Where are the screaming men? Attempting to decode the missing ‘Final Boys’ trope in horror movies.

Link to Video Essay! Disclaimer, I did make a long intro because I also doubled this as an episode of my podcast, so please skip to 1:22 if you don’t want to watch it! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXRXdp_wK8U

When was the last time you went to the theatres, sat down to enjoy a horror movie, and saw a man crying and begging to have his life spared within it? Don't be alarmed if you can’t answer that question because I have the perfect explanation. If you do, stay and enjoy the video anyway, because today, we’re diving deep into the horror genre to decipher the evident lack of ‘Final Boys’ compared to its counterpart, the ‘Final Girls’. 

Definition and Origin of ‘Final Girls’

But before we get into any of the good stuff, understanding some of the terminology we will use in this video is crucial. So what exactly are ‘Final Girls’ or the ‘Final Girl’ trope? There have been and still are a lot of scholars and writers who have their own definitions of the term, for example, scholar Alyssa Pelish has a pretty concise characterization of it as: “The lone female character in a slasher movie who manages to survive the systematic slaughter of the more ditzy and voluptuous young things.” (Pelish 60). The term itself was coined by film expert Carol J. Clover in her book “Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film” to refer to the last girl standing at the end of a horror movie, especially a slasher (Clover, 1992). 

So it appears there’s a mutual agreement between film scholars and critics that the ‘Final Girls’ in slasher movies are the last and only survivors from whichever horrific threat said film poses. However, I’d like to expand the genre of this trope beyond only slasher, as I personally believe that even though it stems from slasher, we see it more in horror in general now. Though, rooting in slasher shows that the arc of ‘Final Girls’ is well introduced and greatly expanded in the 70s and 80s (more specifically from 1978 to 1984) - which many considered the Golden Age of this subgenre. It’s confident to say that the ‘Final Girl’ trope was mass-produced, presenting us with powerful and badass women like Sidney Prescott from Scream, Ellen Ripley from Alien, Laurie Strode from Halloween, and the list goes on. 

But wait, something’s missing… Where are the men? How come we have an entire character trope dedicated to women, but not men? I catch myself thinking about this in the middle of my English class one day, trying to find topics for my research paper. I’ve seen so many movies with the sole survivor being women, but rarely, or not at all, being men. And I realized, that’s actually weird. Not in a way where women can’t be the last standing person in horror media anymore, but it’s kind of strange we don’t see men in the position of crying and begging for their lives to be spared. Because if you think back, before all the famous final ladies can savor the taste of victory over their antagonist, they have been through hell and back - enduring both mental and physical pain, experiencing enough trauma for 10 different lifetimes, and just overall being tortured and toyed with to satisfy the sadistic wants of both filmmakers and audience. Speaking of that last part, let’s move on and discuss the role of women as victims. 

Women as Victims 

It might be counterintuitive to talk about victims when the topic is clearly about the ones who survive it all and thus become the heroes in their stories. But remember this, dead or alive, all characters in horror films have suffered more than enough to be considered as victims. Even their mere existence in a fictional universe with a threatening antagonist already paints them as possible victims of the enemies’ ruthless deeds. ‘Final Girls’ are cool and all, but did you know the majority, if not all of them, are actually written as ‘virgins’? And what’s even more surprising is that the women who are killed are implied as ‘whores’. I guess you already know where I’m going with this. The innocent and pure get to live, but the sexually active and “dirty” have to die. 

“Stereotypical Gender Roles [Horror Movie Misogyny 6]” is a blog article about the three main parts of a horror film that women can play: monsters, victims, and heroes. The author, kit10phish, included a table that summarizes the percentage presence of sexuality indicators among female and male nonsurvivors and survivors in slasher films, in which female nonsurvivors who are actively sexual in movies double that of female survivors. For instance, for the category of ‘revealing clothing’, non-survivor females are 46 compared to 23 survivor females, demonstrating the traditional and patriarchal ideology behind the death of ‘the sluts’. This reminds me a lot of another character arc: the ‘Femme Fatale’ in noir films back in the 40s, mainly because one of her traits is to be sexual, and uses that to her advantage, which unsurprisingly always results in her demise. There are also quite a few parallels between these two character tropes. I’d even like to argue that the ‘Final Girls’, in a way, are the direct counterpart of the ‘Femme Fatales’, but that’s a conversation for another day. 

The blog draws on a lot of other sources while talking about the theme of ‘sex’ and how it’s seen as a masculine trait, as it can be used as power over women. The sexual undertone of ‘the chase’ in horror films is highlighted to support this claim, due to how whenever a threat is chasing a female character - it always includes states of undressing and provocative camera work (kit10phish, 2023). Do you remember the scene from Scary Movie where “Ghostface” stabs Drew and pulls out a breast implant? I always thought it was just a funny joke and comic relief appropriate for a satire/parody film, but looking back, especially in this context where we’re discussing the sexualization of chase scenes - reading it as a direct satiric commentary on the convention in every horror movie wouldn’t be a stretch. In almost all chase scenes, the ones being chased are the women. It doesn’t matter if you’re the final girl or not, if you’re a woman, you will have a memorable chase scene that slasher fans will most likely post under a Reddit thread. 

The blogger even stated that: “Female characters are likely to experience sexual violence, particularly in the rape-and-revenge subgenre.” (kit10phish, 2023).  This is further supported by writer Linda Williams, who proposes that “women have the right to feel as if they do not belong since they are shown as powerless "in the face of rape, mutilation and murder” (Williams, N/A). Overall, the idea that the ‘Final Girl’ needs to be a virgin feeds into the patriarchal ideology, along with the sexual intent behind every chase scene, poses the question: How come we don’t see men in this position instead?

