I don't know, maybe the AVGN example could be still mentioned. It does spoof the whole dynamic ("imperfect" peers are killed one by one, the "perfect" one is the last survivor), while not using the exact personality tropes.
edited 24th Aug '15 10:12:31 AM by Rjinswand
Some good insights here. I think another issue that I forgot to mention in my former post was the clear use of the trope, but not every single other character dying at the end of the film. This was a trend that started in the 80s with love interests surviving along with the final girl in later Friday the 13th Nightmare on Elm Street sequels, but it continued into the 90s with Scream (Randy and Gail both survive with Sidney, though Sid does a bulk of the final confrontation on her own) along with Urban Legend. Older works are pretty cut and dry with using the trope, but newer works almost always use the trope but subvert it in superficial ways.
Some examples that don't seem to fit...
- Played pretty straight with Simona and the child-killer in the Italian L'immoralita`
, except that the final girl is eleven-and-a-half... and no longer a virgin... and she's the one who did all the on-screen killing, except for her father whose suicide helped touch off her Roaring Rampage of Revenge. All the child-killer's victims had already been dispatched before the film began, and he's shown burying the last of them in a shallow grave at the beginning. Let's just say that what accounts for her survival in the sorting algorithm is that everyone else in the film was demonstrably even worse.
—->Doesn't sound like using the trope to me... shoehorning?
- In Nine Dead, Kelley Murphy was the sole surviving female of the movie. In the end, she shot the masked shooter, leaving 9 people dead in the room. Subverted in that Kelley murdered the two men who should have survived with her to stay out of jail.
—->Sole Survivor, by her own hand.
- The original Resident Evil film plays it straight. Before she became a badass in the sequels, Alice was the only one able to escape the Hive without getting killed or infected by zombies.
—->Sole Survivor, which itself is subverted.
- Shock Waves with Rose. Interestingly, the film established her as the Final Girl and Sole Survivor from the start. The film basically narrates her survival story of a murder spree after being shipwrecked out at sea. While she was able to escape, the remaining members of the group she was with were not as lucky.
—->Sole Survivor.
- The "survivor" of Cry_Wolf (also provides the film's "twist" ending).
—->Not explained how the trope was subverted/averted/parodied. I've seen the movie and the main protagonist is a guy along with a supporting protagonist girl/possible love interest who does appear wholesome but isn't really. Shoehorning would probably best fit this example.
- Averted in House of 1000 Corpses, where the final girl escapes the killer family, but the driver of the car that gives her a lift back to town is the Monster Clown Captain Spaulding, who turns out to be part of the killer family.
—->Takes on a similar tone to Texas Chain Saw Massacre. I think it could work as an example, but I don't feel that it's an aversion.
- Subverted, along with every other aspect of the genre, by Funny Games. The Final Middle-Aged Woman is tied up on a boat, when she spots a knife dropped there at the beginning of the film. But before she can accomplish anything, the killers nonchalantly pitch her over the side. THE END
—->Not an example. If anything, it's the Action Survivor trope that's subverte by this film.
- In Evidence, there are two surviving girls... who then turn out to actually be the killers, who took turns taking on the role of the masked bad guy to throw everyone off.
—->Doesn't appear to be an example.
edited 24th Aug '15 4:05:30 PM by DeeJay
^^ I still don't think it's valid. They're all clones, hence they're all foul-mouthed dudes who get killed off violently except for the last one. Changing the character trait from "wholesome/not wholesome" to the far more nebulous "perfect/imperfect" is just accommodating misuse. You can spoof a Slasher Movie plot without using all the tropes of the genre.
If no one objects, I'll cut the examples mentioned in #26 and #28 in a few days or so (except House of 1000 Corpses, which could be valid).
edited 28th Aug '15 4:12:48 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yeah, I guess you're right.
