The final girl has been a horror trope for decades but the term was actually coined by Carol Clover in her book “Men, Woman and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.” The trope of the final girl has become such a staple in the genre that it was lampooned in the film Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon to hilarious effect (in the film, the final girl turned out to be a typical horny teenager who died shortly after having sex). Since the long-awaited horror comedy The Final Girls (review) was released last weekend, we thought we would take a look back at some of the best final girls in horror movie history and rank them!*
*There is no strict method to my madness, but the criteria I used is a combination of how tough the girl is, the extent of the trauma she endures to survive and how likable she is.