25 Most Essential Female-Led Horror Films
Vote up the female characters in movies you think everyone should root for.
- 1386 VOTES
- Photo:
Released in 1979, Alien was far before its time with the role of hardcore sci-fi heroine Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver). At the start of the film, Ripley is a fairly ordinary warrant officer who at times shows fear and vulnerability, making her relatable in many ways. Ripley's normality helps her stand out from the crowds of super-powered babes common to sci-fi stories of the time, and it's doubly satisfying to watch a seemingly unremarkable hero rise to the challenge and overcome her situation.
While in retrospect, it’s hard to imagine anyone but Weaver playing Ripley, it’s a fun Alien fact that the part was written with a male in mind. Weaver went on to reprise the role in several Alien sequels.
More Alien
- Dig Deeper...43 Surprising Facts You Didn't Know About 'Alien'
- And Deeper...Making 'Alien' Was Even More Horrific Than The Final Product
- #152 of 769 onThe Most Rewatchable Movies
- 2378 VOTES
In the original 1978 Halloween, 17-year-old Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is both the primary protagonist and the final girl. Strode, a babysitter watching a young boy on Halloween, ends up being stalked by madman Michael Myers who brutally slays her best friends.
Strode repeatedly defends herself against Myers using homespun weapons such as a knitting needle, a knife, and a wire hanger, but Myers survives all the attacks and ends up attempting to strangle Strode. Thankfully, she's saved by Dr. Samuel Loomis, who shoots Myers off a balcony. You can watch the original final girl kick ass over on Shudder, the best app for horror fans.
- 3342 VOTES
- Photo:
Scream is a witty horror franchise that began in 1996 as a parody of the horror genre. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is the final girl in the original film and its sequels. In the first Scream, as the anniversary of Sidney's mother's untimely end approaches, a serial slayer in a Ghostface Halloween mask attempts to end Sidney's life and the lives of her friends.
Not only does Sidney endure the attacks, she also has no problem fighting back. At one point, she bashes the killer with a door; another time, she uses a cordless phone as a weapon.
More Scream- Dig Deeper...Whatever Happened To The Cast Of 'Scream'?
- And Deeper...According To This Theory, Dewey Is The Serial Killer Mastermind In 'Scream'
- #207 of 769 onThe Most Rewatchable Movies
- Photo:
Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) is arguably one of the best-known final girls of all time. An FBI agent, Starling seems to be living in a man’s world, as her colleagues regularly hit on her and fail to take her seriously.
Surprisingly, Starling seems to get the most respect from Hannibal Lector, a brilliant psychologist turned incarcerated serial slayer whom Starling gets assigned to interview. With the help of Lector, Starling tracks down the elusive slayer Buffalo Bill. At times both strong and vulnerable, Starling is a great heroine and a shockingly relatable female lead.
- Photo:
When most people think of A Nightmare on Elm Street, they think of Freddy Krueger, a burnt-up predator who uses his glove with razor blades to end teens while they’re asleep. However, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) is just as crucial as Krueger. Thompson is your typical final girl in that she is innocent and unassuming, but her role is so much more than that. She is exceptionally courageous and uses her brain to try to outsmart Krueger.
Thompson figures out she can wake up while dreaming and also bring items back from her dreams. She sets up traps around her house to slow down Krueger and even captures him in her basement before pouring gasoline on him and setting him on fire.
Thompson doesn’t become the final girl by chance (or due to a man saving her). Instead, she uses her intelligence to defeat Krueger. Langenkamp went on to play Nancy in both A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and New Nightmare.
- 6301 VOTES
- Photo:
Carrie White (Sissy Spacek) grows up in the care of an ultra-conservative religious mother who teaches her to fear sex and boys. In school, Carrie stands out due to her modest clothing and humble attitude. Her shy demeanor makes her an easy target for bullying and ridicule, as other students know she won’t do anything to stand up for herself.
Carrie finally has enough after her peers pour pig blood on her during prom. Using her telekinetic powers, Carrie causes the school gym to catch fire. She proceeds to lock the doors and walk home. On the way, two surviving students attempt to run White over, but she uses her powers to make the car flip and explode, taking the lives of the passengers.