House of 1000 Corpses is kind of a tricky one because if I remember right, the final girl isn't specially reserved but neither was Sally Hardesty who is one of Clover's final girls. That's why I say the two films were kinda similar in their use of their trope - what works for one probably works well for the other. The fact that she trusted the wrong guy and was taken back to the Firefly family definitely isn't an aversion since she really did have a final confrontation/chase in the film, but it's not a subversion either if implied death for the final girl after the credits roll does not immediately subvert the trope. This is why I feel that it could work as a straight-up example - it's just labeled incorrectly as an "aversion".
My memory was fuzzy on Evidence, as well.. but after rewatching parts of the film I'm convinced as ever that it's an aversion. While the "lone survivor" Leann appears like a Nice Girl on first look (daddy's girl from Kansas - oh my!), that's subverted in footage of her fighting with her boyfriend where she's shown to be anything but sweet and reserved. Ultimately, I think the Final Girl trope is averted in this case because, yes, there are two female survivors - the lone survivor disappears in the footage climax, while the other girl (Rachel) who is shown to have the 'final confrontation' with the killer appears to be torched alive while Leann is MIA. The "nice" survivor was not even shown to have the final confrontation. If anything, the Sole Survivor would be the subverted trope in this case since the Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and her accomplice (who is actually alive) orchestrated everything.
edited 28th Aug '15 1:29:40 PM by DeeJay
Food for thought regarding Saw's possible use for the trope:
- I will say for Saw 2 that it takes on a slasher tone if you consider that Xavier goes crazy and starts killing people at the end to get the combination to the safe with the anecdote. He comes after Amanda, who is shown to be more resourceful and reserved in comparison to the rest in her Dwindling Party even if she's definitely not wholesome. I do think there was a level of playing around with this trope, even if this film is not normally thought of as a slasher.
- With Saw 3D, it was listed that Jill was a straight example once upon a time. This one also goes into slasher-on-steroids territory when Hoffman starts killing the police station workers left and right, leaving the reserved Jill as the last one left to face him. We all know how it turns out. I'm just unsure if it's more of a subversion or played-straight example, since Jill isn't really wholesome or innocent, but she looked like Mother Theresa next to Hoffman who really was the biggest villain at this point of the franchise.
edited 28th Aug '15 1:53:44 PM by DeeJay
~Dee Jay and ~Morgenthaler: Do you still need this thread.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Yes, we haven't finished this yet.
If there are no objections, I'll start by cutting the examples mentioned in post #26 above.
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"
Some Sole Survivor examples could fit this trope if the survivor is far more wholesome than the rest of the cast. But the rest of the examples should be burned. Not sure about slasher vs. other kinds of horror.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I do think that when it comes to this particular trope, some flexibility needs to be given in terms of slasher vs. other types of horrors. While the Final Girl was codified out of slasher films, it very much is a trope that can be used in non-slasher works as well.
I think this is very much a solid argument for Tropes Are Flexible. For example, the movie I just watched today was called Wrecker (no TV tropes page for it to my knowledge) and it demonstrates my point perfectly. It's by no means a slasher movie, but it does involve a killer trucker stalking two girls driving a mustang across deserted highways. One girl (the main protagonist who manages to defeat the killer at the end) is very reserved and the modern-day ingenue, whereas her best friend who drinks beer, talks openly about hooking up with guys, and alludes to having drugs on her) dies during the movie. So, even though this movie isn't a slasher movie, it does use this particular trope even outside of a slasher context.
A similar (yet easily more contested) example can be made for a off-genre survival film like Gravity, where Sandra Bullock's reserved character embodies several of the qualities of a final girl but she just happens to exist outside of the horror genre and nature is the main antagonist. The character was still inexperienced (compared to the rest of her crew), yet was still resourceful enough to survive the hand she was dealt.
