Top 5 Final Girls Of The Friday The 13th Film Franchise
We are all accustomed to Top 5 lists now as they run rampant on the web almost daily. These lists are usually used find out fan's thoughts on particular subjects and see where the genre community stands with regard to a particular film or franchise. In that spirit, we decided to put together our Top 5 Final Girls in the Friday The 13th film franchise! You may or may not agree strongly with these selections, but please feel free to let your opinion be known in our Comments section below.
5. Alice Hardy
It might be considered blasphemous to put the original Final Girl of the franchise at number five, but we have good reason. Even though Alice chopped off Mrs. Voorhees' head in Friday The 13th 1980, definitively ending her reign of terror, Alice only had to face off against a lady in her fifties rather than a younger hulking woodsman. This was not a scared girl going one on one against Jason Voorhees, but a vengeful mother. I know, it's still a scary circumstance to survive, but the other reason she isn't higher on our list is her actions were more reactionary, compared to the others higher on our list.
For instance, Alice was always hiding from Pamela, hoping she would go away. It was only when she was found did she act to defend herself. Now, this is not to say that she was a terrible Final Girl. Not at all, she was a typical teen at a secluded camp thrown into an extraordinary circumstance and survived. Major props go to Alice, but the others higher on the list have a little more gusto and used their wits to survive.
4. Trish Jarvis
The only reason Trish isn't higher on our list has to do with the fact that she wasn't the one to stop the killer, but she did take on Jason Voorhees face to face, and inflicted some damage in the process. Trish ranks higher than Alice, because she not only takes on Jason when needed, but she emits a level of rage and physicality not seen by Alice.
Case in point, after a climactic chase scene in Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter, Trish jumps out of the second floor window of the party house to escape Jason. She is then able to pick herself up and walk to her house. When Jason appears at the Jarvis house on the porch, she has enough sense to pick up the machete and begin swinging incessantly, actually keeping Jason at a distance until striking him in the hand, and eventually in the chest.
3. Tina Shepard
None of the other ladies in our list had to encounter a half rotted, zombie Jason like Tina Shepard did in Friday The 13th Part 7: The New Blood, and she receives points for surviving that scenario right away. No matter how ludicrous the telekinesis angle is to some fans, Tina has to be ranked high for the mere fact that she controlled her emotions and fear and took out Jason on multiple occasions using her powers.
The best scene has to be when she drops the roof on Jason. It's one of the best looking scenes in the film. Although Tina ultimately did not completely stop Jason in the film on her own (Thanks ghost Mr. Shepard), she wasn't afraid of Jason towards the end of the film and took the fight to him. The best example is when Jason is stalking her and love interest Nick up the stairs of the Shepard home. With an escape door being locked, instead of trying to run away somewhere else, Tina walks toward Jason and uses her powers to swing a light fixture at his head knocking him in the air and through the stairs.
2. Chris Higgins
Chris may have the most complicated relationship with Jason Voorhees ever seen on film, and that may lend to the big time beat down she puts on him in the latter stages of Friday The 13th Part 3. There are multiple instances of Chris deciding to stay and physically inflict pain on the Crystal Lake slasher, rather than run and hide.
If not for our number one Final Girl, Chris may have been the most calculating of the entire bunch in the franchise. In one instance, she waited for Jason to walk out onto the porch of her family's home before hitting him in the head with a fire log and knocking him into the railing. She also attacked Jason with a knife as he tried to enter a closet she was hiding in, eventually stabbing him in the leg. Finally, she hid behind hay bales and hit Jason in the head with a shovel, knocking him out and then placing a rope around his neck and hanging him off the front of the barn. Jason probably never felt so emasculated in his hideous life.
1. Ginny Field
This was admittedly a tough call to make. Chris would have made number one in our list if not for the infamous and still chilling scene at the end of Friday The 13th Part 2. With no where left to hide or run to, and stuck in a room with the rotting head of Mrs. Voorhees, Ginny used her intellect to defeat Jason. Using her child psychology degree and knowledge of Jason's past, she proceeded to outsmart the younger Jason Voorhees in the franchise.
