Who Would Be the Final Girl in a Final Girl Face-Off?

The final girl trope has long pitted women against murderers—but it’s time to pit these women against each other. Welcome to Jezebel's Final Girl Face-Off.

By Audra Heinrichs | October 20, 2023 | 8:15pm

Entertainment

Photo: 20th Century Fox/Columbia Pictures/Paramount Pictures/New Line Cinema

In horror, the final girl trope is as tried and true as a dilapidated home or a horny couple who’s just minutes away from meeting their doom. She is the one (or among the ones) left standing at the end of the film—the prototypical slasher hero in the once-unlikely form of a young, female character. Only, she’s so much more than any image—especially when portrayed by the likes of Jamie Lee Curtis, Neve Campbell, and yeah, Brandy Norwood.

The final girl is also typically virginal, free of vice, and the “investigating consciousness” of most horror films. Take Halloween’s Laurie Strode, the brainy yet brave babysitter who opts out of youthful debauchery (underage drinking and dalliances with local jocks) in lieu of keeping kids safe from the legendary mute, masked boogeyman. Or Scream’s Sidney Prescott, who isn’t interested in having sex with her boyfriend (for the most part) and is bold enough to kill him in the end.

But in recent years, the final girl has evolved—many of whom now boast a fairly active sex life (Tara Carpenter) and in fact, are so developed that they secure their own sequel (Maxine Minx).

Because there’s nothing we at Jezebel love more than pitting women against each other, we’ve developed a definitive list of our favorite final girls to face off against one another in the days before Halloween. In this post there are eight final girls and four match-ups: Vote on your favorite from each pair (polls are at the bottom of each slide.) The winners will be back next week for the second face-off. Who will survive: the women of the seventies and eighties? Or our modern heroines? Stay tuned.

Laurie Strode vs. Grace Le Domas

Laurie Strode (Halloween franchise)

Number of movies survived: Six
Number of movies not survived: One
Pros:

A master of the multiverse: Within the Halloween franchise, she has commanded three different timelines.

She takes pride in her work. As a babysitter, she almost literally stuck her neck out for those kids. And since it was the 70s, she couldn’t have been making more than three bucks an hour.

Will cut a dude’s head off if she has to.

Has a real “I’ve spent my whole life waiting for this reunion with my stalker” vibe.

Grace Le Domas (Ready or Not)

Number of movies survived: One
Number of movies not survived: None
Pros:

Considering she grew up in the foster care system and has lived ~largely~without family, she’s capable of standing on her own two feet.

She can and will kill her own fiancé and laugh at his family’s deaths.

Even the devil respects her.

Can deliver a one-liner like no other.

She’s not afraid of (blood) rain on her wedding day.

Nancy Thompson vs. Tara Carpenter

Nancy Thompson (A Nightmare on Elm Street)

Number of movies survived: Three
Number of movies not survived: One
Pros:

She’s able to survive (kind of) without sleep.

She’s smart! Not only did Nancy figure out who the murderer was, but she also learned ways to defeat him.

Anti-authoritarianism (“Screw your pass!”) has never sounded so sweet.

Even if she eventually meets her end, she’s one of Freddy Krueger’s most formidable opponents to date.

Tara Carpenter (Scream franchise)

Number of movies survived: Two
Number of movies not survived: None…so far
Pros:

She’s the only character to survive an opening-sequence brush with Ghostface.

She’s a real connoisseur of horror, especially “elevated” horror—“Ask me about It Follows, ask me about Hereditary, ask me about The Witch,” she implores during her first chat with Ghostface.

Can shoot, stab, and punch.

Will help you even if she hates you (see: her coming to the aid of Gale Weathers).

Sally Hardesty vs. Maxine Minx

Sally Hardesty (The Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise)

Number of movies survived: One
Number of movies not survived: One*
Pros:

“She is abject terror personified,” writes Carol J. Clover of the prototypical final girl. She could be describing Sally herself.

She has endurance—the last third of Tobe Hooper’s 1974 Texas Chain Saw Massacre original is basically her being subjected to horrors and screaming her head off.

To save herself, she jumps out a damn window.

In the 2022 Netflix Texas Chainsaw Massacre requel, she has an “I’ve-been-waiting” vibe similar to Laurie Strode.

* This is complicated by the disconnected timeline of the franchise. In the movie’s third entry, Leatherface, it’s stated that she’s dead, though she appears in a cameo in the fourth entry, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation.

Maxine Minx (X)

Number of movies survived: One (soon to be two?)
Number of movies not survived: None
Pros:

She not only survived a massacre at the farmhouse but also a fanatical Christian preacher for a father.

A master of blue eyeshadow and overalls.

Is there anyone more dangerous than someone driven by their own ambition?

Adept behind the wheel.

Sidney Prescott vs. Karla Wilson

Sidney Prescott (Scream franchise)

Number of movies survived: Five
Number of movies not survived: None
Pros:

Millennial Laurie Strode vibes–if only she were as paid.

She’s got trust issues, which normally might not be a good thing IRL. In a horror movie though, skepticism is as good as immortality.

She’s as compassionate as she is tough as nails (see Scream 3 when she becomes a crisis counselor for abused women).

Given everyone she’s ever cared about has either been brutally murdered or betrayed her, she’s psychologically resilient as well as physically resilient.

Can and will kill people–like, multiple people–if she has to.

Karla Wilson (I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise)

Number of movies survived: One
Number of movies not survived: None
Pros:

I mean, it’s Brandy.

As a matter of course, she prowls around her apartment with enough stealth to be mistaken for a killer by Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character, Julie, and then takes it in stride when a scared Julie threatens her with a knife. That’s grace on top of grace.

Can kickbox; is a former lifeguard.

Survives a fall through a greenhouse and some shelves. “You don’t have to worry about me. Made of steel,” she says at one point, and it’s clearly the case.

Ducks out toward the end of the movie to let Julie face the hook guy herself, which is smart.