THE FINAL GIRL THEORY

THE FINAL GIRL THEORY

The final girl is a trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). The final girl is referencing the last girl, usually the last character, alive to confront the killer towards the end of the film, and if there is a narrative voice she is the one to tell the story. The term was coined by Carol J Glover in her book "Men, women and chainsaws: gender in the modern horror film". Clover suggested in this book, that the viewer began by sharing the perspective of the killer but encountered a shift in identification to the female protagonist partway through the film.

A common plot line in many horror films is one in which a series of victims is killed off one-by-one by a killer, and the last character left alive (usually female) must either defeat the killer or escape. Usually the final girl is portrayed unlike the other victims and is typically sexually inexperienced or a virgin and avoids the vices of the victims such as consuming alcohol and using illegal drugs. The final girl is the "investigating consciousness" of the film, moving the narrative forward, and as such, displays many qualities such as intelligence, vigilance, and being strong willed.

Examples of final girls

Ellen Ripley

Ellen Ripley is the main protagonist of the "Alien" franchise and appears in four out of the five movies in the series, minus the prequel "Prometheus". She exhibits many of the traits that Clover associates with the final girl: intelligence,competent in practical matters and strong. She also has several traits that make her stand out from typical horror female victims such as being somewhat of a tom boy, having short hair. She manages to defeat the xenomorph in the first film by using her intelligence to cast the creature into the vacuum of space, uses her strength to kill the alien queen in the second film and even though she dies in the third film, it's only because she takes her own life in order to stop an alien queen from escaping her body and thus preventing further killing sprees.

However, it can be argued that due to being a science fiction film, Ellen Ripley is not a final girl, or at least not the conventional final girl- as the film does not follow the conventions of a slasher film and abides by those of the sci-fi genre. Although Ripley refuses the men's sexual advances in the films there is no foregrounding of the characters abstinence and in alien 3 it is heavily implied that she has sexual intercourse, thus she does not fit the standard conventions of the final girl.

Nancy Thompson

Nancy Thompson is the protagonist of the film "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors". She is regarded as one of the most influential horror heroines and has lead the way for later female characters in horror movies. She is intelligent and investigates the Freddy Krueger killings and uncovers the mystery of why all the teenagers are dying in their dreams. She is strong willed and capable of defeating Freddy at the end of the film by actively getting him to chase her and louring him into a series of traps. In the third film she is portrayed as the same insightful young woman and helps teens troubled by Freddy by working with them to uncover their powers inside the dreams and is integral to the survival of the remaining characters.

Sidney Prescott

Sidney is the protagonist of the "Scream" franchise. She displays the general conventions associated with the final girl character archetype. However, towards the end of the first film she loses her virginity, to the killer nonetheless, but she defies the horror trope of the characters who engage in sexual activity die. She manages to defeat both killers; first by using her strength to over power Stu Macher and then pushing a television onto his face. Then using her smarts and turning the tables on Billy and stabbing him through the chest and the shooting a bullet into his head. In the second film she manages to defeat the two further killers, in Scream 3 she overcomes her half brother who attempts to kill her and in Scream 4 she overcomes her niece and her friend. She shows great strength in overcoming the death of her mother and facing her killers and shows much character development throughout the series.

CODES AND CONVENTIONS OF THE HORROR/THRILLER GENRE

As with all genres of film, the thriller genre contains many codes and conventions that will feature throughout. Thriller movies often revolves around a fast paced plot, with anticipation and suspense featured heavily to keep the audience on the edge of their seat, with tension usually being at the forefront of it all. Many of the conventions overlap with that of the horror genre. 

Lighting

The lighting in a horror/thriller is very important as it creates atmosphere. low-key lighting is usually used due to the different shadows and dim hue are suitable for the dark mood. It sets the tone, mood and is associated with the dangerous mystery often associated with horror thrillers. The lights are often used at eye level or from the floor. 

Editing 

Quick cuts are a technique used in editing when the shots are of a short duration and rapidly move from one to the other. It can be used to give a lot on information quickly or to create a sense of chaos. For example the saw movies use this technique a lot when the characters are stuck in their traps and the technique represents their struggle to escape. Hip hop montage: This technique uses very fast cutting to portray action through a rapid series of simple actions accompanied by sound effects.

Sound
The sound in a thriller is very important feature in order to make the audience feel on the edge of their seat. A common technique is using the music to build tension during scenes of an ominous and suspicious nature. The non digetic music can start of quiet and low pitched and as the tension in the scene builds the background music gets louder and high pitched, it is also very common for the music to increase in pace towards the climax of the scene. Digits sounds such as the creaking of floorboards and opening of a door can also be used in conjunction with silence as it can create a jump scare for the audience and place them in the character(s) on screens shoes.

CODES & CONVENTIONS OF ZOMBIE HORROR

Conventions of Zombie horror movies
Zombie movies have become increasingly popular in the last few decades.