Ginny put on the disgusting, blood soaked sweater of Mrs. Voorhees and pretended to be Mrs. Voorhees as she tried to tell Jason his job was completed. Jason eventually figured out that mommy was not talking to him, but it bought her enough time for Paul to find her and wrestle him away in order for Ginny to strike the final blow to stop Jason for the pair to escape.
5. Alice Hardy
It might be considered blasphemous to put the original Final Girl of the franchise at number five, but we have good reason. Even though Alice chopped off Mrs. Voorhees' head in Friday The 13th 1980, definitively ending her reign of terror, Alice only had to face off against a lady in her fifties rather than a younger hulking woodsman. This was not a scared girl going one on one against Jason Voorhees, but a vengeful mother. I know, it's still a scary circumstance to survive, but the other reason she isn't higher on our list is her actions were more reactionary, compared to the others higher on our list.
For instance, Alice was always hiding from Pamela, hoping she would go away. It was only when she was found did she act to defend herself. Now, this is not to say that she was a terrible Final Girl. Not at all, she was a typical teen at a secluded camp thrown into an extraordinary circumstance and survived. Major props go to Alice, but the others higher on the list have a little more gusto and used their wits to survive.
4. Trish Jarvis
The only reason Trish isn't higher on our list has to do with the fact that she wasn't the one to stop the killer, but she did take on Jason Voorhees face to face, and inflicted some damage in the process. Trish ranks higher than Alice, because she not only takes on Jason when needed, but she emits a level of rage and physicality not seen by Alice.
Case in point, after a climactic chase scene in Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter, Trish jumps out of the second floor window of the party house to escape Jason. She is then able to pick herself up and walk to her house. When Jason appears at the Jarvis house on the porch, she has enough sense to pick up the machete and begin swinging incessantly, actually keeping Jason at a distance until striking him in the hand, and eventually in the chest.
3. Tina Shepard
None of the other ladies in our list had to encounter a half rotted, zombie Jason like Tina Shepard did in Friday The 13th Part 7: The New Blood, and she receives points for surviving that scenario right away. No matter how ludicrous the telekinesis angle is to some fans, Tina has to be ranked high for the mere fact that she controlled her emotions and fear and took out Jason on multiple occasions using her powers.
The best scene has to be when she drops the roof on Jason. It's one of the best looking scenes in the film. Although Tina ultimately did not completely stop Jason in the film on her own (Thanks ghost Mr. Shepard), she wasn't afraid of Jason towards the end of the film and took the fight to him. The best example is when Jason is stalking her and love interest Nick up the stairs of the Shepard home. With an escape door being locked, instead of trying to run away somewhere else, Tina walks toward Jason and uses her powers to swing a light fixture at his head knocking him in the air and through the stairs.
2. Chris Higgins
Chris may have the most complicated relationship with Jason Voorhees ever seen on film, and that may lend to the big time beat down she puts on him in the latter stages of Friday The 13th Part 3. There are multiple instances of Chris deciding to stay and physically inflict pain on the Crystal Lake slasher, rather than run and hide.
If not for our number one Final Girl, Chris may have been the most calculating of the entire bunch in the franchise. In one instance, she waited for Jason to walk out onto the porch of her family's home before hitting him in the head with a fire log and knocking him into the railing. She also attacked Jason with a knife as he tried to enter a closet she was hiding in, eventually stabbing him in the leg. Finally, she hid behind hay bales and hit Jason in the head with a shovel, knocking him out and then placing a rope around his neck and hanging him off the front of the barn. Jason probably never felt so emasculated in his hideous life.
1. Ginny Field
This was admittedly a tough call to make. Chris would have made number one in our list if not for the infamous and still chilling scene at the end of Friday The 13th Part 2. With no where left to hide or run to, and stuck in a room with the rotting head of Mrs. Voorhees, Ginny used her intellect to defeat Jason. Using her child psychology degree and knowledge of Jason's past, she proceeded to outsmart the younger Jason Voorhees in the franchise.
Ginny put on the disgusting, blood soaked sweater of Mrs. Voorhees and pretended to be Mrs. Voorhees as she tried to tell Jason his job was completed. Jason eventually figured out that mommy was not talking to him, but it bought her enough time for Paul to find her and wrestle him away in order for Ginny to strike the final blow to stop Jason for the pair to escape.
