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.

WORK LOG- SPECIAL EFFECTS MAKEUP

For elements for mise en scene, special effects makeup in addition to mask making and costume is helpful to input into the film opening as it helps give the audience an insight as to what the current situation of each character is as well as creating some sort of link to their personality.
In the case of our film opening, we have used various makeup types to show what has happened to certain characters after a time frame which we could not include due to both the technicality and length of the opening.

The opening features a girl who was a previous victim of the killers in the storyline, and is shown both in a missing poster and later on, dead in the place which the main victim wakes up in.
As she was a victim of killers who take skin from the face of their victims to create a mask, we had to show this in the makeup, so by using home made scar wax [see mask making for recipe] ,skin colourant, cosmetic makeup and fake blood I created the specific look we were aiming to portray on the face. Additionally, I applied makeup to areas such as under the eyes, around the lips, and on the eyebrow, to make Anna appear dead, and as though she had been attacked in some way before meeting her demise.

As I did not own any professional special effects makeup, I used the same mixture used when making the mask, adding more vaseline so that it met a more malleable consistency. I pressed it onto Anna's skin, and then used her own foundation to match her skin colour as accurately as possible. Then, using a basic eyeshadow palette, I added bruising, created a sunken in eye look, and made the lips pale so that she would appear dead on camera.

I then added a small amount of fake blood both inside the fake wound, and above the eyebrow as this would make the character look as though they had gone through some sort of physical trauma before their death.

Also, we needed to find a way of making the victim look beaten and bruised after she wakes up once she has been captured. For this, I used simple eyeshadow colours which when blended created a bruised appearance around the eyes, temples, and jaw- this creates the idea that the victim has been taken to the location she wakes up in in a brutal manner. As well as this, I have added a small cut over the eyebrow and on the lip, and have used fake blood to add to the beaten effect.

Here is a close up example of this:

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

WORK LOG- MASK MAKING

MASK MAKING

A substantial part of our coursework is of course the use of mise en scene, which includes costume and makeup. For our final character profiling we have decided to adhere to the codes and conventions of slasher horror villains and are giving our silent killer a mask which will hide their identity.
We have decided that our mask will be designed in a way which resembles patches of skin taken from different victims, sewn together to make the mask's base. However, instead of having a mask which will cover the entirety of the killers' faces, we have decided to make it so that it only covers approximately half of the face, as it will be the killer's work in progress- they are still 'harvesting' skin from victims, thus it will not yet be complete. This is also good for mise en scene as we are able to show parts of the killers' emotions- they will of course be pleased when they catch the victim in the film opening, therefore we will leave the mouth free of any form of cover so that a smirk etc is visible.

When thinking of how to make the mask, I brainstormed ways in which I could make it realistic looking. I came across several online tutorials regarding special effects skin making, however they all involved use of expensive equipment and products which was not ideal for us as we didn't want to have to limit ourselves to a budget.
I then did further research into young film making companies made up of mostly university students whom had little to no funds when making their films- by doing this, I found out that simple household items could be used to make faux skin...



The items I used to make the mask are as follows:

• A pre-made plain paper mache mask
• plain flour
• vaseline
• skin foundation
• flexible wire
• watercolour paints

Firstly, I mixed together the flour and vaseline to make a scar-wax like consistency- after experimenting with different amounts, I discovered that using one-part vaseline to two-parts flour gave the ideal consistency for the mask.

After this, I added some simple foundation makeup to give the mixture a skin tone- as it was very pigmented, I only needed to add about 1/4 of a teaspoon to give the wax the correct colour. As the mask is supposed to be made up of multiple victims' skin, each new batch of faux skin would be mixed with a different foundation colour, or another household item such as coffee, so the entire mask wasn't made up of the same skin tone.

Once all of the fake skin was made, I began to flatten it out into random shapes with untidy edges, seeing as they would be brutally removed by the killers. Then, I dampened the pre-made paper mache mask, and pressed the faux skin into the mask so it stuck to the surface. I gradually built the side of the face and nose up to make the shape of mask which we wanted for the killers, and once it was done I used watercolour paints on top to create a dirty, bloodied surface on the skin, as before, it looked too clean.

Once the main skin base of the mask was complete, I used flexible wire to make stitches between each patch of skin, so that it would resemble separate sewn patches, by cutting it into small pieces, bending it slightly, and pressing it into the edges of each skin section.

Finally, we cut around where the 'skin' was glued onto the mask, so it created the illusion of only covering a selected part of the face.

UPDATE: This is how our mask appeared on camera. It looked even better when filmed in the dark, as it was not completely clear thus creating a sense of the fear of the unknowing, yet the focus group we asked to watch our piece said still easy enough to tell that the mask was made out of victims' skin.

FINAL CHARACTER PROFILES

Victim

For our AS media film opening we decided to have our initial victim as a female, as in horror films a female is seen as generally more vulnerable which is the feel we wanted for her character. However she isn't a "Mary sue", she is not at all a conservative character, as in the opening she is on her way to pick up some drugs. This will be further emphasised through use of mise en scene, where in her flat there will be various explicit and non conservative items such as lighters, cigarettes and alcohol.

She'll be wearing dark, grungy colours to show that she isn't a pure person, and she will have make up on, for example: smokey black eyeliner and dark lipstick to showcase her non-conservative, somewhat unruly nature. Going by horror film codes and conventions she has done things that would get her killed, and that's what we are aiming to portray through this character; We don't want a final girl in our film opening, but someone that, in a cynical way, deserves death.
An example of this is in the opening of "Scream". Casey (Drew Barrymore) gets a call from an anonymous caller and despite having a boyfriend she gets flirtatious with the person on the other end, even lying and saying she doesn't have a boyfriend. This gives justification for her to be killed off, according to codes and conventions, and does eventually get killed by Ghostface in the opening. 

However, this doesn't mean to say that our character is an 'ice maiden'. When she does get captured, she is genuinely terrified and really wants to stay alive. While she may appear like she hates everything and is a complete sadist who would want to rebell, not caring about the consequences she may face through her non-conservative attitude on the outside, she isn't on the inside. She just wants to get on with her life and do what she likes (which involves traits and characteristics that by horror convention must mean she will die) but by no means does she want her life to end.
In addition to the main first victim, we will also use another victim who has already met their demise because of the actions of the killers- this will be the same girl as seen in the missing poster during the flashback scene of the film opening. We will be displaying their corpse on screen as a way of showing the audience what dangerous situation the (alive) victim is now in.

Killers

To subvert from the traditional slasher use of one killer, we have decided to use two almost identical killers in our film opening. To follow the codes and conventions of slasher horror, both killers will be masked to some extent- we will have masks which we have made to look like patches of victims' skin sewn together which covers part of the face (as it will be the killers' work-in-progress), and they will both be wearing identical black clothing which includes a hoodie which will also work to mask the face. When we put framing focus onto the killers' faces, it will be clear that they are somewhat scarred in a certain way, which could link to their back stories and motives.

Alike certain slasher genre killers such as Halloween's Michael Myers, our antagonists will both be silent as we feel like it will add to the overall eeriness of the situation. This will also make the audience more curious as to what the identities of the killers are.
In addition, they will have simple handheld weapons; a knife and possibly a small axe will be used by them when they are killing their victims, making the situation more frightening as these are objects familiar to most of us.



EDIT: Once filming was complete, it wasn't completely clear that our opening involved two killers, so instead we have decided to recreate the storyboard so that the film opening only involved one killer, which still looks professionally filmed whilst editing, however it doesn't subvert much from the traditions of the slasher genre.