[BlizzardUK]

Today I was watching a movie (which I wont spoil by mentioning the title in case you haven't seen it yet and intent to, as it is fairly new) and I knew the lone survivor would be a woman. Yet this movie was based on real events and it was the man who survived in real life. There were about 5 characters to choose from and it was obvious only 1 would be left at the end, given the subject and plot. I am of course talking movies here where only 1 person survives (rather than the common two, or more).

This got me thinking that a lot of recent horror movies usually end with a sole woman as the last survivor so it becomes less interesting and diverse to try and guess who it would be. Is this a recent trend ? I just find it interesting, as myself and mates always try and guess at the start who is left at the end and who survives, and yep, recently (as in the last 10 or so years) 9/10 times it is the woman even if they weren't the main character. Back in the old days I am sure it would always be the main character, but these days they seem to die in the last 5 minutes leaving one other person left.

So purely just interested if there is a reason for this and if anyone has noticed this ? Or if you are not interested in that subject, then do you guess with mates who is the last one alive at the end of a horror movie when it just starts ?

[bringonthewall]

There's actually a theory about this called The Final Girl by Carol Clover, here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl

She wrote it based on slasher movies but it also applies to people like Ripley and Sarah Connor. Makes quite interesting reading if you can track down her original article

[wiseguy100]

the girl at the end of 'martyrs' doesn't agree lol.

[Hound of Love]

Sometimes, the sole female survivor will end up dying in a (usually lousy) sequel

[UltraViolet]

The Martyrs one

Spoiler

still wins in the end if you look at it that way, she manages to kill off that horrible woman who was one of the major players in that society just by whispering something.

.



I was going to mention the Final Girl element, that book by Carol Clover is well worth the read:

Men, Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film.

Spoiler

Wolf Creek

is one where the man survives and the girls don't.

[CLL Dodge]

Spoiler

Eden Lake

probably.

[CLL Dodge]

...and in the remake of

Spoiler

Friday the 13th

the odds don't look good.

[cmq2]

The final guy is not as satisfying in a mixed social group because of the implied role of the paternal alpha male. He fails to live up to his role if those weaker and dependent on him perish. Being the sole survivor implies he is unworthy. The last standing male, who supports the final girl, is given an honourable death but still pays for his failings.

It's not just the final girl though. There is a pecking order in terms of death in the whole group based on morality, personality traits, looks, ethnicity, sexuality, personal hygiene, and resilience. The movie's version of grim reaper judges each in turn and finds all-but-one wanting. The final girl shows her resourcefulness by stepping out of her traditional role in the final sequence to reluctantly adopt the alpha role and eliminate the threat.

The most satisfying ending is the where the person you most identify with gets to survive. In money terms, the film-makers ensure its the character the widest target audience are backing (unless they want a genre twist). Horror has a much smaller female audience so if they makers want something genre-busting they have to make a big concession to them.

[Mark A]

'Drag Me To Hell' does what it says on the tin.

Regards

Mark

[brangdon]

Originally Posted by bringonthewall

There's actually a theory about this called The Final Girl by Carol Clover

I've got that book. The initial Wikipedia summary doesn't fit my memory:

Clover suggests that in these films, the viewer begins by sharing the perspective of the killer, but experiences a shift in identification to the final girl partway through the film.

I remember Carol as saying that the audience identify with the Final Girl from the start, not just when she's being heroic. In other words, the viewers are not sadistically taking pleasure in her pain, but masochistically suffering with her. Without that early identification, the film would lose a lot of impact. It wouldn't be satisfying to see her turn on her attacker if we identified with the attacker.

But I agree with the point that, in order to empathise with a suffering victim, it helps that the victim be female.

[Nik01]

In the Directors cut of

Spoiler

Halloween 2 (Zombie style) Lori dies

In any good horror film they all should die

[egregarious]

I've seen a few movies recently where this whole "final girl" thing has really pissed me off. And I'm a huge fan of this genre. I spoiler tagged each to be nice.

Spoiler

The Ruins - based off the book where everybody dies. Infact, the lead girl dies first in the book (probably why it was so popular before the movie was made). In the movie they completely changed the order of events to make them more predictable and fork the ending so the lead girl survives. Are we so vacuous as an audience that we can't handle zero survivors? And if they had to create a survivor for the movie - why not a male? The lead female here was whiny and weak. It doesn't even fit with the strong female types you see survive the slasher films.

Spoiler

The Thing Prequel 2011 - I saw the 1982 version and nobody should have survived the prequel except the dog. But of course, they have to fork the ending so the lead male dies and the lead female survives somehow.

Spoiler

The Reef - based off a true story where a guy survives a shark attack. In the movie version they have him die and his girlfriend survives. This has to be the dumbest example of stupid test audiences or "horror movie scholars" that couldn't handle a single male survivor.

Spoiler

The Descent - The movie was released in Europe, nobody survived. Then a few years later it got a USA release and they forked the ending so the lead girl survived. Not only that, but the USA version got a crappy sequel based off the alternate ending.

The ironic thing is that these movies are supposed to be scary. Sure, the CGI creatures may be scary to some, but what's cheap scary is the suspense of who will die. It's ironic that these movies continuously time after time after time follow this pattern and deliver no suspense as to who survives? Why doesn't some director/writer deliver us something completely different for once? It's not about just killing the lead woman undeservingly, but work the script and story so the audience will be satisfied with a DIFFERENT ending. It is possible!

[mrs.deschanel]

I watched a movie called Husk recently. While it wasn't great the end was interesting and a few scenes were creepy.

Spoiler

The girl died early on. There was no black guy who died early either like a lot of films. Still there was the jock, the nerd and the good looking one but the survivor wasn't the one you'd expect. It made a change that it wasn't the girl getting away.

[Orangemaid]

Originally Posted by mrs.deschanel

I watched a movie called Husk recently. While it wasn't great the end was interesting and a few scenes were creepy.

Spoiler

The girl died early on. There was no black guy who died early either like a lot of films. Still there was the jock, the nerd and the good looking one but the survivor wasn't the one you'd expect. It made a change that it wasn't the girl getting away.

The girl in it was in H&A soap..forget her character now, she was the small long haired girl in it

[ShaunIOW]

One I saw recently had the lone girl at the end die, can't say which film as it's a spoiler.

[degsyhufc]

Not a horror but I watched a film where everybody dies except one girl. Apparently they are making a sequel

Spoiler

Skyline

[rosco2010]

Another example:

Spoiler

The French horror film Inside (L'interieur) is another example of lead girl dying in horrific circumstances, there is a final survivor at the end, but the bad girl wins.

[Wulfster]

Aah, yes ...
But if you've seen "The Cabin in The Woods" you'll know why this happens ...

Spoiler

If "The Virgin" is not sacrified last or allowed to survive, then The Elder Gods will be displeased and the ritual will be broken.Thereby allowing the evil ones to break free and causing the end of mankind and destruction of the world ...

...which is as good as an explanation as anything else really ...

Really though, it's just because most people want to see characters they can empathise with, to triumph against the odds ... 'cos that doesn't usually happen in real-life.

It does suck though, when they knacker the story (true or otherwise) to fit in with some dumb test-screen ratings.
(Like the Reef, as somebody pointed out earlier ...)

[mrs.deschanel]

Originally Posted by Orangemaid

The girl in it was in H&A soap..forget her character now, she was the small long haired girl in it

Danni I think. What did you think of the film? I'm now scared of sewing machines.

[Orangemaid]

Originally Posted by mrs.deschanel

Danni I think. What did you think of the film? I'm now scared of sewing machines.

Dont watch corronation street with the factory girls then

it was an ok film, scared me abit

[brangdon]

Spoiler

Pitch Black. Radha Mitchell's character is the lead female, pitched against Vin Diesel as Riddick (and a whole lot of monsters), Riddick wins.

[mgvsmith]

Originally Posted by bringonthewall

There's actually a theory about this called The Final Girl by Carol Clover, here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_girl

She wrote it based on slasher movies but it also applies to people like Ripley and Sarah Connor. Makes quite interesting reading if you can track down her original article

Carol Glover's book is essentially a feminist reading of a number of 70s horror films where the 'final girl' trope was quite common. A major theme of those slasher movies was punishment for sexual freedom.I think that idea was of its time.

My feeling is that post financial crisis and persistent terrorist threats there is less sense of hope that the most resourceful character will survive in a horror film. So less of them do.

[Zeus]

In Japanese horror there is

Spoiler

Audition. The lead girl is in fact the villain of the piece but she gets zapped at the end, if memory serves correctly.

[Orangemaid]

The girl

Spoiler

in Creep survived, but the girl in Hostel died, well she killed herself really cos she saw her the state of her eye after having a blow torch to it

[dee123]

I think 'the final girl' thing is changing. Some of the more recent horror movies i've seen, nobody survives.