The Best Final Girls (And Guys) In 2022 Horror Movies
The following post contains some spoilers for many of 2022's horror hits, so reader beware!
At this point in the horror canon, the archetype of the final girl has been messed with and subverted in an exploration of what the concept can do and be. Like anything and everything surrounding conventional "film history," it is a mold meant to be played with, and it continues to be fun and exciting to see what filmmakers and TV writers continue to dream up for our last women standing.
In fact, the ways in which the trope has started to be subverted, both big and small, pack a real punch and remind us why we loved the archetype in the first place. After all, it has endured this long and is still a part of the horror canon that we hold dear. We're still trying to reinvent it and find new ways for it to teach us new things — and my list of the top final girls of 2022 does its fair share of that while also paying homage to the classics in some great ways. Believe it or not, it was a banner year for those who endure, and with that, I give you my list of the best final girls (and, yes, guys) of 2022.
15. Finney, played by Mason Thames, in The Black Phone
Here's one for subverting the tropes. The summer horror smash "The Black Phone" saw a totally new archetype for its lead: a preteen boy named Finney. It's not totally uncommon for kids to lead films, especially horror films — and especially over the last few years — but it's certainly less common to have them lead films that mostly take place in one location and, thus, rely mostly on their performances.
The story follows Thames' character as he attempts to free himself from the seemingly impenetrable basement where he's being kept by a serial killer called The Grabber. As one of the most popular horror films of the year, you probably already know the twist: Finney finds himself able to communicate with The Grabber's past victims through an old black telephone on the wall, and the voices from the past help him muster up the strength to attempt escape.
For me, the best thing about Finney is the way he finds the strength to be a final boy. It's unconventional and definitely unique within the genre, and it speaks to something within all humans that, whether we like it or not, we need. Human connection can make real, lasting positive change, and Finney's phone calls provide that to him when hope is completely lost. It gives him that last bit of drive, the last gasp at the end of a long haul — and ultimately, that is what propels him into survival.
14. Maren, played by Taylor Russell, in Bones & All
In Luca Guadagnino's latest feature, the final girl is all at once a protagonist and an antagonist, despite her conflicted tender heart. The film centers on Maren, a young woman whose father abandons her when her recurring tendency to eat human flesh reignites at a birthday sleepover with girls at a new school. As she sets off onto the open road as a nomad without a home, she meets two other "eaters": Sully, a strange older man, and Lee, a younger guy with an edge. Her entanglement with Lee leads her down a dizzying path that consists of a road trip and finding ways to satisfy their hunger.
I love the dichotomy of this character, that she is all at once innocent and tainted. She understands the horrors of her actions, but, in the same breath, cannot get enough. It sets up an internal moral conflict that is exciting to watch, especially with an actress like Taylor Russell in the role. She is so expressive, but with a perfectly pensive edge, and that bleeds so nicely into her archetype as a final girl. It makes her different from all the rest. Despite being a complicated person, she is the one that goes on, forging a new path in ways she never expected of herself yet always knew she would succumb to: the villain we root for, proudly.
13. Harper, played by Jessie Buckley, in Men
Women deal with a lot, especially from men. The latest Alex Garland horror entry puts that concept on a pedestal for all to see, with Jessie Buckley at the helm to lap up all the terrible treatment and transform it into something unhinged. This film isn't for everyone, especially considering its bizarre ending, but it highlights the final girl in a way that immortalizes the archetype. All women are final girls in some way when they enter a romantic agreement with a man, and sometimes, they get pulled under. Harper, however, makes it a point to keep her head above water (at least metaphorically) throughout this film, even when she is being psychologically tormented. It's no easy feat.
The movie follows her through the aftermath of her husband's suicide, when she takes refuge in a cottage in the country to clear her head. She starts seeing bizarre visions that lead her to directly confront the horrors of her relationship that she would much rather just forget. In the confrontation, Harper becomes relentless, and that confrontation becomes a condemnation of every wrong done against her throughout her marriage. It's a fierce changeover that lights a fire on screen, and brings a woman back from the threat of becoming a husk of her former self. She is the last one standing both physically and emotionally, and that makes all the difference.
