After “Our Favorite Modern Final Girls” hit the site a few years ago, we’ve been watching the horror genre with a magnifying glass and keeping an eye out for new scream queens and final girls making the scene. You’d be surprised how many new gorgeous young actresses can pop up in only a matter of two years and take the horror film world by storm. Lo and behold we gathered ten more Modern Final Girls we Love. Some of our choices have been around for almost ten years, some over ten years, and a few have just started making the scene as a premiere beautiful face fighting evil or monsters. With their charms and talents, they continue rethinking the mold of the modern final girl, and keep adding a respectability to what was once considered a disposable element of the film world.
Sara Paxton
Sara Paxton was once being groomed by Disney to become a Tiger Beat pixy for the tweens of America. After stints on their channel in shows like “Wizards of Waverly Place,”and a run of teen oriented films like “Aquamarine,” and “Return to Halloweentown,” suddenly Paxton made the transition to more mature films for a wider audience. After obligatory teen stuff like the rather entertaining “Sydney White,” the gorgeous spunky blond made her re-emergence as a bonafide adult oriented actress who began acting in films for mature audiences.
From her supporting performance in the solid “Superhero Movie,” Paxton went on to star in the excellent “The Last House on the Left,” the acclaimed indie ghost film “The Innkeepers,” and the camp horror film “Shark Night 3D.” In spite of her varying degrees of genre work, Paxton and her unique beauty and sex appeal has become a very recognizable face in the horror and thriller genre. She can go from pixie, to geeky, to pure sex bomb in any role she chooses, and for that versatility, she’s become a horror mainstay. Thankfully doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon and continues expanding her acting horizons.
Katrina Bowden
She was once known by many a stunned TV viewers as “That hot girl from “30 Rock,” and then she eventually proved she could do more than look good on television. Once her role in “30 Rock” was beefed up, Katrina Bowden showed she wasn’t just pure raw sex appeal. She had good humor, talent, and surely enough has begun steady and respectable work in genre films. She played the lovable Allison in the raucous “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” who falls for the funny Dale, and is caught between the funny pair and her vengeful college classmates.
She also delivered a hell of a memorable line (“Josh cut off his penis because something came out of my vagina.”) in 2012’s awful “Piranha 3DD,” and she’s soon going to star in the first theatrical horror film from mockbuster studio The Asylum entitles “Hold Your Breath.” With her next film as a manipulative nurse coming soon in “Nurse 3D,” Bowden is a welcome fresh face to the genre. And our fantasies.
Katie Featherston
Katie Featherston is not particularly a final girl, per se, but she started her life as the final girl for the incredibly successful horror film “Paranormal Activity,” and has continued her tenure in the horror genre being featured as the inadvertent villainous for the entire “Paranormal Activity” film series.
Going from empathic victim to demon with a pretty face in two films flat, Featherston has carved quite the fan base from genre geeks across the country. With her drop dead good looks, and strong acting chops, we hope Featherston continues her career delivering knock out performances with her knock out looks.
Melissa George
Melissa George is something of a truly underrated property in American cinema and television. And it’s a shame since a woman with such unique beauty and sex appeal, and an ability to bring her A game in any movie she stars in, should be a hot commodity in Hollywood. George has a look and charm that’s impossible to peg down, and she consistently takes on challenging roles where she spends most of the time running, jumping, shooting, and battling evil at every turn.
She’s had small turns in films like “Mullholand Dr.” and “Dark City,” and is most noted for appearing in “Alias.” She played Kathy Lutz in the “Amityville Horror” remake opposite Ryan Reynolds, stuck it out in “Turistas,” and fought off ravenous vampires in sub zero weather in “30 Days of Night.” She also made a riveting turn in the forgotten 2010 thriller “Triangle,” and starred in the incredible action thriller “A Lonely Place to Die.” With an ever growing resume, the gorgeous Australian doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon and we hope she stays in film.
Cerina Vincent
Cerina Vincent is a busty bodacious horror goddess who has been on the radar for over ten years and hasn’t stopped enchanting horror fan boys since. This is a woman so proud of her body, one of her biggest roles was in the comedy “Not Another Teen Movie” where she spent literally the entire movie walking around with her bare breasts exposed. Seriously, the movie is not bad, but Vincent is one of the aspects of the film that make it a must watch.