The protagonists(humans)
Zombie movies usually have a similar approach when it comes to the protagonists. The human(s) usually have to find  a safe haven to hide in and survive the zombie infested world that they are trapped in. Normally there are a group of survivors and it is almost a certainty that at least one of them will die or become infected by the end of the film. There is usually a struggle in morality between the group on ending the life of one of the group when they become in infected.

Setting
When it comes to setting, there are a few locations that are commonly used in zombie films. The protagonist will more often than not, awake to find the town or city they are in deserted. The atmosphere is very ominous and quiet. After they have explored the setting they usually will meet a survivor or group of survivors. Aside from the deserted city, there will sometimes be a holdout where the characters have to defend themselves from the zombie onslaught, somewhere recognisable like a barn or a pub with windows that allow for gun fire to be used against the zombies... on an opportunity for them to break through. More often than not this location will be compromised and the remaining survivors have to flee.

Zombies
Obviously a zombie movie will involve some type of zombie. The living dead usually have no form of speech and a limited brain capacity. The term zombie was first introduced to the American people in 1929 as a Haitan creole for a reanimated corpse by voodoo, where it was then used in motion pictures.Different movies offer different variations of zombies such as:

Early zombies: These zombies generally remained faithful to Haitian tradition. Their skin was grey and their eyes were darkened or exaggerated. They were reanimated corpses that were used by their masters to carry out tasks and generally follow orders(though usually the master would lose this control. By the 1950's began to diverge from the standard zombie movie conventions. Experimentation with humans turning into zombies started to emerge.

Romero zombies: In 1968 George A. Romero released his directorial debut 'Night of the living dead', which revolutionised zombie movies as we know them today. Whilst he used some of the ideas from previous horror movies he introduced ideas that would remain part of  his films for the next three decades. For example the zombies had a hunger for human flesh, the zombie attacks were shown in explicit detail with a heightened extent of gore and blood, the zombies could only be killed by destroying the head/brain and the zombies infection could be spread. One major difference was the move away from voodoo and a master controlling the zombies, other traditions that also became popular that weren't necessarily founded by Romero are the slow clumsy movement, the humans fight for mere survival and the zombies infection being treated as a plague.

Modern zombies:Zombie movie conventions have been played a lot with in the 21st century. 'House of the dead' and 'Resident evil' have drawn inspiration from video games counterparts, the likes of '28 days later' and 'I am legend' have dealt with the idea of zombies as a contagion. 'Shaun of the dead' and 'Zombieland' have introduced comedy into the zombie formula. The 2004 remake of 'Dawn of the dead' introduced the idea of the zombies being agile and able to run, allowing them to chase after the humans and being a bigger threat. 

Violence and Gore
The way in which the zombies are dealt with usually involves a lot of weaponry and violence. Weapons such as guns, knives, grenades and particularly chainsaws are commonly used to stop the zombie hoard. As you can imagine this creates a lot of gore, blood splattering all over the place, disembodied limbs flying every where and horrific scenes of body horror and a staple to the genre. A great example of how gory a zombie film can get is, Peter Jacksons 'Braindead', where the main character takes out a whole hall of zombies with a lawn mower. Zombies are not the only thing that produce a lot of blood however, those that fall victim to the hoard usually are seen being ripped apart or having their organs eating, sometimes whilst still alive which can provide for some uncomfortable viewing.

CODES & CONVENTIONS OF HORROR

The Horror genre is and has been one of the highest viewed genres in the history of film. Despite it having an abundance of sub-genres, they all share several codes and conventions which make clear to the audience its general genre.

Horror Sub-Genres

Listed below are just some of the sub-genres related to horror.

• Body Horror
• Classic
• Posssession
• Gothic
• Psychic
• Psychological
• Slashers
• Supernatural
• Teen Terror
• Vampire
• Werewolves
• Zombie Horror

Horror in general has many specific codes and conventions both related to on-screen and off-screen.

The primary target audience for horror is from ages 16 and above, which can be seen through use of 15 and 18 age certification depending on the sub-genre of horror; for example, a Body Horror is most likely to have an age 18 certificate, due to the high levels of violence and gore- something less seen in sub-genres such as psychological and supernatural horror.

On-screen, it is made clear to the audience that horror films are commonly based in an 'every day' setting, with a (commonly) adolescent and young-adult cast. This is the case as it puts the audience into a sense of realism, as they are used to setting, adding to the general sense of fear given off by horror films due to the fact that it would be something that they are used to themselves.

In horror films, the cinematography plays an important part. There is commonly a slow pace of editing, framing and camera movement, thus building tension. Use of low key lighting, CGI and SFX are also components of the horror genre and are used in different ways to other genres, evoking a different range of emotions in the audience. There is an extensive use of close up shots within the horror genre, making viewers aware of the precise emotional state of certain characters in a particular situation. Non-diegetic sound is used frequently amongst distorted diegetic sound to both build suspense and shock the audience.
Use of hand-held camera shots are used occasionally in the horror genre, providing the audience with a sense of identification and realism in a certain scene. Point of view shots also aid this feature.

It is also made evident that there are clear binary oppositions (e.g. good & evil) in horror films, and it is a general convention that there is a dominant and hegemonic representation of gender-  victims are commonly females.