Top 10 Horror Movies That KILLED OFF the Final Girl
#10: “Underwater” (2020)
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Norah Price For the most part, this under-the-sea thriller is pretty typical genre fare. Time’s running out, there’s monsters on the loose, and everyone’s trying to get the hell away before they become fish food. The catch? There’s only two escape pods left, and leading lady Norah doesn’t get either one of them. Instead, she heroically stays behind so her comrades can make it back to the surface. What’s more, she even blows up the underwater compound in order to take the fish monsters down with her. She may not live to see the credits, but Norah earns a different kind of “credit” in our books.
#9: “Pitch Black” (2000)
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Carolyn Fry Crash-landing on a hostile alien planet is usually a death sentence. But, odds be damned, Carolyn Fry proves to be the exception. She’s quick-witted, handy in a fight, and even persuades the outlaw, Riddick, to fly everyone to safety. For a moment, it looks like she and the bandit might kiss, too - when, suddenly, an alien appendage whips out of the darkness and drags Fry to her death. The real gutpunch is realizing just how close she and Riddick are to the ship. If they’d kept their heart eyes to themselves for a few more minutes, this final girl could’ve actually lived through the finale.
#8: “Drag Me to Hell” (2009)
Christine Brown The rules of this curse are incredibly straightforward. Christine will endure three days of torment leading up to the moment she’s officially yanked into the great beyond. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Still, to her credit, Christine tries just about everything to avoid her fate. Including digging up an actual corpse. After all that, the final scene really makes it seem as though Christine will make it out alive. But, that just makes it hurt even more when the curse finally comes to fruition. In suitably dramatic fashion, Christine is physically dragged into the fire and brimstone while a train passes over her mortal body. Yeah, talk about a flashy way to go.
#7: “The Descent” (2005) & “The Descent Part 2” (2009)
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Sarah Carter No matter how you cut it, Sarah was always going to die in these caves. In the original version of “The Descent,” her supposed escape is just a last-minute hallucination before the crawlers presumably put her down for good. However, the film’s international distributors didn’t care for the downer of an ending, and recut the movie to make Sarah’s dream a reality. Unfortunately, her second lease on life doesn’t last very long. When Sarah returns for the sequel, no amount of fancy editing can stop her self-sacrifice in the third act. She dies either way, but at least she goes out a lot more heroically the second time around.
#6: “Final Destination 2” (2003)
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Clear Rivers When the omnipotent force of Death begins targeting the survivors of a highway pileup, the victims track down the only person who can help - Clear Rivers. Since original co-lead Alex died between films, Clear is the only remaining survivor from the original “Final Destination.” It seems like the series is setting her up as the de-facto face of the franchise. But, Death has different plans. After being coaxed out of her self-imposed exile, Clear meets a fiery end by way of an oxygen explosion. The “Final Destination” films are known for their high body counts, and yet, this death leaves the biggest impression. After all, if Clear isn’t safe, no one is.
#5: “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (1987)
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Nancy Thompson It takes a few tries, but Freddy Krueger finally puts Nancy Thompson to sleep, permanently. She doesn’t go down without a fight, though. Even after taking some nasty cuts to the stomach, Nancy spends her final moments giving Freddy a taste of his own medicine. Or, should we say, a prick from his own razor hands. While it’s never easy to say goodbye to such an iconic character, you really can’t ask for a cooler death scene. It helps that Nancy’s spirit isn’t gone for long. Thanks to the series’ meta leanings, actor Heather Langenkamp returns to “Elm Street” for a cheeky role in the seventh installment, “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare.”
#4: “The Cabin in the Woods” (2011)
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Dana Polk Let’s get one thing straight: Dana Polk is not your average final girl. She isn’t even a virgin! But, as the Director says herself, they work with what they’re given. Coincidentally, so does Dana. When she learns that she and her friends are pawns in a twisted blood-sacrifice, she decides to give a big middle finger to the world. She still dies in the end, but by refusing to complete the ritual, she effectively takes all of humanity down with her. You’ve really gotta hand it to “Cabin in the Woods.” It doesn’t just have the guts to kill its main character - it slaughters the entire human race, too.
#3: “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2022)
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Sally Hardesty This steely Texas Ranger has been chasing maniacs for years. Almost fifty, to be exact. See, Sally Hardesty is the only one to escape Leatherface’s inaugural butchering back in 1974. Nearly half a century later, she reappears with a new career, a fully-loaded gun, and a major bone to pick. Sadly, that still isn’t enough to stand up to Leatherface. Like all his old friends, he greets her with the sharp side of a chainsaw, and that’s that. It’s definitely over-the-top, and yet, that feels oddly fitting for one of the genre’s earliest final girls. Plus, in a slasher franchise like this, a fifty-year legacy is nothing to be ashamed of.
#2: “Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers” (1988), “Halloween: Resurrection” (2002) & “Halloween II” (2009)
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Laurie Strode Weirdly enough, the horror heroine of Haddonfield has died on more than a few occasions. Originally, she’s canned offscreen sometime before “Halloween 4.” But, surprise, that’s all a ruse. “Halloween H20” retcons her death as an elaborate scheme to get Michael off her trail. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last very long, and Michael returns in “Halloween: Resurrection” to finish her off once and for all. She hasn’t had much luck in other continuities, either. In the alternate ending of 2009’s “Halloween II,” Laurie goes bonkers and gets gunned down by policemen. For as many times as Laurie’s been put in the grave, you’d think one of them would’ve stuck by now.
#1: “Alien 3” (1992)
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Ellen Ripley After three movies of white-knuckled thrills and blood-stained carnage, one thing is very clear: no one can take on a Xenomorph quite like Ellen Ripley. So, it only feels right to have her go out doing just that. But, to fully exterminate the alien embryo inside her, Ripley has to make the ultimate sacrifice, too. As far as dramatic ends go, you’ll be hard-pressed to find one as epic as falling backwards into a vat of molten lead. Not that we’d expect anything less from the moment that Ellen Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo, officially signs off. At least, until she comes back as a clone in “Alien Resurrection,” of course.