Beginning her career as a Power Ranger, she’s co-starred in horror films like “Cabin Fever,” “Murder Set Pieces,” the ghost thriller “Intermedio,” the monster flick “It Waits,” the sasquatchploitation thriller “Sasquatch Mountain,” “Return to House on Haunted Hill,” and most recently appeared in “The Walking Dead” web series “Cold Storage.” The horror goddess continues to land work as one of the premiere scream queens of the twenty first century, and we love her charisma and busty pride.
Katharine Isabelle
Canadian scream queen Isabelle has been a mainstay in the horror genre, providing a bevy of memorable roles and appearances that have helped the actress build a large resume of impressive work. Not only can she scream and cry convincingly, but she has a fierce personality that shines through every role, no matter how minor. While she’s not limited to horror, Ms. Isabelle is mostly known by American horror fans as Ginger, the ill-fated suburban teen who becomes a blood thirsty werewolf in “Ginger Snaps.”
Ms. Isabelle returned for the two follow-ups as Ginger in various forms, and since then has been steadily working in the genre making guest spots in shows like “Supernatural,” and has co-starred in horror films like “Bones,” “Insomnia,” “Hard Ride to Hell,” “Ogre,” and most notably “Freddy vs. Jason.” The gorgeous Isabelle continues popping up in movies and television and is always a pleasant surprise.
Emma Bell
Emma Bell has a vulnerability and acting prowess that makes her one of the best horror actresses around who can deliver a truly compelling performance with the proper material. In “Frozen” she gave a gripping turn as a young girl stuck on a chair lift in the middle of a frozen tundra, slowly succumbing to hypothermia, and starred in the well received “Final Destination 5.”
But Bell is mostly remembered by horror fans for her mesmerizing turn as sweet Amy in the hit television series “The Walking Dead” where she struggled to survive the zombie apocalypse with her sister Andrea, only to fall victim to a zombie siege and transform in to a walker before our very eyes. Like a true performer, she left the series with a bang, and left audiences remembering her take on the character. With a growing resume in television and film, Bell is a marvelous actress and a truly beautiful young horror gem. We’re definitely looking forward to more from her.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
The utterly hypnotic Mary Elizabeth Winstead has been wooing film fans since her break out role in the family film “Sky High.” Since then she’s won some very notable roles in horror films like “Final Destination 3,” and the remake of “Black Christmas,” as well as Quentin Tarantino’s much lauded “Death Proof” where she made many a fan boy swoon as Lee, who walked around through the entire film in a short cheerleading outfit.
Ms. Winstead with her doe eyes and unique charm paired with an image that’s impossible to pigeonhole, has been a welcome face in genre pictures landing a role as John McLane’s daughter in “Live Free or Die Hard” and as dream girl Ramona Flowers in 2010’s cult favorite “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.” With roles in the recent “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and 2011’s “The Thing,” we hope Winstead sticks around to fight more monsters and win the hearts of genre fans across the globe.
A.J. Cook
AJ Cook has made a great career as a character actress, but really manages to stand out in genre films that have made her a scream queen who is sexy but down to Earth. She’s appeared in “Wishmaster 3,” as well as the slasher whodunit “Ripper: Letters from Hell.”
She starred in the hit sequel “Final Destination 2” and took a very charming turn as a key character in the story arc to the underrated fantasy show “Dead Like Me.” Though mostly a Television actress today starring in procedural crime dramas, she’s still very well remembered as a contemporary final girl who made her mark in films like “Night Skies,” and most recently the acclaimed “Mother’s Day” remake.
Emmanuelle Vaugier
Ms. Vaugier has made her impression in the horror world for quite some time, opting to star in an assortment of horror films of varying quality. In spite of her resume being a mix of hit or miss horror roles, Emmanuelle Vaugier is a definite horror scream queen who has garnered a fan base through the years. From her television stints as a woman stricken with lycanthrophy in “Supernatural” and in “RL Stine’s The Haunting Hour,” to her roles in the hit horror series installments of “Saw II” and “Saw IV,” Vaugier has a massive resume of performances that has made a mark in the film world. She’s never limited to the horror genre, but she does shine in genre pictures. Even in stuff like “House of the Dead 2” and “Far Cry.” Vaugier is a unique beauty with a remarkable charisma and one of our favorites.