12. Lila, played by Elsie Fisher, in Texas Chainsaw Massacre
It was a less than inspired reboot attempt, but there was one thing worth praising about Leatherface's return. The new movie updates the story to modern day, where a group of young hopefuls buy a plot of abandoned land 50 miles outside of Austin, Texas, and attempt to build a community there. What they find is a home not quite abandoned, and in trying to evict the tenant there, they wake up a long dormant evil who has no choice but to rise again. Lila, the younger sister of one of the community's founders, is a particularly interesting character within the mix, because she's resistant to the whole idea from the start.
To complicate things even further, she is dealing with immense trauma and physical rehabilitation within the grip of PTSD from a school shooting. It's a heavy load to carry, and despite the fact that the film doesn't always pay the concept the respect it truly deserves in the space it does (or doesn't) offer it, it keeps you rooting for her and her sister throughout the film. In the movie's final minutes, it gives the audience a sense of relief as Lila slips through Leatherface's fingers, but it doesn't soften the blow of what she had to go through to get there.
11. Alice, played by Florence Pugh, in Don't Worry Darling
Nothing is as it seems in Olivia Wilde's sophomore feature, "Don't Worry Darling," a thriller that gives us an archetypal final girl of the highest order. In the visually stunning tale, Florence Pugh's Alice lives the ideal life in a quaint community in the desert of California. Soon, she starts to question her perfect husband and perfect existence, which leads her down a rabbit hole that unravels the very fabric of her existence.
We've seen Pugh take on the final girl role before — namely in "Midsommar," where she ultimately sentenced her cheating boyfriend to a fiery death — but this version of the archetype is as pure as they come. The driving force of every move she makes is the impulse to get out of her situation at any cost, and really, it doesn't get more final girl than that. The overtness of the character's motives don't even damper the fun considering, most times, heavy-handedness can spoil the message. But the high-octane drama has a lot to offer within Pugh's performance, even to the bitter end.
10. Margaret, played by Rebecca Hall, in Resurrection
Andrew Semans' directorial debut "Resurrection" is easily one of the most wild movies of the year — and at the heart of it lies a final girl propelled to some semblance of madness. Rebecca Hall, who is known at this point for her incredible acting, stars as a woman who is utterly shaken by the reappearance of her abusive ex-boyfriend in the town she lives in. She becomes distraught and determined to save her college-aged daughter from what she fears he may do now that he has located her family.
But his reappearance also opens up a whole other can of worms too good to spoil that completely upends everything Hall's character believed about her life until that point. The best thing about her version of the final girl is her determination to best her abuser. She is scared and tormented, no question, but she refuses to back down. Whether or not that truly works out for her is intentionally left for the audience to question and decipher, but regardless, she fights her fight — and that is at the core of every final girl's story.
9. Anne, played by Melissa Paulo, in Soft & Quiet
The unconventional horror thriller "Soft & Quiet," which marks the directorial debut of Beth de Araújo, has definitely gone under seen this year. It is a cautionary tale that lays bare exactly what we're dealing with in terms of extremist ideology in the United States. The movie centers on an elementary school teacher who hosts a gathering of like-minded women, their proclivities I'll keep under wraps to preserve the really incendiary on-screen reveal. The group ends up getting swept into a nasty chain of events after the teacher encounters a woman from her past and makes decisions that have unflinching consequences.
In the film, Paulo's portrayal of that woman from the past is fierce and vulnerable all at once. In fact, she is utterly heartbreaking, and it would do the film a disservice for the arc of her character to be spoiled. But there is no denying that she navigates cruelty with her heart on her sleeve, and in spite of those that mean her harm, she endures, like any final girl worth her salt. It's a powerful arc that says a lot about how insidious bias spreads and breeds, but also how those who are forced to live within its chokehold find the strength to break through it.
