Dubbed “Final Girls,” these women, teens, and girls often endure until the story’s end. Their journey might not always conclude with the credits, but their primary role is to confront villains with unwavering courage. Ranked from formidable to extraordinary, these heroines have earned their spots on this list due to their sheer tenacity. The order reflects the author’s preferences, highlighting the top 10 Final Girls in horror film history.

The “Evil Dead” series, known for its rare “Final Boy,” Ash Williams (Bruce Campbell), also introduced a standout Final Girl: Mia Allen (Jane Levy). Mia, a recovering drug addict, retreats to a secluded cabin with her estranged brother (Shiloh Fernandez) for rehabilitation. However, upon arrival, they find signs of an intruder, such as dead animals hanging and a mysterious book secured with barbed wire in the basement. Unfortunately, their friend Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) reads from the book, unleashing demons. Mia is soon possessed, and her companions meet gruesome fates.

Being a Final Girl in the “Final Destination” series is a bittersweet honor. Surviving one film, as Ali Larter’s Clear Rivers did in the original, doesn’t guarantee safety in subsequent sequels. The series is notorious for dispatching its Final Girls and Boys, often with unexpected plot twists, demonstrating the franchise’s penchant for keeping audiences on the edge of their seats.

The big twist, of course, is that Mia goes from villainess to heroine, her brother having resurrected her before dying at the hands of their friends. Mia’s time as the movie’s heroine only lasts for the film’s last quarter, but her deeds are so legendary — and so blood-soaked — that she’s definitely worthy of her position on this list. Losing a hand in the fight but chainsawing her way through her evil doppelganger, Mia rises up, reborn in body and in spirit by her encounter with evil. While some elements of the film might be imperfect, it’s hard to deny that she is a wonderful heroine — and she has the scars to prove it.

To be a final girl in the “Final Destination” series of movies is a mixed blessing. While you might end up surviving your own film — just as Ali Larter’s Clear Rivers did in the original movie — you’re probably going to bite it in the sequel. The franchise is littered with final girls and final boys who didn’t survive their movie, and are often taken out by a surprise twist from the great storytelling gods.

That’s why Kimberly Corman (A.J. Cook) is such an outlier for the franchise as a whole. Death surrounds her, but it never claims her, not even in the final scene of “Final Destination 2.” Her bad luck does pass on to another unfortunate person who should have died in the highway accident that also should have claimed Kimberly, but Kimberly herself keeps on ticking. She makes it through threat after threat, death after death, and comes out the other end triumphant. Her survival is spoken of in respectful tones by the characters in the franchise’s latest edition, “Final Destination: Bloodlines,” for a reason.

Never scorn a bride, even if an ancient familial good luck ritual demands it. Grace Le Dormas (Samara Weaving) has just married into the rich and famous Le Dormas family, whose board game company has sustained their lavish lifestyle for decades. But their good luck is conditional — great-grandpa Victor struck a deal with a devilish figure named Mr. Le Bail, and now every time someone gets married a card must be drawn from the man’s puzzle box at midnight on their wedding night. Grace learns when she plucks “hide and seek” from the pile that the bargain is a deadly one — if the Le Dormas clan doesn’t manage to attain a blood sacrifice whenever that card is pulled, they risk nullifying their deal with the devil and dying themselves.

Grace won’t take that idea lying down, and arms herself with bullets, bravado, and a newly toughened attitude. If it means killing her new husband, so be it. Not only does that make her a memorable heroine, but it makes her a fascinating one who grows throughout the movie. Grace will be coming back in a brand-new sequel film in 2026 titled “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.” From victim to heroine, she’s bound to make her next outing something special.

Sienna Shaw (Lauren LaVera) has suffered more than your average final girl, and she hasn’t even gotten her happy ending yet as of this writing. That’s the weight of existing in the “Terrifier” universe, where the omnipresent and inventively wicked Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) reigns. It’s also the cost of being a cinematic representation of humanity’s goodness when stacked against the pure wickedness of Art. Sienna does her best to come through, though, and somehow she has survived even as the world has burned down around her, taking the lives of friends and family members alike.

LaVera gives Sienna layers of depth and grit that make her interesting beyond simply being a vulnerable waif. Sienna was once a symbol of purity, but now she’s become a guiding light for the “Terrifier” franchise. It might be driven by Art’s cruelty, but without Sienna, audiences would be unable to hope for a brighter world, and “Terrifier” would become a depressing slog.

Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is a firecracker of a gal who refuses to brook nonsense. She’s going to be a star, come hell or highwater, and eventually manages to make it on her own. Sure, she has to take an odd route to fame — she starts out as a porn star and has to deal with some very messy business involving a shoot that was interrupted by a psychotic biddy looking for a good time — but eventually the B-movie gods shine on her. Maxine becomes a horror movie starlet — though it does result in a whole lot of people around her dying.

