At Crypticon Seattle, we held a Final Girl – Final Four Battle to determine who the best final girl in all of Horror. It was a lively and boisterous crowd, and the final – Final Girl may not surprise you, the final four might raise some eyebrows! You will be stunned at some of the early exits from the tournament of feisty female protagonist power.
Thanks to Crypticon for letting The Scariest Things showcase this showdown! It’s always fun to have the fans and audience weigh in and stump for their favorites. Final Girls are the backbone of so much horror, and there are so many to pick from. Like any elimination tournament, there will be heavily favored, highly seeded participants and surprising underdogs.
The Scariest Things used a widget application, Common Ninja Bracket Master, to create the brackets, if you ever want to try and create a bracket yourself. It’s got a ton of depth and utility, and we only took advantage of a few of the features.
This is how we set up the field of 64:
- This bracket battle is to determine the audience FAVORITES, not who would win in actual combat. The audience can use whatever criteria they want to pick their preferences.
- Final girls have to have survived the movie. They could survive it with others, but they need to make it to the finish line.
- To honor the trope, preferences are given to active characters who strive to survive. They are not damsels in distress. For example, Anne Darrow (Faye Wray) or Mina Harker (Helen Chandler) would not be considered final girls. The best final girls take initiative in their own survival.
- No turncoats! Final girls do not turn heel!
- The audience was instructed to cheer for their favorite CHARACTERS, not their favorite ACTRESSES. You will note that we picked some high-profile actresses (Demi Moore, Jennifer Aniston) in early career B-Movies, before they became stars.
- Actresses can appear more than once in the bracket. (Jamie Lee Curtis 3 times, Maika Monroe, Shawnee Smith, and Caroline Munro 2 times.)
- Characters were drawn from across the genre and from many decades. The seedings were determined by roughly determining the impact that these final girls had on the genre.
The Results:
What you see in the bracket below are the results of the audience selections. This is, of course, a subjective competition, and it’s for fun and speculation. Most of the audience was aware of most of the final girls. We had about a classroom full of participants, about 35.
- There was a strong preference for tough girls. Naru (Prey), Erin Hanson (You’re Next), Sarah Carter (The Descent), and, of course, Ellen Ripley all did really well.
- When Laurie Strode got eliminated, one of our attendees stated, “I kinda got tired of Laurie Strode!”
- One comment on Wendy Torrance, “She didn’t do anything!” And yet, she made it to the sweet 16.
- Of our #1 seeds, Sally Hardesty stumbled early, taken out by Maxine Minx.
- The biggest groan came from the decision between fan favorites Grace LeDomas and Becky Moore.
- I love it when there is a solitary supporter for one of the entries. “YEAH WHOOO!” Bring the passion.
- Good for Suzy Bannion! She took out Laurie Strode. Giallo lives!
When navigating this site, please note that you can scroll up and down, left and right to see the entire bracket and selections. You can click on the matchups to get additional information about the character, the movie, and the seeding. If you don’t know who the character is, just click the picture to see more information. For each final girl, clicking the picture will show the actress and the movie if you are unfamiliar with the character.
Thanks to Antowan Midnight-Mars Thomas and Bri Cummings for helping me with the seeding for the Final Girls bracket! Also at Crypticon, we did a King of the Mountain Movie Slasher Bracket Fight. So, if you liked this, come to Crypticon Seattle next year, and we will do it again.