8. Julia, played by Maika Monroe, in Watcher
The impetus of the final girl is the danger she finds herself in, and Chloe Okuno's feature debut, "Watcher," puts its lead character in a whirlpool of imagined perilous vulnerability. The film follows a woman who relocates to Bucharest with her husband, Francis (Karl Glusman). While settling into their new apartment, she starts to notice a shadowy yet menacing figure that seems to be watching her every move from an apartment across the street, which ends up forcing her to do her best to convince everyone around her that she is actually in danger.
It's not all that unfamiliar from other horror thrillers we've seen before, but Monroe sells it with the way she turns into herself, becoming totally introspective as she forms a shell of self-defense in preservation. She, like most final girls, shows a fierce determination once her survival instinct turns a corner, and that resolve propels her into a final act that not only cements her final girl status, but proves that if we don't listen to women, they end up dead. This film is another gaslighting anthem, but one that is strengthened by the force of its final girl.
7. Laurie Strode, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, in Halloween Ends
No matter how you feel about the movie itself, our fave Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) deserves one final recognition for the final girl legacy she leaves behind. "Halloween Ends" follows a new character named Corey Cunningham, who falls in love with Strode's granddaughter amid a series of events that align him with Michael Myers himself. It's a storyline that complicates things, especially fans who feel a sense of purism about the franchise, but one thing the new film continued to do was reuse the tropes that made it great, like Strode's reign as one of the original final girls. She comes back strong in this installment with a fire under her from the way "Halloween Kills" ends, and she is determined to truly end Myers' reign once and for all. Her staying power lies in her perseverance, where the legacy of all the best archetypal final girls is born — but the novelty of Curtis' last run is that it was her last run, and she finally outran the thing that was chasing her for over forty years.
6. Noa, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, in Fresh
With a completely new story like "Fresh," there needed to be a completely new final girl with something new to say — and Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) totally fit the bill. "Fresh" follows her as she struggles through the online dating scene before having a near-perfect meet cute at a supermarket with a total stud named Steve (Sebastian Stan). Their courtship goes sour when he brings her to a remote cabin on a romantic weekend and proceeds to drug and imprison her with cannibalistic intentions.
Needless to say, being held captive for something this sinister can warp the brain's fight or flight response, and the crushing realities of the situation dampen Noa's spirits for a time. But despite the fate she could have, she uses the thing that got her into this in the first place — you know, flirting — to get her out of it. It's a clever ruse and it helps her lull her target into submission in a way that allows her an avenue of escape. While Edgar-Jones' character doesn't get out completely unscathed, she brings enough of herself home to make this a commendable effort in the final girl canon.
5. Joel, played by Kyle Gallner, in Smile
Anyone who has seen "Smile" knows that leading lady Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is, unfortunately, not the character who makes it to the end of the film. That role is delegated to her former boyfriend and local cop Joel (Kyle Gallner), who helps her decipher the mystery of a curse that is seemingly passed along when someone witnesses a person die by suicide. The movie follows Cotter's involvement in the curse after she sees a patient slit their own throat in the emergency psychiatric ward where she works.
Joel is one of the best final guys of the year because he does all the things a final girl would do—the research, acting as back-up, just to name a few—but without the worry for their own safety. He's supporting Cotter throughout as she increasingly starts panicking more and more about her impending death, but he isn't concerned for his own life ... until the film's final moments where he realizes he is the last man standing. It's a title bestowed upon him, not sought after, and that makes for a worthy spin on the trope.