Despite surviving the prom ordeal, Carrie loses control of her telekinetic powers and sets her house on fire, seemingly ending her own life and the life of her mother. But in the final scene, the sole prom survivor, Sue, leaves flowers at Carrie's burned-down home, and a bloody arm reaches out for her from under the rubble. Sue then wakes up from a nightmare, screaming.
More Carrie- #269 of 769 onThe Most Rewatchable Movies
- #13 of 399 onThe Best Horror Movies Of All Time
- #41 of 375 onThe Best Movies Based On Books
- 7486 VOTES
- Photo:
You’re Next stars Sharni Vinson as Erin, who's invited to a holiday dinner at her boyfriend’s family’s home. Once there, masked intruders take over the party, at which point Erin goes into full-on survival mode.
Erin grew up with her survivalist father - something none of the characters are aware of - and she knows how to react calmly and rationally no matter what's going on. The hero manages to outsmart the masked villains, who make a series of shockingly stupid mistakes (a subversion of a classic horror trope). Erin is the final girl modern viewers deserve.
More You're Next- #220 of 399 onThe Best Horror Movies Of All Time
- #10 of 20 onHorror Movies That Originally Had Much Darker Endings
- #3 of 54 onThe Most Horrifying Home Invasion Movies
- 8225 VOTES
- Photo:
The Descent is an unusual horror flick because all its main characters are female, but there can only be one final girl, and that role goes to Sarah Carter (Shauna MacDonald).
The film begins with Carter involved in a horrible car accident that takes the lives of her husband and child. A year later, Carter reunites with a few college friends who are into spelunking, and the group gets together to explore some caves. Juno (Natalie Mendoza), one of Carter’s friends, was having an affair with Carter’s husband before his untimely death. The women end up trapped in the caves, which house blind, flesh-hungry monsters.
By the end of the film, the only two survivors are Carter and Juno, and there’s no way the cheater gets to be the final girl.
More The Descent- Dig Deeper...A Look Behind The Scenes Of 'The Descent,' The Classic Claustrophobic Nightmare Film
- #34 of 399 onThe Best Horror Movies Of All Time
- #31 of 143 onThe Best Movies of 2005
- 9218 VOTES
- Photo:
Audiences first saw Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Lawrence) in the original 1987 Hellraiser. In the film, Cotton is going through a lot of drama with her family, but she must also deal with the Cenobites - extraterrestrial beings who were once human and want to torture people for all eternity.
Cotton uses her wits to defeat Pinhead then goes on to outsmart Dr. Channard in Hellbound: Hellraiser II; she even outfoxes her philandering husband in Hellraiser: Hellseeker, making her an ultimate final girl in the Hellraiser series and the horror genre alike.
Throughout the Hellraiser films, Cotton is viewed as brilliant, but unlike most final girls, she isn’t an innocent and virginal female. Instead, she has a bit of an edge that makes her stand out - just like the horror streaming service Shudder.
More Hellraiser- Dig Deeper...Behind-The-Scenes Stories From The Making Of 'Hellraiser'
- #203 of 399 onThe Best Movies Of The 1980s, Ranked
- #31 of 399 onThe Best Horror Movies Of All Time
- 10279 VOTES
- Photo:
The Craft tells the story of troubled teen Sarah Bailey (Robin Tunney) who moves to Los Angeles with her father and stepmother. At school, she meets three other women, Bonnie, Nancy, and Rochelle, who are rumored to be witches.
Once the trio realizes Sarah has inherited powers from her mother (who was also a witch), the group forms a coven and begins experimenting with spells. Eventually, their spells start to backfire or show negative consequences, at which point, the original three turn on Sarah, tormenting her and trying to get her to end her own life.
Sarah uses her powers to defend herself and puts up the fight of her life. In the end, Nancy and Rochelle lose their powers, yet Sarah gets to keep her magic skills.
More The Craft- Dig Deeper...What Ever Happened To The Cast Of 'The Craft'?
- And Deeper...Wicked Reactions To 'The Craft' Reboot That Would Make Manon Proud
- #17 of 117 onThe Best Movies Of 1996
- 11313 VOTES
- Photo:
The Resident Evil franchise is best known for its female heroine Alice (Milla Jovovich). Alice can handle just about any weapon you give her. Throughout the franchise, she battles the Umbrella Corporation during a zombie apocalypse.