Where are the ‘Final Boys’?

And so we finally reach the main purpose of this video: where are all the ‘Final Boys’? Well, to say that they are non-existent is wrong, they do - just…not a lot. “When Did You Last See a Man Begging for His Life in a Horror Movie?” is an article from The Guardian, written by Anne Bilson, that examines the controversy behind the overuse of images of female victims and not males.  The female vulnerability has been abused, disguised for the reason that ‘it’s more empowering’ - while the male vulnerability is untouched. Men in horror movies should be ‘tough’ and ‘kick-ass’, not sensitive, and completely horrified at whatever’s threatening them. 

Bilson also suggests the highly possible reason behind the lack of ‘Final Boys’ would be how filmmakers and directors are already so comfortable putting women through hell and back on-screen, in the form of sexual domination. The director of ‘Carrie’ supported this claim, saying: “You fear more for her than you would for a husky man.” (Bilson, 2018). Bilson made many criticisms to point out the hypocrisy of horror filmmakers - in a field that’s predominantly male, who refuse to put characters of their gender through the dangers that are posed to female characters. The writer also expressed how beneficial it would be to showcase more of men’s fear and vulnerability, as it’ll be just as healthy as feminism and liberating men from restrictive and traditional notions (Bilson, 2018). 

Circling back to the question of where exactly the ‘Final Boys’ are, let’s look at horror films that include them. ‘Hostel’ 2005, was a box office hit when it was first released - not because it has a rare final male survivor, but it was ‘torture porn heaven’. The host of Dead Meat, James A. Jannise, in their Kill Count video on this movie, even said that “Your torture porn tolerance will strongly dictate your enjoyment of this movie” (Hostel (2005) KILL COUNT, 2:06-2:09). There’s nothing wrong with a gory film. Still, with this character trope being so scarred, it feels exploitative when the entire story revolves around physical torture, whilst many of the final girls are tormented beyond just flesh and bones. A better example of a final boy would be Chris from ‘Get Out’. This gender switch of character convention aligns with the theory put forth by film scholar Adam Knee, which seeks to obscure gender identities by dismantling the conventional gendered binary (Gebbia, N/A). Chris was threatened by the idea of ‘Otherness’ (not only from being an outsider to his girlfriend, Rose, family, but also in terms of race as he’s the only Black person in Rose’s family) outside of actual physical dangers - showing that writing a good ‘Final Boy’ with complexity and layers is possible. 

Why do we need more ‘Final Boys’?

“Misogyny in Horror Films” is a collection of academic sources that solely study the role of gender in the horror genre. One of the parts included in the source, titled “Audience”, discusses the impact of gender in horror media on female and male audiences. For the male audiences, it’s suggested by scholar Gwendolyn Foster in their review of Carol J. Clover's “Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Films”, that male characters in slasher movies are frequently eliminated quickly and simply, which makes the audience sympathize with the strong female character who is left to kill the monster (Foster, 1995). Clover also pushes the idea that the male onlooker, who takes a "vicarious stake in" the "fear and pain" the last female experiences as a result of the monster's cruel deeds, has masochistic tendencies (Clover, 2005). 

For the female audience, the opposite effect would take place. Rather than being inspired by the female characters, scholar Linda Williams proposes that “women have the right to feel as if they do not belong since they are shown as powerless in the face of rape, mutilation and murder” (Williams, N/A). This ties directly to the previous section, where I discussed the image of ‘Women as Victims’. It’s certainly an issue, as I have to agree with Williams on the fact that seeing female characters being forced to suffer or worse is incredibly challenging to digest - this type of content, as an attempt to make ‘Final Girls’ more “relatable” and “empowering,” can be argued to be the complete contrary. Williams firmly believes that the female gaze is so threatening to male power, it’s violently punished - which explains why the idea of “the slut” in horror media is always, without fail, slaughtered most brutally (Williams, N/A). This is not to declare that we need fewer ‘Final Girls’ or that producers should stop writing characters from this trope; it would be nice if there were less sexualization and objectification of said characters. They do not need to be chased down, tortured, and traumatized to be “empowering”. They just need to be written carefully…and better. 

Being more inclusive with ‘Final Boys’ is incredibly beneficial. As I’ve mentioned earlier, author Bilson discussed how healthy it would be to exhibit more of men's vulnerability and fear, saying that this would be just as useful as feminism and freeing men from limiting and conventional ideas (Bilson, 2018). Writer Gebbia also agrees, in their case studies of Chris from ‘Get Out’ and Ripley from ‘Alien’, saying: “The fact that these characters exhibit a combination of traditionally masculine and feminine traits validates the exploration of the Final Girl formula to include Final Boys, thus allowing both genders to connect with the self-saving hero of the horror genre.” (Gebbia, N/A). Plus, the same with ‘Final Girls’ - I’d love to see more well-written ‘Final Boys’ whose entire character and personality go beyond just being included in torture porn films. 

Conclusion:

Trust me when I say that the ‘Final Girls’ trope is still pretty great and iconic, after all, it did give us Scream - which is my favorite slasher of all time. But to admit that also means to acknowledge the fact that before Sidney Prescott could become Scream Queen (pun intended), she went through so much mental and physical abuse - so much so that it’s impossible not to wonder why and how filmmakers are so comfortable inflicting pain on female characters compared to male characters. Not to say that we need to watch men suffer or it’s necessarily a necessity, it’s just about representation and how important it is for male audiences to see characters of their gender crying, screaming, and saying, “Oh, so showing emotions is normal and acceptable!”. Male characters don’t always have to be tough, just like female characters don’t always have to be terrorized. So, in conclusion, write ‘Final Boys’ more, and write ‘Final Girls’ better.