I would also use the Tropes Are Flexible defense to movies where the love interest survives along with the Final Girl - two good examples would be would be I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend. Julie and Natalie fit the classic Final Girl mold, so much so that I wouldn't call either one of them any less of a final girl than Laurie Strode or Nancy Thompson just because Ray and Paul survived along with them. I wouldn't call the use of the trope a subversion just because the main squeezes survive along with them.... afterall, Natalie and Julie were still the most level-headed and reserved of their respective dwindling-parties and both acted as the investigative moral compass of the movies. The trope was still at play, we just need to be more flexible in our ability to call attention to it without dismissing any slight variation (which I believe a surviving love interest would be) a subversion.
As we cut examples, we would just need to analyze if special effort was made to make the Final Girl more reserved, investigative, and moral than the rest of her dwindling party. A good rule of thumb is to compare the Final Girl to her best friend in the movie and determine if the example is warranted. Carol Clover, I believe, even made this point that every Final Girl has a best friend who is either more sexually active, more stylish and hip, and more interested in partying, and less interested in studies. The final girl is the conventional "good girl" - aka "stereotypical conservative attitudes of what women 'should be'", taken directly from the trope description. If she's exceptionally more reserved, moral, "bookish", or resourceful compared to the victims and her survival depends on it, then she's probably a good example of the trope at play.
I still think a good many of the examples Morgenthaler and I went over should be cut, though I do want to make a defense for three of them he listed:
- Many people interpret Alien as a slasher-in-space while others call it simply a sci-fi horror, but no doubt was Ripley more "bookish" (citing laws and procedures the rest of her crew would've preferred to ignore when it suited their motives) and ultimately more resourceful which aided in her overall survival. Trope was still used, just differently than the norm.
- I think the Amanda example from Saw II should stay intact. Saw may be a splatter franchise, but it did used a Dwindling Party format in its second film and I still argue that Saw II banked on subverting the resourceful final girl, which Amanda was even if she wasn't moral given that she was a criminal before the big reveal. The fact that she was working with the killer at the end was the end-movie twist... a big one, at that.
- As for Cube 2: Hypercube, I believe that the character revealed to be a spy did use a few classic final girl lines (I believe one was "I am not leaving you behind", which implies a higher degree of morals compared to others more interested in self-survival). So, the expectation for the trope was set up but it was subverted in a few ways.
edited 5th Jan '17 12:48:21 PM by DeeJay
I can accept the Final Girl trope in horror films that aren't slashers, so as long all other requirements are met.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
I think I'm going to start editing the page and clearing out some of the examples that don't fit the trope.
First suggested removals:
Buffy's pop-culture savviness aside, she's not an example. Buffy is written to subvert another, related trope: the blonde teenager who gets killed in the opening before the Final Girl is even introduced.
Looks like just Sole Survivor.
Looks like just Sole Survivor.
ZCE.
ZCE.
While that segment does spoof Nightmare on Elm Street, he's not wholesome and more of an Asshole Victim.
Seems like just Sole Survivor.
Sole Survivor. Every character in the film is female so noting that she's the last female survivor is rather self-evident.
I don't know. While she does appear to be the most wholesome of the bunch, there's not even a confrontation here. She just runs from the monster when nearly everyone else is dead, the end. Seems less a slasher than just a survival horror.
Not An Example.
This is not even related to the trope. She's the last in a line of victims. She doesn't confront the killer and she's not there for the audience to identify with. The Villain Protagonist fills that role by forcing the audience to witness his story.
Looks like just Sole Survivor.
Saw is a splatter franchise that never really used any of the Slasher Movie tropes, including this one. Several different types of movies use a Dwindling Party.
ZCE.
Pitch Black isn't a slasher film, but a survival sci-fi horror movie. While Fry is the audience identification character, it's because she's a flawed human being who becomes The Atoner. She's not wholesome, and she's not even the Sole Survivor. Easy cut.
Yet another Dwindling Party movie. I would argue the first one does fit the trope at least in the final minutes, but the other two are just female survivors.
edited 24th Aug '15 10:22:23 AM by Morgenthaler
You've got roaming bands of armed, aggressive, tyrannical plumbers coming to your door, saying "Use our service, or else!"