4. Tara and Sam, played by Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barerra, in Scream
The "Scream" reboot's two female leads are undoubtedly cut from the same cloth as their predecessor. Jenna Ortega's Tara and Melissa Barerra's Sam are archetypal final girls like several others on this list, but they really do follow in the footsteps that Neve Campbell's Sidney Prescott left for them. They are both self-assured and bold characters who use their intuition and smarts to best Ghostface throughout the movie, starting from the very opening scene where Ortega pays homage to the classic Drew Barrymore opening. But instead of being emotionally tortured, physically chased, and brutally murdered with her parents just around the bend, she lives to tell the tale.
The film feels almost as if the estranged-sisters-turned-kickass-duo learned from Sidney's mistakes and internalized those lessons before there was even a new Ghostface problem in Woodsboro. It's fun to see these characters go up against a familiar evil that forces them to be as relentless as it is, because it forces them into that final girl archetype whether they want it or not. It isn't the best position to be in, of course, but greatness is earned, and Ortega and Barerra are memorable in their fierce fight to end Ghostface at the finish line.
3. Emerald, played by Keke Palmer, in Nope
Jordan Peele's "Nope" has one central female character: Emerald Haywood (Keke Palmer), sister to OJ, with whom she runs a horse handlers business in Hollywood. By default, she would be the final girl of the film no matter what — but the great thing about Palmer's character is that she earns her place within the canon with her quick wit, intellect, and massive heart. The horror epic centers on Emerald and OJ's attempts to witness and document alien activity over their remote ranch following the inexplicable death of their father.
Em is the brains of the operation every step of the way, and she is a major part of why the events of the film play out in her and her brother's favor, even down to the very last crucial element of their plan. There is no other final girl on this list quite like Em: She's sassy and headstrong, and she's the kind of person you want in your corner when things go south, or, you know, there's an alien spaceship hovering over your ranch. She comes out nearly unscathed, so something tells me her final girl skills would come in handy in pretty much any bind. She's going down in the final girl hall of fame, make no mistake.
2. Tess, played by Georgina Campbell, in Barbarian
In Zach Cregger's feature debut, "Barbarian," one story evolves into another, but the film's leading lady, Tess, takes whatever is thrown at her with a survivalist attitude that rivals any historical final girl you can dream up. The movie centers on Georgina Campbell's Tess as she arrives at an AirBnB in a rundown section of Detroit. When she gets there, she finds another man named Keith (Bill Skarsgård) is already lodging at the property — and the pair come to find out that the home is not what it seems.
Tess is one of our year's best final girls because she has survival on her mind from the very instant that things start to go sideways. She is acutely aware of every move Keith makes, she focuses on the best methods of escape when it becomes necessary, and even makes the hard decisions to ensure survival despite the empathy she ends up feeling for her target. When it comes to horror heroines, she's as three-dimensional as can be, and the film's final moments prove that she isn't one to mess with, either.
1. Maxine and Pearl, played by Mia Goth, in X and Pearl
Ti West's double feature horror films feature the same woman in two stages of her life. Pearl (played as an old woman in "X" and a young woman in "Pearl" by Mia Goth), is a determined young woman coming of age at the height of the pandemic of 1918. She wants to be a movie star, but her responsibilities at home keep her from pursuing her dream — which, in turn, becomes a nightmare for those in her orbit.
By "X," set 60 years later in 1979, Pearl is an old woman. Her husband, Howard, allows for a group of young filmmakers to crash in their guest house who (unbeknownst to the older couple) make a porno film there. One of the women in the group, Maxine, is also played by Goth, and she is a spitting image of the young and spritely Pearl of years past who was determined to be a star. Both of these women have that drive and obsession needed to make it to the end of any horror film.
Pearl is, naturally, the final girl of "Pearl," which is a twisted and demented concept in and of itself, because Pearl is the film's star and antagonist all at once. It's not entirely uncommon, but it flips the final girl trope on its head, and it makes for a fun conflict within the viewer as they root for her.
Pearl isn't the final girl of "X" — Maxine is. Her willpower — marked by her mantra "I will not accept a life I do not deserve" — is a hurricane force that will and does destroy everything in its path necessary for survival — even the elderly Pearl.