The Survivor Girl
You know exactly what I mean. In the majority of slasher films–and I don’t mean any generic horror film, I mean slashers–there is almost always one girl who manages to survive until the very end. She somehow does this despite having no qualities that set her above the other characters.
She is not smarter, faster, stronger, or more useful to society in any way. For all intents and purposes, she should die first.
The reason she lives is because those other characters are simply fodder to be thrown in the wake of her path where the killer can best get to them first.
She is the real villain.
EXAMPLES
Let’s hit the basic three first, shall we?
HALLOWEEN (1978)
John Carpenter’s original slasher masterpiece stars the methodical and, in my opinion, most dangerous of the unholy trio of slasher villains, Michael Myers.
The character Laurie, played by Jamie Lee Curtis, is the first survivor girl of the golden age. Her very existence spells the end for her friends, since they are in the path on the way to her and Michael wants her.
Example:
The young boy Tommy sees Michael carrying the body of one of Laurie’s friends into a neighboring house. Laurie dismisses his fears as simply being Boogeyman silliness and does nothing. Having decided not to believe in any threat, two more of Laurie’s friends (this would be the couple having sex) end up mutilated too.
FRIDAY THE 13th (1980)
Now, in case you are one of the people not familiar with the original title, the famous Jason character in a hockey mask does not actually appear until the third movie. He has a potato sack over his head in the second, but in the first film the killer is actually his mother. This does not mean we do not have a survivor girl. Oh, we do.
Alice Hardy.
Example:
Let’s forget for a moment that Alice and others are playing strip poker while most of their friends are being killed, and skip straight to near the end where it is just her and Bill remaining. The car won’t start. They can’t escape. Bill goes ALONE into town and is murdered on his way back. Alice only ever gets to her friends after they have already been slaughtered. Try to be quicker on the uptake, honey, and never, EVER split up.
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)
Freddy Krueger, the only one of the top three to be played by the same actor in all of the films (save the new one about to come out) is the fedora and sweater wearing killer with bladed gloves. He is the most supernatural slasher villain since he kills through nightmares, but that does not make him any less dangerous in the real world. His original survivor girl is Nancy Thompson.
Example:
This has to be my favorite as far as blunders. Nancy and her boyfriend (played by Johnny Depp) devise a plan to kill Freddy, but instead of sticking together to actually keep an eye on each other–I don’t care if their parents were interfering–he falls asleep and is spewed out as a gooey mess of blood and bone and the plan goes array. Nancy is successful in stopping Freddy afterwards, but only for a short time.
She returns to get others killed in the 3rd film.
These and many other slasher movies are what lead to the movement of introspective slasher films. What that means is we get to experience the movie with characters that know what slasher films are. They know the rules, they know how the plots almost always go, and yet they still manage to make most of the same mistakes. The first of these was Scream.
SCREAM (1996)
Wes Craven, a master of horror long before this film, first introduces us with a classic calling the babysitter type beginning that leads into a tongue-in-cheek story that holds true to every classic slasher stereotype while knowing full well what it is doing the entire time, and not being afraid to tell us. Sydney Prescott is not only the survivor girl for this film, but an entire series.
Example:
She had sex with her boyfriend. No really, that’s the dumb move in this case. Her boyfriend, Billy, is one of the killers (should have seen it coming) and could not go through with the finale of their murders without her giving it up. Everything was geared toward her.
If she had stuck to her guns when she first accused her boyfriend, nobody else, including her best friend, would have had to die.
BEHIND THE MASK (2006)
This film really brings to culmination the point I am trying to make with this blog entry, because it looks at the survivor girl character the closest. Told half as a mock documentary and half as a normal film, we first get to see how the slasher villain in the making perfects his craft, and then we get to see it play out.
SPOILERS
No, really. This movie is awesome, so if you do not want to be spoiled about the ending, skip to the conclusion.