However, the films don’t stop at just one strong female character. There’s a whole team of tough multicultural women who play a variety of roles from allies to villains. Having a female lead in a sci-fi action movie is almost unheard of, and centering on several strong females over the course of six films is truly fantastic. You can stream this action-packed thriller over on Shudder with a free seven-day trial.
More Resident Evil- Dig Deeper...The Best Resident Evil Games of All Time, Ranked
- And Deeper...Every Resident Evil Movie, Ranked Best to Worst
- #483 of 769 onThe Most Rewatchable Movies
- Photo:
Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns) is considered the first significant example of a final girl in a horror film. Along with her brother and three friends, Hardesty decides to investigate reports of vandalism and grave-robbing which allegedly took place at her grandfather’s final resting place.
The group end up being tortured and terrorized by Leatherface and his family, ex-slaughterhouse workers who kill everyone Hardesty showed up with. Although Hardesty is also brutally tortured, she manages to escape and runs to the highway where she is picked up by a truck driver and just misses Leatherface chasing her with his chainsaw in hand. The classic slasher film is available on Shudder, which runs at $4.99 a month after a seven-day free trial.
- 13258 VOTES
- Photo:
In The Conjuring, the Perron family is dealing with a strange entity inside their home. Their kids are forced out of bed, there's a mysterious phantom knocking, and doors open on their own.
The family hires Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) - a duo of paranormal investigators based on real-life ghost hunters - to help sort out their issues. Lorraine is unique for a variety of reasons. Not only is she played by an actress over the age of 40 (a rarity for the horror genre), she's also the main hero in The Conjuring franchise as a whole.
- 14164 VOTES
- Photo:
In the 2016 film Hush, Kate Siegel plays the role of deaf-mute author Madison "Maddie" Young. While a few horror films have portrayed characters with disabilities, rarely do they get the lead role, and never before has a disabled person played the final girl.
Young is a strong character who doesn’t let her disabilities bring her down. She’s independent, takes care of herself, and lives alone. After a masked madman kills one of Young's friends outside of her house and realizes the occupant of the home is deaf, he decides she will be an easy victim, but Young does not go down without a fight.
The two struggle for an eternity before Young finally grabs a corkscrew and stabs the killer with it.
More Hush - 15191 VOTES
'I Spit on Your Grave' - Jennifer Hills
- Photo:
I Spit on your Grave is a '70s revenge horror film starring Camille Keaton as Jennifer Hills. Hills is a professional writer who takes a vacation to a lakeside cabin in Connecticut where she ends up brutally assaulted by four men.
After spending two weeks in recovery, Hills decides to exact revenge on the men, and she does so in a variety of disturbing ways. She hangs the first man, cuts off the second man's genitals, stabs another with an ax, and purees the last man with the motor of a boat.
When it came out in 1978, the controversial film was shunned by critics who found it too violent, but others now view it as a work of feminism and a rare look into the mind of a woman who's victimized in a horror film.
- 16157 VOTES
- Photo:
Of all the horror films involving werewolves, Ginger Snaps is perhaps the first of its kind to show the beastly transformation from a female perspective. 16-year-old Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) is the heroine along with younger sister Brigitte (Emily Perkins).
The teens are outcasts who identify as goths in a world filled with jocks and cheerleaders. To avoid a fate of boring adulthood, they make a pact to end their lives so they never have to endure puberty. Ginger ends up getting her period, which unfortunately attracts a werewolf attack. After this, Ginger begins transforming into a lycanthrope, and Brigitte spends the rest of the movie trying to save her sister. In the end, Ginger lunges at Brigitte, who accidentally slays her beastly sibling.
- 17156 VOTES
- Photo:
Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to strong female leads, and his film Death Proof is no exception. In Death Proof, there are three final girls, and all of them have distinct personalities, styles, and skill sets that form an unstoppably dangerous force when combined.
Zoë (Zoë Bell), Abernathy (Rosario Dawson), and Kim (Tracie Thoms) find themselves in the company of Stuntman Mike, a serial slayer who uses his car as a weapon to take women's lives. Instead of Mike finishing off the heroes, the trio teams up and beats him to a pulp.
