10 Horror Movie Final Girls Who Suffered The Most

For the record, this entry will only cover the first four Scream movies, so don't worry about spoilers for the new fifth film.

Perhaps the only final girl who can plausibly attest to having more debilitating trust issues than Hellraiser's Kirsty, Sidney Prescott has basically done the rarest of things for a slasher movie protagonist - survive three straight sequels.

Where to even begin with Sidney? Her mother Maureen was raped and murdered a year before the events of the first film, where her friends and classmates are killed off by Ghostface and she very nearly bites it herself.

The first Ghostface is revealed to be her own boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich) in league with her friend Stu (Matthew Lillard), and Billy also killed Sid's mother. This leaves Sid wracked with guilt that she pointed the finger at the wrong man, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber), for her mother's death.

In Scream 2 it all happens again, resulting in Sid's boyfriend Derek (Jerry O'Connell) being murdered by new killers Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) and Mrs. Loomis (Laurie Metcalf).

In the third film, she attempts to sift through her own trauma by working as a crisis counselor for women, though is brought out of hiding when her mother's mysterious past is raked over by a new killer.

This time the killer turns out to be her secret half-brother Roman (Scott Foley), who after being rejected by his mother Maureen convinced Billy, whose father was having an affair with Maureen, to kill her, setting up the events of the first two films.

And finally to date, Scream 4 saw Sid return to Woodsboro to publicise her new self-help book, and again faced off against Ghostface, who was none other than her damn cousin Jill (Emma Roberts) and her psychotic classmate Charlie (Rory Culkin).

Oh, and Sid is accused of being Ghostface herself and has to witness the brutal murder of her aunt Kate (Mary McDonnell). Bummer.

By the end of Scream 4 Sidney has gone through absolute hell, and additionally has directly or indirectly killed five people herself - Stu, Billy, Mickey, Mrs. Loomis, and Jill.

Even in survival, Sid will likely continue to be hounded by the media forever more, not to mention the fact that Ghostface is back once again for the fifth film.