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Laurie Strode, portrayed by Jamie Lee Curits, is the Final Girl in the film, Halloween. Laurie is a considered a Final Girl because she resembles most of the characteristics. She is intelligent, was the first person to realize that a killer was after her, can defend herself against Michael, and she also tends to present herself in a masculine way.
Alien is usually categorized as a science fiction horror movie, but it shares many qualities of the slasher subgenre. In Carol J. Clover’s essay, “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the slasher film” she attempts to analyze the various aspects of the Slasher film and how they deal with gender. In the essay, she gives broad overviews of the characteristics that usually describe the killer and what she
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Clover spends a good part of her essay explaining who The Final Girl is and what characteristics define her. The Final Girl is the female character of the Slasher film that is the only survivor of the story. She is usually the main character of the story, and is identified with by both the male and female audience members. She also says that "The Final Girl is also watchful to the point of paranoia; small signs of danger that her friends ignore she takes in and turns over. Above all she is intelligent and resourceful in extreme situations" (Clover 204). In other words, when the killer is near, she is the first person (and often the only person) to know something is wrong. Another trait of The Final Girl is that she is usually “boyish”, in that she does not have an overtly feminine appearance, and she will often have traditionally male interests. She will often have a gender-neutral name. Some examples Clover gives of The Final Girl are Sally in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Stretch of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre II, Laurie of Halloween and Marti in Hell Night. Clover states in the essay that Ripley, of Alien is a Final Girl. While Ripley is undeniably the hero of Alien, Ripley does not meet all of the criteria that