Sole
Survivor: The Final Girl
The image of the Final Girl is a
substantial role in “slasher” films. In A
Nightmare on Elm Street the character Nancy Thompson fulfills this role. Nancy satisfies a numerous of the “Final Girl”
qualities. She is smart, inquisitive,
and independent. Nancy is also virginal
despite the fact that she has a boyfriend.
These are main traits found in the final girl. She must be smart and inquisitive in order to
be the last survivor. Her independency
makes her a survivor, for she learns that she can only rely on herself. The last trait harbors the potential for sexual
development. She is sexually unavailable
or uninterested. The ambiguous sexuality
nature of the final girl permits her growth and ultimate masculinization of
herself and feminization of the slasher.
The final girl’s abstinence permits
her to live. Why is Nancy not the first
character killed instead of Tina? The
myth of the final girl points to the unauthorized sex between Tina and her
boyfriend Rod as a reason. Nancy and her
boyfriend sleep over Tina’s house to keep her company while her mother is
away. Tina and Rod go upstairs to have
sex and Tina is shortly killed afterwards.
The act of sex equates to death in slasher films. Sex alone will not save the Final Girl
however.
The final girl counts on her
resourcefulness to save herself. In Carol Clover’s Men, Women and Chainsaws:
Gender in the Modern Horror Film she states that with the growth of slasher
films, the Final Girl progresses from passive to active defense. “It is no surprise that the films following
Halloween present Final Girls who not only fight back but do so with ferocity
and even kill the killer on their own, without help from the outside”
(Clover). In A Nightmare on Elm Street, nobody will
believe Nancy about Freddy Krueger’s nightmare killings. She is forced to stop him herself. After watching each of her friends and her
boyfriend die one by one, Nancy realizes that she is the next victim. In her sleep she lures him out of dream land
to an assortment of booby traps lined up for Freddy in reality. This initiative is the first part of Nancy’s
survival. Freddy appears to be
unstoppable getting past the traps and murdering Nancy’s mother. Nancy undermines him in the final scenes of
the film. She uses his own weapon
against him, the weapon that nightmares are based on: fear. Nancy exclaims to Freddy that she no longer
fears him and he is nothing. With that final
blow Nancy has defeated the slasher.
Nancy comes into her masculinity as Freddy is feminized.
The feminization of Freddy occurs
through Nancy’s “ability to adapt to the new: to negotiate change” according to
Final Girls: Terrible Youth: Transgression in 1980s Slasher Horror. Nancy changes her current perception on
reality. As the only character to
believe in Freddy’s supernatural ability, she becomes the sole survivor.
The blurred lines of sexuality in
slasher films create a perverted perception on which characters possess what
sexual roles. Through the myth of the
Final Girl the viewer goes through the process of the characters obtaining
their sexuality. Cheering her own, whether they are male or female.
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