20 Best Horror Movie Final Girls of the 2020s (So Far)

4. Sam Carpenter - Scream

Melissa Barrera had the unenviable task of being introduced as the young, new face of the Scream franchise in its fifth iteration, and so it's little surprise that her Sam Carpenter initially struggled to move away from the large shadow cast by the series' O.G. Final Girl, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).

But Sam wasn't merely "the new Sid," and while it would've been easy to groan at a legacy sequel which introduced the daughter of original killer Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), the will-she-won't-she over Sam's genetic killer instinct made her an unexpectedly complex heroine from the jump.

This was further developed in Scream VI where Sam well and truly took her trauma and used it as a weapon for the survival of herself and her sister Tara (Jenna Ortega).

While it's a shame that Sam's story was cut short because of behind-the-scenes conflicts, at least Scream VI felt like a natural enough jumping-off point for her character, having seemingly broken free of her past once and for all.