More Death Proof- #61 of 139 onThe Best Movies Of 2007
- #14 of 16 onQuentin Tarantino Movies, Ranked Best to Worst
- #31 of 48 onGreat Movies About Furious Women Out for Revenge
- 18100 VOTES
- Photo:
Feast takes place in a small bar in Nevada that gets invaded by monsters. A man named Hero walks into the bar covered in blood and offers protection to the patrons, only to wind up decapitated by one of the monsters.
From then on, the film focuses on Tuffy (Krista Allen), a waitress at the bar who doesn’t seem to have the most fabulous life. Tragically, the monsters manage to take her son's life, which puts Tuffy in revenge mode. Tuffy takes over as the leader of the survivors, guarding them while simultainiously slaying the monsters.
More Feast- #87 of 115 onThe Goriest Horror Movies Ever Made (2023 Update)
- #11 of 16 onUnderrated '00s Horror Movies That Deserve More Recognition
- #35 of 66 onThe Best Dimension Films Movies
- 1933 VOTES
- Photo:
In the 2019 slasher film Black Christmas, sorority sisters at Hawthorne College are stalked by a mysterious figure during their holiday break. This loose remake of the 1974 classic intertwines themes of sisterhood and survival amidst a critique of campus culture and systemic issues. Riley (Imogen Poots) is a survivor who unites her sisters to confront their assailant. As the body count climbs, they uncover a sinister connection to the college's founding fraternity, culminating in a fierce showdown that flips the script on festive fear. - 2018 VOTES
- Photo:
Reeling from the unexpected death of her husband, Beth is left alone at the lakeside home he built for her. She tries her best to keep it together -- but then the nightmares come. Disturbing visions of a presence in the house call to her, beckoning Beth with a ghostly allure. She soon begins searching for answers, only to find secrets both strange and disturbing.More The Night House- #33 of 35 onThe Scariest Cabin Horror Movies
- #8 of 13 onThe 13 Best Elevated Horror Movies Of All Time
- #56 of 63 onThe Best Horror Movies Set In The Woods
- 2175 VOTES
- Photo:
Thriller: A Cruel Picture features Christina Lindberg playing Madeleine, who was sexually assaulted as a child, leaving her mute. Unfortunately, her troubles don't end there, as she accepts a ride from a stranger who takes her back to his home, begins injecting her with heroin on a daily basis, and becomes her pimp.
The man is overly cruel to Madeleine, at one point going so far as to poke out her eye for disobeying him. He also pens letters to her parents blaming them for her running away, which causes them to take their own lives.
Madeleine only gets one day off a week, and she takes full advantage of her limited free time. She learns how to drive and how to shoot guns, and she familiarizes herself with karate in an attempt to exact revenge on all the people who have done her wrong, including her pimp and her clients. The film is said to be an inspiration behind Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill films.
- 2217 VOTES
- Photo:
After moving to a small town with her husband, a young artist begins to suspect that their home harbors a dark secret. - 23102 VOTES
- Photo:
The Neon Demon is a controversial film people either love or hate. Some believe the movie is a feminist masterpiece while others argue it’s completely misogynistic.
The film follows teen Jesse (Elle Fanning) who moves from Georgia to Los Angeles, CA, in hopes of being a successful model. The horror begins when everyone in Hollywood becomes entranced with Jesse. Both men and women try to get with her, and some seem to want to become her.
In the end, Jesse doesn’t make it to final girl status, as three of her groupies end her life then bathe in her blood.
- 2414 VOTES
'Bloodthirsty'
- Photo:
- Bloodthirsty
- Raven Banner Entertainment
Bloodthirsty is a 2020 Canadian mystery horror film directed by Amelia Moses. Grey is an indie singer who is having visions that she is a wolf. When she gets an invitation to work with notorious music producer Vaughn Daniels at his remote studio in the woods she begins to find out who she really is. - Photo:
- 2515 VOTES
- Photo:
- Jakob's Wife
Bodies start to pile up when a woman discovers a new sense of power and an appetite to live bigger and bolder than ever before.More Jakob's Wife- #164 of 210 onThe 200+ Best New & Recent Horror Movies, Ranked
- #224 of 542 onThe Best Movies Of 2021
- #68 of 122 onThe Best Horror Movies Of 2021
- Photo:
