The final girl is a staple character in the horror genre. There's just something satisfying about watching a young woman survive and defeat a big, scary villain. Horror movies are full of iconic final girls, from Halloween's Laurie Strode to Alien's Ellen Ripley and Scream's Sidney Prescott.
However, some final girls leave audiences scratching their heads as to why or how they survived. Some survive only because of intense plot armor, while others are only to thank for the villain's defeat because everybody else was even less competent. For every great final girl within the genre, there is one who did not deserve her final girl status.
10 Erin Is A Tyrant With Poor Judgment
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)
While driving through rural Texas, Erin and her friends pick up a hitchhiker who ends up dying in their van. They call 911, but the sheriff has them go out of their way to meet him and drop off the body. At Erin's insistence, they stick around to meet the sheriff.
Erin's heart is in the right place, but she puts the lives of herself and her friends in jeopardy when she demands that they stay in town to find the sheriff. In reality, the sheriff should be coming to them. Despite the sheriff making an unreasonable request and the general creepiness of the town, Erin makes the foolish decision to stay.
9 Melissa Is Unlikable And Unwise
Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead
In Joy Ride 2, Melissa and her friends borrow a vehicle after their car breaks down in the middle of the desert. The car belongs to none other than the murderous Rusty Nail, who kidnaps Melissa's fiancé and forces Melissa and her friends to do increasingly dangerous things to keep her fiancé alive.
While it wasn't Melissa's idea to steal Rusty's car, it was her idea to leave her contact details, which made it easy for Rusty to track them down in the first place. When Nik refuses to obey Rusty's demand, Melissa holds a knife to his neck, which just shows how unlikable and annoying she is.
8 Judy Needs To Be Rescued All The Time
The Crazies (2010)
In The Crazies, a toxin infects the citizens of a small town and causes them to turn violent. Sheriff David Dutton, his wife Judy, Deputy Russell Clank, and Judy's assistant, Becca, have to dodge the military as well as the infected citizens as they flee town.
Judy is not a great final girl, as she needs to be rescued by David twice. First, she gets taken by the military, and later, she is captured by a couple of infected citizens. She is shrill throughout The Crazies, and she relies heavily on her husband to take action. The only reason why Judy survives is that she's pregnant, and the rules of horror dictate that pregnant women cannot be killed off.
7 Jessie Is A Disappointment
Wrong Turn (2003)
Wrong Turn revolves around a group of people who are stranded in the Appalachian Mountains. The situation goes from bad to worse when the group finds themselves being hunted by a tribe of cannibals. Jessie is introduced as a tough, no-nonsense woman, but this only proves to be a front.
Jessie starts out tough, but in the end, she gets kidnapped and needs to be rescued by a man. The fact that she's introduced as a strong character only to be reduced to a damsel in distress is a big letdown for viewers. If she was portrayed as a damsel from the start, then the audience's expectations would be way lower. Instead, they were left with a disappointing final girl.
6 Parker Fails To Take Action
Frozen (2010)
Frozen is about three young people: Dan, his girlfriend Parker, and his best friend Joe. They embark on a skiing trip, but it goes south when they end up stranded on a chairlift after it shuts down for the long weekend ahead. The three must battle the elements as they try to figure out a way off the lift.
Parker is the epitome of a passive character. She lets Joe and Dan make all the decisions, and she even berates Joe for letting Dan jump off the lift when she didn't volunteer to do anything. Many final girls have the strength and wits to survive, but Parker is not one of them.
5 Screaming And Crying Are What Ellie Does Best
Sorority Row (2009)
Sorority Row is about a group of sorority sisters with a dark secret. After a prank results in the death of one of the sorority sisters, the others make a pact to cover it up. Sometime later, a mysterious killer starts picking off the women one by one.
Despite being Sorority Row's final girl, Ellie is anything but level-headed. When something even remotely scary happens, she falls apart. Being scared is understandable, but Ellie's crying and screaming are over the top. There is even a moment where one of the other sisters says, "Ellie, you've got to stop doing that" after Ellie lets out a blood-curdling scream. If the other characters start getting annoyed by the final girl, that is a bad sign.
4 Whitney Is Rescued By Someone Else
Friday The 13th (2009)
In Friday the 13th, Whitney is captured by Jason Voorhees after he kills her friends. Whitney's older brother, Clay, begins to search for her near Crystal Lake while he and a group of college students are hunted by Jason.
Whitney is held hostage for the majority of Friday the 13th, but she is rescued by Clay in the end. Although she does attempt to escape, audiences felt let down that she survived. She was held hostage while the other characters did all the hard work. There is a tougher, more active character who should have been the final girl rather than Whitney.
3 Amy Relies On Her Husband To Make All The Decisions
Vacancy
In Vacancy, David and Amy must spend the night at a rundown hotel in the middle of nowhere after their car breaks down. They quickly find out that their room is the set for a series of violent snuff films, and they need to escape before they end up becoming the next victims.
Amy is dead weight for the majority of Vacancy as her husband skillfully finds ways to evade the killers hunting them. Toward the end, after David gets stabbed, Amy is forced to step up to the plate. She does successfully defeat the villains, but the moment feels unearned after she spends the bulk of Vacancy being rescued by her husband.
2 Julie Is A Damsel In Distress
I Know What You Did Last Summer
In I Know What You Did Last Summer, Julie, Ray, Helen, and Barry run over and kill a man on the fourth of July, and they decide to keep it a secret. One year later, their secret comes back to haunt them as they are stalked by a fisherman with a hook.
At first, Julie seems like a competent character as she investigates the creepy occurrences that have been happening to her and her friends. Nevertheless, when push comes to shove, all she does is scream and run away. When she is trapped on the boat with the fisherman, which she could have easily jumped off of, she doesn't attempt to fight back. Instead, she just waits for Ray to rescue her.
1 Amy Has No Redeeming Qualities
The Ruins
The Ruins follows a group of tourists who venture into the Mexican jungle and find themselves in a fight for survival after they find themselves trapped on a hill with carnivorous vines. They must survive the vines and try to find a way past the villagers who guard the hill.
Amy doesn't have any qualities that audiences like to see in a final girl. She spends most of her time complaining and hardly takes any action. It's also her fault that the group ends up on the hill in the first place because she touches the vines, which leads the villagers to hold them up on the hill. To top it off, Amy cheats on her boyfriend with a German tourist, which only serves to make her less likable.