PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Ah, the Final Girl: the last woman alive in a horror film left to face the killer. The Friday the 13th franchise has some good ones! To celebrate Friday the 13th, Jason Voorhees’s birthday, we rank Jason’s Final Girls from the venerable Friday franchise.
Before we begin, there are a few caveats. I did not include Pamela Higgins (Melanie Kinnaman) from A New Beginning or Alice (Adrienne King) from the 1980 original. Pam faced off against a “fake Jason” and Alice took down Jason’s mom. Cool ladies, admirable efforts, but this is all about Jason.
I didn’t include, but give honorable mention to Lori (Monica Keena) from Freddy vs. Jason. She was Freddy’s Final Girl in my opinion. Freddy, in his own words, “Always had a thing for the whores who live in this house.” Lori, for her part, said “Freddy…go to Hell!” before setting Freddy and Jason on fire at the end.
I didn’t include Kay Em 14 (Lisa Ryder) from Jason X since a) She’s an android and b) Only her head survived. I also excluded Agent Elizabeth Marcus (Julie Michaels) from Jason Goes To Hell: The Final Friday. Marcus led Jason to an explosive end at the hands of a heavily armed S.W.A.T. team, but can you really be a Final Girl if you only appeared in the first 10 minutes? I don’t think so.
So, without further adieu, here’s a definitive ranking of Jason’s Final Girls from the Friday the 13th franchise
#9. Whitney Miller (Amanda Righetti) – This Friday the 13th (2009) Final Girl spends most of the movie under lock and key so we don’t really get to see a lot of her. Her brother comes along at the end and does most of the dirty work battling Jason. Whitney gets heavily penalized here for her minimal effort in that final showdown as well as for getting Jason that close to a wood chipper and not finishing the job. We were robbed!
#8. Jessica Kimble (Kari Keegan) – In the much maligned Jason Goes To Hell, Kari Keegan plays Jason’s cousin Jessica. That’s bad news for Jason, since he can apparently only die at the hands of another Voorhees (don’t ask). And die he does, from a knife to the heart. This is only after Jason plays WWE Smackdown with Steven Freeman (John LeMay) for about 10 minutes first. Talk about coming in at the last second and stealing the glory! Has Steven forgiven you yet for letting him take that beatdown, Jessica?
#7. Rennie Wickham (Jensen Daggett) – Rennie’s not very popular with the fans, and it’s pretty easy to see why. In Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan, Rennie follows her predecessors on this list and lets the Final Guy do most of the work. Frankly, she spends a lot of the movie just standing around. She does ultimately throw a bucket of toxic waste on Zombie Jason (to reveal some of the most awful prosthetic work ever) and lives to tell the tale. Rennie stabbed Jason in his bad eye with Stephen King’s pen along the way. If only she had stabbed him in his good eye, he’d be wandering around collecting disability instead of offing co-eds at the camp to this day.
6. Rowan (Lexa Doig) – Jason’s Final Girls get more badass starting with #6 on the list. In Jason X, Rowan, a Crystal Lake Research Facility scientist, shoots up Jason with a shotgun and suspends him in cryo – freeze before waking up with him in the far future. After medical nanites bring her back to life, Rowan battles Jason and Uber Jason alongside the crew of the Grendel. She’s the only Final Girl on the list without a last name!
5. Tina Shepherd (Lar Park Lincoln) – Jason takes a serious beating at Tina’s hands in Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Tina has telekinetic powers, you see, and that makes her more than a match for Zombie Jason. Before this one is over, Jason gets nailed, electrocuted, burned, bashed, strangled, and blown up. Tina’s Zombie Dad ultimately finishes the job (don’t ask), but not before his daughter dishes more damage than any Final Girl has before or since.
4. Megan Garris (Jennifer Cooke) – Final Girls are almost always virginal, but you get the impression that Megan has a bit of a wild side. In Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, Megan teams up with Tommy Jarvis to take down our favorite hockey masked maniac after he gets resurrected from the grave, Frankenstein’s monster style. Megan has a promising career on the NASCAR circuit if the whole Final Girl thing doesn’t pan out. She finishes Jason off with a boat propeller blade to the throat before ultimately saving Tommy from drowning.
3. Trish Jarvis (Kimberly Beck) – When it comes to Jason’s Final Girls, few on this list can hope to match the beauty, brains and balls of Trish Jarvis. In Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Trish battles and eludes Jason multiple times in the film’s final act. She even lures the killer out of the house and on a mad foot chase to unselfishly buy time for her brother Tommy to escape. Trish puts Jason’s machete to use against him, mangling his hand and ultimately unmasking him. She even provides the final distraction for Tommy to pick up the machete and turn Jason into ground chuck.
2. Ginny Field (Amy Steel) – Ginny is number one on most Final Girl Best Of lists, and it’s hard to argue. She is sweet, funny, resourceful and knows her way around a chainsaw. She even shows genuine compassion for Jason…at least until he tries to kill her! Ginny gets major credit (and ewwwww points) for putting on Mrs. Voorhees’s sweater to lure Jason into a false sense of security. Ginny is the Final Girl in Part 2, but she gets a lot of help from her Final Boy Paul Holt. Paul engages a pre-hockey mask wearing Jason in hand to hand combat repeatedly. Ginny is top notch, but in the end there can be only one…
1. Chris Higgins (Dana Kimmell) – Chris is the textbook definition of Final Girl. Not only does she make boyfriend Paul take repeated cold showers, Chris faces down Jason ALONE for the final 25 minutes of Friday the 13th Part 3. Paul is killed before Chris and Jason even come face to face. But she doesn’t need him! Chris stabs Jason, cracks him on the head with a shovel (and books), hangs him, and ultimately bashes him in the face with an ax. If that’s not badass enough, she survived a 2nd Jason encounter in the woods when she was younger (as told to Paul in flashbacks in between cold showers). Chris – 2, Jason – 0. Flawless victory!
There you have it! There’s a fine art to Stayin’ Alive at Crystal Lake and these ladies wrote the manual.
Special thanks to Damon Bowie for granting us permission to use his Final Girls of Crystal Lake artwork for this piece. Check out Damon’s other work at http://www.damonbowieart.com.
Who’s your favorite Friday the 13th Final Girl? Tell us in the comments!
