Carol Clover developed the "Final Girl" theory to describe the last female character who confronts the killer in horror films, especially slashers. The Final Girl is often a virgin or sexually unavailable, smart, and curious. She survives to tell the story. For example, in Scream, Sidney Prescott fits this role as the intelligent virgin teenager who fights back against the killer across multiple films, growing stronger each time.

1. Clover’s Final Girl
Theory

2. Outline of the Theory
• The last woman or girl alive to confront the killer/monster
• She is often the one left to tell the story of what
happened
• ‘Final Girls’ are often seen in horror films
• Carol Clover defines the ‘Final Girl’ as a ‘phallic/ heroine
who is only acting as a male protagonist would
• The ‘Final Girl’ is often seen in horror, particularly slasher
films

3. Who is she?
• The ‘Final Girls’ often have similar attributes
• She is often sexually unavailable or virginial
• She sometimes has a unisex name
• Occasionally she will have shared a history or trait with the
killer
• She is ‘investigating consciousness’ and exhibits curiosity,
intelligence and vigilance
Ellen Ripley
(Alien 1979)
Laurie Strode
(Halloween 1978)

4. Applied to a Horror Film – Sidney
Prescott (Scream 1996)
• She appears in all 4 of the films from the franchise and in the
first one she is portrayed as typical good, virginal teenager
• Sidney is shown to be an intelligent and resourceful individual
who gets stronger across the franchise
• She fights back and ends up fighting back against the killer by
killing the first one in the first film and fighting off the others in
later films