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Today's
Final Girls are much more than just virginal screaming
crying women who run through the woods and fall to the
ground waiting for the killer or monster to eat them
whole while their men come to the rescue. Today's final
girls have to be tough, they have to be independent, and
surely enough they have to be fierce, and the final girl
has been refined over the years from the prey to the
predator. Some of our favorite modern final girls we're
putting in this list are women we considered listing as
scream queens, but while they do fit the mold of scream
queens, they do much more than just scream and run. They
fight back, they cause trouble, and surely enough they
kick enormous amounts of ass, regardless of whether they
live to see the end of the movie. The title of final
girl was once just a tagline to best describe the final
female character of the horror movie that ended up
either living to see the end until a grizzly fate, or
fight back enough to see a few sequels until the writers
got sick of her and moved on to someone younger. Folks
like Heather Langenkamp, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Adrienne
King made famous the device which was then refined and
re-worked with Sigourney Weaver in "Alien" who was very
much a final girl but did much more than run away from
the monster screaming and crying.
Women
like Debbie Rochon turned the formula from there on in
and especially Wes Craven decided to turn the final girl
in to something of a heroine as we saw in Neve Campbell,
then Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Sarah Polley. These are
only a few of the modern Final Girls you should be
looking out for, and some you've likely grown to adore
over the years, and we pay homage to the final girls of
the new millennium adding a new dimension to what was
once considered a laughable plot device for a horror
film. Final Girls and scream queens are not all meant
for mainstream success. Like directors of the genre,
they're meant to be on the fringes of the cinema circle
like Linnea Quigley and Debbie Rochon, always playing to
the crowd and supplying a reason for the killer or evil
menace to stomp around and seek victims in their
warpaths. Modern Final Girls are much more than panty
wastes. They're heroines. They're independence. And they
fight back against the male dominant monster with as
much gusto as possible.
What
with the affordability of filmmaking becoming easier and
easier over the years and new directors popping up every
minute to show us their chops, there's a good chance we
have many more scream queens and final girls waiting in
the wings to show us their screeches and combat skills.
These are only a few we avidly admire and root for.
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Danielle Harris
Ms.
Harris has been a scream queen/final girl
since she was a child, taking great lengths
to express her survival tactics while also
confronting the shape in "Halloween IV" and
"Halloween V" as Jamie Lloyd, the tortured
young relative of Michael he committed his
days toward snuffing off the face of the
planet. The troubled young adopted girl with
a wide smile finds herself at knife's end
from uncle Michael who seeks out to destroy
every inch of her life murdering her
relatives, and then turning her in to a
killer herself.
Fans of horror
were exposed to the dynamic screaming power
of Harris and a successor to Jamie Lee
Curtis emerged. Harris went on to a
memorable cameo in "Urban Legend" as an
ill-fated Goth, and went face to face with
Michael in Rob Zombie's "Halloween" remake
and its sequel as Annie Bracket, and since
has appeared in many horror films like
"Cyrus," "Blood Night" and is now taking on
the role of scream queen supreme with a lead
role in "Hatchet II," and many more horror
movies to come. Harris is a favorite among
horror fans displaying a sense of
vulnerability matched with a fierce
independence that makes her a horror heroine
you can root for and she's embraced the
fandom well. |
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Monica Keena
Even before
dabbling in the horror genre, Monica
Keena won the hearts and minds of all
fan boys alike in her starring role on
the short lived dramedy "Undeclared" and
since then has been slowly and steadily
been working her way in to the fold as a
bonafide scream queen and final girl.
Busty, pouty, absolutely beautiful and
with a killer shriek and an admirable
sense of innocence, Keena wet her feet
with "Snow White: A Tale of Terror" and
went balls to the wall as the troubled
Lori Campbell who had the unfortunate
task of trying to stay alive as horror
titans Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhes
waged war in "Freddy vs. Jason" while
also protecting John Ritter's son and
the girl from Destiny's Child whose name
everyone forgets.
Since then,
Keena played a troubled apartment
dweller in the horror thriller "Long
Distance" about a killer terrorizing her
over the phone, and now can be seen
playing college student Maddie in the
remake of the 1988 cult classic "Night
of the Demons" alongside other gorgeous
vixens kicking demon ass and taking
names. Who knows what else is in store
for Keena? But with much more cult and
horror flicks under her belt, we're
looking out for her to do battle with
more monsters and ghouls in the future. |
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Niki
Rubin
Trained in
stunt work and martial arts as well as
Yoga, Niki Rubin is a scream queen and
final girl quickly making her way in the
horror genre starring in many
independent horror films that test her
ability to be bad and dangerous. With
her stone cold gaze and irresistible
allure, Rubin has a knack for playing
the bad girls and she does it with zeal.
Among other films, Niki can be seen in
films like "Zombies Anonymous," "Blood
and Sex Nightmare," the thriller "Eat
Your Heart Out," the short film "There's
a Maniac in my House!" and most recently
starred in the exceptional indie slasher
"Frat House Masssacre" where Rubin was
able to cut loose as the conniving femme
fatale Diana who is at first the victim
of her frat leader boyfriend's misdeeds
against his brothers and soon starts
plotting against other characters behind
the scenes beating the crap out of two
inept stoners, engaging in many cat
fights with her rivals, and playing a
bigger role in the overall narrative.
Rubin steals
the show in an otherwise excellent
slasher film and seventies throwback.
She can soon be seen in "The Turnpike
Killer," the vampire film "The One"
re-teaming with "Frat House Massacre'
director Alex Pucci, and is co-starring
in "Bikini Bloodbath Christmas," the
final film in the horror comedy series
by Thomas Edward Seymour. To top that
she has considerable geek cred playing
Catwoman in a series of short fan films,
and is the model for the comic book
character Lady Action where she appears
in conventions, comic shops and
festivals across the country. |
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America Olivo
The beautiful
and busty trained opera singer was first
seen in the much hyped and critically
mixed indie film "Bitchslap" where she
played the martial arts psycho lesbian
Camero, one of three insanely sexy
vixens looking for buried treasure in
the searing desert, beating on sexist
men, and munching on nuns on her spare
time. Since then Ms. Olivo, has slowly
been building a status as a big name for
horror starring in "The Thirst: Blood
War," the remake of "Friday the 13th,"
and even went full throttle as a
temptress and psychotic sadist playing
The Girl in the direct to DVD horror
film "Neighbor" starring alongside
husband Christian Campbell. The much
sought after Playboy and Maxim
centerfold has slowly built her resume
in films like "The Last Resort," and the
murder mystery "Circle," and is
garnering a well deserved status as the
bad girl often reveling in human misery
rather than running for her life.
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Our Favorite Modern Final
Girls Part Two >>
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