10 Traits That Make Up A Modern Day Horror Movie Final Girl
4. Rule 7 - She Needs To Be Physically Or Emotionally Isolated
Are you feeling sorry for the final girl yet? Because you should be!
For a horror movie character to become a final girl one of two things has to happen: She 1) has to choose to face up against the killer on her own accord or 2) has to forcibly be thrust into this position.
With 2, she has no choice in becoming a final girl and this usually is caused by her being isolated in some way. She either has to be physically isolated, like Maddie in Hush, or emotionally isolated like Thomasin from The Witch.
In Hush, Maddie is a deaf woman who is living alone in the middle of the woods. She is thrust into the role of a final girl when she accidentally witnesses murder her neighbour. Her isolation is like a beacon to the killer and even though he didn't set out to kill her too, he can't help but be enthralled by what seems to be an easy kill. But as she is a final girl... what unfolds is definitely not easy!
For Thomasin, the whole movie is about isolating her from everyone in her life. Her family is banished from their community at the start and as the movie continues, the divide between her and her family gets bigger and bigger until she has no one left.
Isolating the final girl to force her into her fate is more realistic than her choosing to fight back of her own free will and it makes for a more sympathetic heroine.