Maxine is the kind of girl who looks at a crazed serial killer and talks her into the ground by declaring her sense of purpose. She can shoot her serial killer father in the face without blinking an eye after he tries to murder her. She’ll only be seen, consumed, and even stalked on her own terms. Maxine is fearless and self-possessed. Is it any wonder jealous co-stars, serial killers and many other kinds of riff-raff can’t get one up on her? She’s bonified final girl material, no doubt about it.

Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) is a classic final girl in so many ways. Tormented by nightmares of a grotesquely scarred, razor-gloved man (Robert Englund), she soon learns her friends are suffering through the same visions. Many of them begin dying violently in their sleep, and Nancy has to struggle against her desire to join them in slumber — and her mother’s careful lies — to figure out why the evil guy is trying to kill her.

Smart, strong, and tough as nails, Nancy’s presence in the movie is so brilliant and her actions so brave that she makes an excellent impression on the audience. She became so popular that she ends up surviving the surrealistic ending to “A Nightmare on Elm Street” to resurface as a caring, kind mentor in “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors.” She makes a heroic sacrifice there, but has managed to work her way into the horror pantheon, becoming one of the most memorable final girls ever to wield her talents against seemingly impossible odds.

Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) bears the burden of being the smartest woman in the room. Nine times out of ten, she knows the right thing to do. But she struggles under the Cassandra Curse: The higher-ups in charge of every mission to which she’s been assigned continue to ignore her until they have a xenomorph in their faces. She’s the one who has to come in and bat clean-up, usually with a flamethrower and her quick wit as her best defense. Ripley makes some of the best decisions in the “Alien” franchise, so her last girl longevity definitely doesn’t come from blind luck.

She’s one of a small number of horror heroines to determine her own fate — choosing self-sacrifice in “Alien 3” to prevent a queen from emerging from her body — and she’s so popular the producers have happily resurrected the character, bringing Ripley back as her own clone in “Alien: Resurrection.” Ever since, there’s been rumor and speculation that Weaver will somehow bring Ripley back yet again, erasing her death and making her the center of another wild adventure in the “Alien” saga. Now that’s what we call one powerful final girl.

Hello, Sidney. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) knows the score throughout the “Scream” timeline. She might not be as genre-savvy as her friend Randy (Jamie Kennedy), but she definitely knows that it’s stupid to run upstairs, that it’s unwise to mess with the original while making a sequel, and whenever the killer seems dead, that’s when they’ll jump to life for one last scare. She’s suffered mightily and come out the other end stronger for it, easily making her top three material for this list.

Sidney’s heroism is born out of tragedy. Her mother, Maureen, is killed by the original Ghostface slayers, Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) and Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich). For decades afterward, every single time Ghostface resurrects himself, it’s to attack Sid because of either something she did the first time around or because they are attracted to the spotlight that has fallen on Sid due to her status as a real life final girl. The world has crashed down on her more than once, and she’s lost so many friends along the way. But in spite of everything she’s been through, Sid has always managed to survive with her sense of self intact. 

Many stereotypes attached to the final girl phenomena can be linked back to Sally Hardesty (Marilyn Burns), one of the first major final girls. Running away from the killer only to be cornered, the daring last-minute escape from death, the blood-soaked finale with a radiantly triumphant heroine — that can all be traced right back to Sally. She’s too legendary to keep off of this list, and her legacy — and her toughness — demands her inclusion.

For those who see her as helpless waif flailing her way through the Texas prairie while trying to avoid Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen), it cannot be forgotten that she saves herself by jumping out of a second-floor window at the Sawyer residence. She happens to be in the right place and the right time when that truck driver stops for her, but ultimately she engineers her own rescue and more than earns her moment in the sun. The franchise’s attempts at bringing her back into the fold have been odd at best and insulting at worst, but nothing can diminish her impact on the genre.

Here she is, queen of the pile — and Reddit horror fans agree that she’s the best final girl of all time, too. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is your average, ordinary teenager whose plans for a night of Halloween babysitting are ruined when Michael Myers (Nick Castle) slaughters his way across Haddonfield, memories of killing his own babysitting older sister Judith (Sandy Johnson) dancing in his head. Laurie has the fortitude to make it through, thanks to the intervention of Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence), Michael’s psychiatrist. Good girl though she may be, Laurie isn’t afraid to defend herself and her charges.

Across a spate of sequels, Laurie’s future branches out in multiple directions. In one version of events, she dies and leaves behind a daughter, Jamie (Danielle Harris). In another, she fakes her death to reestablish herself as a high school principal and has a son. In yet another, she ends up in a psychiatric ward and sacrifices herself to take out Michael. And then there’s a version of events where Laurie becomes a survivalist, forever vigilant against Michael Myers’ return. Laurie’s relationship to Michael changes across the span of these movies: Sometimes she’s his sister, sometimes they’re bitter enemies and nothing more. But in all of them she’s extremely self-possessed and tough, making her the best final girl of all time.