film, making the narrative move forward. 

 

Information taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl