Presented by Paramount Scares, Friday the 13th Week sees Bloody Disgusting heading to Camp Crystal Lake for a series of features that celebrate the Voorhees family and their influence. Yesterday, Luiz H.C. took inventory of all the horror movie fans in horror similar to franchise hero Tommy Jarvis. Today, Jenn Adams celebrates the franchise’s final girls.
As long as there have been slashers, there’ve been final girls; the lone–traditionally female–survivor at the end of the film. Fans of the lovably formulaic sub-genre have strong opinions about which character originated the trope. From Lila (Vera Miles, Psycho) and Jess (Olivia Hussey, Black Christmas) to Sally (Marilyn Burns, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween), we each have our favorites and will defend them tooth and nail.
Most slasher franchises become known for specific final girls who appear alongside iconic villains in multiple films, but Friday the 13th is the rare exception that proves the rule. Known for killing off heroines early in subsequent films, each entry in the campfire series features a different final girl battling a killer emerging from the woods. But just because they aren’t as well known doesn’t mean they’re not worthy. Friday the 13th offers twelve impressive final girls, each bringing something new to the treasured table.
And if you’re dying for more Friday the 13th content, Paramount Scares and Bloody Disgusting are presenting an eight-film marathon on the Friday the 13th franchise. Not in the area? Can’t make it? Paramount Scares and Fangoria are also presenting nationwide screenings of FRIDAY THE 13th – The Final Chapter.
Alice Hardy – Friday the 13th (1980)
The heroine of Sean S. Cunningham’s opening film is an unlikely young artist who may be dating her boss. Though tempted to leave, Alice (Adrienne King) agrees to help open Camp Crystal Lake as other counselors begin to arrive. Meanwhile, a mysterious killer watches from the woods. On a dark and stormy Friday night, Alice stumbles upon the bloody bodies of her coworkers and friends. Desperate for help she bumps into Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer), a grieving mother with an ax to grind. Mrs. Voorhees attacks Alice in a misguided attempt to avenge the death of her son and their bloody battle spills out onto the beach. Alice manages to decapitate the murderous woman then waits in a canoe for help to arrive.
The next morning, the blissful waters of Crystal Lake are disturbed by the waterlogged body of Jason (Ari Lehman) lurching out of the water for one last attack. Though Alice survives the debut chapter, she’s killed off in the opening sequence of Steve Miner’s sequel. She may not have achieved the ubiquitous status afforded to other final girls of her generation, but Alice is nonetheless a legend in the F13 world. She takes out the franchise’s original killer, becomes Jason’s first onscreen victim, and anchors one of one of the greatest final stingers in the history of horror.
Ginny Field – Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
At first glance, Ginny (Amy Steel) seems like Alice 2.0: a blonde leader corralling unruly young counselors while also having an affair with her boss. But despite her late arrival to the introductory camp meeting, Ginny quickly separates herself from the pack. Returning to the lodge after a night on the town, she finds the rest of the counselors murdered while a hulking Jason lurks in the dark. Ginny holds her own under brutal attack and fights Jason off when her boyfriend cannot.
Stumbling upon his hidden home, she’s horrified to find a candlelit shrine to Mrs. Voorhees complete with her severed head and iconic sweater. Using her child psychology degree, Ginny dons the garment and speaks to Jason in the voice of his mother, insisting that, “You’ve done your job well and Mommy is pleased.” This deception buys her crucial moments to gain the upper hand and escape back to her own cabin. Despite a doggie fake-out and window-smash jump scare, Ginny survives and has become one of the franchise’s most beloved characters, due in large part to her resourcefulness and courageous ruse.
Chris Higgins – Friday the 13th: Part 3 (1982)
Chris (Dana Kimmell) is at once an underrated and controversial character in the slasher saga. Beginning the trend of vacationing teens, Miner’s third installment follows her weekend return to Higgins Haven, a family home on the legendary lake. But Chris has an ulterior motive for the trip. Two years before, she was hiding from her parents in the Crystal Lake woods when a strange man attacked her with a knife. Waking up in her own bed, Chris has no additional memories of the incident and has returned to finally face her fears. But the man, now wearing a sinister hockey mask, still haunts the neighboring woods. Jason (Richard Brooker) kills all her friends along with a local biker gang, before coming back to finish the job.
Though an interesting variation of final girl lore, this backstory feels like a rare misstep. We never find out exactly what happened in the woods that night, but Chris’s memory implies sexual assault. While it’s true that Jason has a habit of attacking nude women, he never expresses lecherous urges of his own. Despite a complicated legacy, Chris does leave a lasting mark on the larger franchise. She is the only final girl to meet Mrs. Voorhees (Marilyn Poucher) rising from the lake and she drives an ax into Jason’s hockey mask, completing the franchise’s most enduring image.
Trish Jarvis – Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
While Trish (Kimberly Beck) is technically a final girl, Joseph Zito’s film really belongs to Cripsin Glover’s dancing Tommy Jarvis (Corey Feldman). Trish is a dutiful older sister helping her single mother raise the precocious tween while nurturing his talent for designing monster masks. After an aborted trip to swim in the lake, she and Tommy have car trouble and pull over to the side of the picturesque road. They’re aided by a backpacker named Rob (Erich Anderson) who eventually admits he’s looking for his missing sister, part of Ginny’s ill-fated group of trainees.
This, plus her proximity to praying teens at Crystal Lake, put Trish and Tommy in a dangerous position. When Jason (Ted White) inevitably attacks, brother and sister work together to fend him off. Trish may strike Jason with his own machete after jumping out of a two-story window (an impressive feat seen only in the higher echelons of final girl lore), but it’s Tommy who lands the fatal blow. Though Trish may star in the franchise’s most popular sequel, she’s overshadowed by one of its most beloved characters.
Pam Roberts – Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
The female star of Danny Steinmann’s film also plays second fiddle to a loveable kid. Pam (Melanie Kinnaman) works at a halfway house for mentally fragile teens, becoming caretaker for an older Tommy (John Shepherd) and Reggie the Reckless (Shavar Ross), the tween son of the facility’s cook. When the brutal slaying of another resident kicks off a string of familiar murders, Tommy shoots to the top of the suspect list. Another dark and stormy Friday draws the killer out, forcing Pam and Reggie to fight for their lives. Pam may wield (and throw!) a chainsaw at “Jason” (Dick Wieand) but it’s Reggie who truly saves the day. In a fist-pumping moment, he bursts through the barn wall driving a tractor straight into Jason before he can strike. Tommy confronts and attacks the man pretending to be his old nemesis before Reggie sends him hurtling out of the barn’s high loft.
Like Pamela Voorhees, Roy Burns is a grieving father trying to process the tragic death of his son, but Pam never meets the actual Jason. Adding insult to injury, her fate remains uncertain. In the hospital, a traumatized Tommy seems to take on the persona of the nightmarish killer and appears behind Pam with his own raised knife. Only the film’s novelization tells us that she survived the ordeal, but the cinematic Pam remains in peril.
Megan Garris – Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)
Tom McLoughlin’s fan favorite film also delivers one of the franchise’s most headstrong final girls. A feisty sheriff’s daughter, Megan (Jennifer Cooke) first meets a grown up Tommy (Thom Mathews) while reporting her friends missing at the Forest Green police station. Rebranded to avoid Crystal Lake notoriety, the camp is now open and filled with innocent children. Unfortunately, Jason (C.J. Graham) lives again, due to Tommy’s obsession and an ill-timed lightning storm.
Now, Tommy and Megan must bring him back to the lake while keeping Tommy out of jail. This intrepid final boy may be the film’s overt star, but Megan steals scene after scene. She breaks Tommy out of his cell, repeatedly stands up to law enforcement, and pushes a speedboat propeller into Jason’s face. As if that weren’t enough, Megan swims with an unconscious Tommy back to shore and gives him CPR while the campers look on. One of the most exciting final girls in franchise history, this assertive character provides an example of female empowerment for the next generation of Crystal Lake campers.
Tina Shepard – Friday the 13th: The New Blood (1988)
From one strong woman to another, Tina (Lar Park-Lincoln) is an unusual final girl due to her supernatural powers. Director John Carl Buechler introduces her as a child escaping horrific abuse from her alcoholic father. Using telekinetic abilities, she accidentally drowns him in Crystal Lake, a tragedy that will haunt her for years to come. Adult Tina struggles to release her guilt, which has been amplified by a psychiatrist with nefarious motivations. Returning to the scene of her father’s death, she tries to bring him back to life, but accidentally reawakens Jason (Kane Hodder).
A gruesome murder spree ensues while the troubled young woman finds the strength to battle her human tormentors. Having honed her skills, Tina wages a telekinetic war against the undead creature, attacking with nails, fire, and collapsing decks before summoning the spirit of her long-dead father to drag the brute back into the lake. Most final girls do not have psychic abilities and must rely on sheer resourcefulness to overtake the slasher killer. Tina is the rare character with access to both.
Rennie Wickham – Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
One of the most notorious entries in this enduring saga begins a trend that places Jason in new and increasingly strange locations. Rob Hedden’s film opens with scenes of the city followed by a drifting love boat that accidentally resurrects Jason from his underwater grave. The next day, Rennie (Jensen Daggett) reluctantly agrees to take part in a senior class cruise to New York City despite her crippling fear of water. Hiding onboard, Jason soon emerges for a maritime massacre.
Rennie and a handful of survivors make it to shore, but become overwhelmed by the busy city. When Rennie is kidnapped and injected with drugs, it’s Jason who winds up saving her from these stereotypical gangsters. Reunited with her boyfriend, she leads the decaying killer down into the sewers where he’s electrocuted by the legendary third rail. Rennie empathizes with Jason over shared aquaphobia and a chance childhood meeting in the waters of Crystal Lake, though she later throws toxic waste in his face. The skittish final girl may appear in the franchise’s most polarizing entry, but she’s one of F13’s more forgettable heroines.
Jessica Kimble – Jason Goes to Hell (1993)
The second half of this summer series just keeps getting weirder and weirder. But the most bizarre (and underrated) entry also features the franchise’s most unusual final girl. Rather than a virginal teen, Adam Marcus’s wild film follows Jessica (Kari Keegan), a young single mother who also happens to be Jason’s long-lost niece. She returns to town after the death of her mother and a sting operation that leaves Jason in pieces. But the spirit of the Crystal Lake killer lives on, possessing the bodies of those he can catch. In need of a new human form, Jason hunts down the last remaining members of his family in order to be reborn through a blood relative. When her scheming boyfriend falls under Jason’s power, Jessica must kill him several times to keep the inky, black-heart-demon at bay. Thankfully a reckless bounty hunter emerges with answers, allowing her to finally subdue Jason with a powerful dagger then watch as monsters drag him down into hell.
Rowan LaFontaine – Jason X (2001)
From damnation to space, James Isaac’s film is another bizarre chapter in the F13 saga. While certainly ridiculous and arguably fun, James Isaac’s film also delivers a notable final girl in Rowan (Lexa Doig) who leads the study of Jason’s regenerative capabilities at the Camp Crystal Lake Research Facility. Yes, really. Jason escapes captivity and lays waste to scientists and soldiers alike, leaving Rowan alone to contain the unstoppable threat. She lures him into a cryogenic sleep chamber, but winds up frozen alongside the brute.
Resurrected 445 years later, Rowan once again battles Jason on a spaceship headed to a distant planet called Earth II. With futuristic weapons at her disposal, she and her shipmates quickly take Jason down. Unfortunately, he falls into the medical bay where he becomes a muscular cyborg known as Über-Jason. Only the atmosphere of Earth II can destroy this machine-like ghoul and the half-metal monster finds himself ejected into space. Though her actions are fairly standard, Rowan gets points for surviving four centuries of cryosleep and becoming the oldest final girl in horror history.
Lori Campbell – Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
After 10 films watching Jason slaughter campers, New Yorkers, FBI agents, and astronauts, what else is there to do but make him the hero? Ronny Yu’s highly anticipated film catches up with the titular dream demon who’s been essentially forgotten by the teens of Elm Street, thanks to a dream-suppressing drug called Hypnocil. Freddy (Robert Englund) fights back by reanimating Jason to recharge their fears, allowing him to jump back into the minds of his favorite victims.
Hoping to take out the more sinister threat, Lori (Monica Keena) and her friends drug Jason and transport him back to Camp Crystal Lake where he will use home field advantage to take Freddy out. The intrepid final girl uses Hypnocil to enter the dream world and pull the quippy monster back into reality where he squares off with Jason in a fiery fight. With his signature machete, she decapitates Freddy then sends Jason back to his watery sleep. Lori may be overshadowed by the film’s central foes, but she’s the rare final girl who survives not one, but two iconic slasher killers.
Whitney Miller – Friday the 13th (2009)
Central to the final girl’s plight is absorbing the pain of previous victims. Each film contains a sequence in which the heroine discovers the slayed bodies of her friends and must perceive the horror as the audience’s proxy. But few final girls suffer as much as Whitney (Amanda Righetti) in Marcus Nispel’s remake/reboot/remix of the classic franchise. The beleaguered young woman reluctantly agrees to a weekend camping trip–a reprieve from caring for her ailing mother. But she and her ill-fated friends wander into the clutches of a jacked-up Jason (Derek Mears). It’s only thanks to a locket once belonging to Pamela Voorhees–found in Jason’s rotting shack–that allows her to survive.
Taking a page from Ginny’s playbook, she pretends to be his domineering mother and buys time while held captive in a subterranean lair. Weeks later, her brother Clay (Jared Padalecki) searches for her around town while Jason slaughters another group of debaucherous teens. Finally released from her underground prison, Whitney leads Jason to his grisly death and helps Clay send him back to a watery grave. A redux of several classic F13 final girls, Whitney embodies the best traits of the women who have come before her and emerges as the franchise’s reigning queen.