Taylor Gentry is the surprise twist of a survivor girl in this film, made to believe she was simply documenting a killer’s progress toward another girl, when she was his survivor girl all along.
Instead of leaving when she and her film crew had the chance, she decides to stay and help, which is of course exactly what the killer wanted her to do and results in everyone but her and two others dying.
If they had just let things be, or maybe not done the documentary at all, none of those teenagers would have had to die.
CONCLUSION
Oh, sure, the fault also lies with the actual killer, and in fact the survivor girl is usually someone the killer has a particular interest in, like Laurie being Michael’s sister, so she is singled out before she ever makes a decision. But I still think she could stop making the kinds of decisions that gets everybody else killed faster.
My advice, if you find yourself in the middle of a slasher situation, indentify the survivor girl as quickly as possible. Stay away from her and you have a better chance of staying alive.
If you are the survivor girl, you can either run and hope there aren’t too many bodies trailing behind you, or turn yourself over to the killer and save everyone alot of trouble.
~G³
Obsessed with Mass Effect 2 with many others right now, next week I am going to tackle “Good vs Evil”, a look at video games that offer us the choice to be a little dark side or a little light side in a way that can drastically effect the course of the game.
Thanks for tuning in.
Images taken from:
http://www.cinemaxasia.com/images/posters/378×195/ill_always_know_what_you_did_last_summer.jpg
http://images.cutoutandkeep.net/snippets/articles/498/friday_720×480.jpg
http://www.best-horror-movies.com/images/nancy-thompson-at-window.jpg
http://iconsoffright.com/news/scream-sydney.jpg
http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/files/Friday-the-13th-part-2-pitchfork-small_0.jpg
http://www.wallpaperez.info/wallpaper/games/Mass-Effect-2-wallpaper-2016.jpg
http://www.best-horror-movies.com/image-files/behind-the-mask-taylor-crew.jpg
Oh, I dunno… I always sort of liked Nancy from Nightmare on Elm. At least she actually fights back, as opposed to surrounding herself with unbelief and then screaming and hiding and waiting for some hero or miracle to save her. Also, she uses her brain to fight Freddie, and is rewarded for it, and that’s awesome; come on, thinking up not only a way to beard the lion in his den but also a way to get out? That’s badass. And I’m sorry, but Jonny Depp deserved what he got for falling asleep alone.
@Sean R.: I disagree about Nancy. She is not rewarded for fighting back. We aren’t even sure if she actually won at the end of the first film. If we assume she did, because she appears again in the 3rd film, we see that that is only because she started taking drugs to prevent dreaming. When she attempts to fight again, she dies. She even rallies the kids in the 3rd movie together, most of whom die. Classic Survivor Girl moves, and in the long run she doesn’t even survive, which is also true to form. Most survivor girls only retain their title for one movie, and are then killed in the sequel.
I think she well deserves her place on this list.
Oh, is that what happens to her in the other movies? That sucks; I never saw the sequels and don’t really intend to, cause of what I heard. That’s why I still cant bring myself to watch the 3rd Alien movie…
@Sean R.: I love all the Alien movies, though the second is my favorite. I still think the 3rd one is worth a look.
Nancy is not in the second Elm Street film, but she returns in the 3rd. It is actually my favorite, because all of them take the fight to Freddie. And a young Patricia Arquiette is the lead.
I have felt for a long time now that it has been a growing problem that most American families are facing. People, we need to ban together and spay your Survivor Girl. Future generations depend on the decline of this species. If these Survivor Girls are allowed to breed they will create more of them and the death rate among teens will only continue to rise. Drugs, STDs, and alcohol pale in comparison to the damage that is left behind in the wake of their existence. So please, spay your Survivor Girls; think of the children.
@Janskoller: Succinctly put. We need to get this PSA out to the masses. I’ll call the radio stations, you get a hold of NBC and we’ll get this baby on the air pronto. No more young lives should be lost to this menace!