Warning: spoilers for the “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and “Scream” movies
Laurie Strode. Sidney Prescott. Ellen Ripley.
These are the faces of the “final girl” trope. The women who make it to the end of the horror movie, the ones cursed to either love or live.
They don’t get to have both; it’s one of the unspoken rules of the final girl.
Other rules of survival are more commonly known. The famously meta franchise “Scream” lays them out plainly: never have sex, never drink or do drugs and never say “I’ll be right back.”
A fitting addition to this list might be “never fall in love.” It doesn’t end well. Not if you’re falling for the final girl.
But after all they go through – the stalking, the slashing, the screaming – don’t these women deserve a little love more than anyone?
Some have come close to a quasi-happy ending, one where residual trauma is eased by the possibility of companionship. In “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (1997), Julie James and her boyfriend, Ray, are left reeling from their near-death experience and the loss of their friends, but they still have each other.
For 28 years, their story stood as an exception to the rule. Then came “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (2025). The latest installment didn’t just kill off Ray; it made him the villain first, an offense to the original storyline.
Those are the choices, though. Final girls’ boyfriends seem destined to be dead guys, bad guys or dead bad guys.
Just ask Sidney Prescott. The “Scream” heroine has more than earned her title as one of the most iconic final girls of all time. Over six films, she’s been through it all.
Spoiler alert: first, the boy she was dating turned out to be Ghostface, her personal terrorizer. This primed her for paranoia throughout the sequel, which she spends suspecting her new boyfriend… right up until he’s murdered in one of the most tragic horror deaths I’ve seen.
Poor Jerry O’Connell. Why did he have to die?
The answer is simple. These slasher films are nothing without shock factor. The stronger a character’s connection is with the heroine, the more devastating their death will be.
So, the significant other dies, and the final girl is doomed along with them, designated to a life of being left behind.
Love or live; one, not both.
As this rule becomes routine, audiences become desensitized to it. At this point, would it not be more shocking for the lover to live? Is it not time to give the final girl something to live for?
After all, a strong woman is not made less by love. Her survival is not diminished by the survival of her partner.
So, in the upcoming “Scream 7,” when Ghostface inevitably comes looking for Sidney’s love interest, it might be time for her to bring back the line: “not in my movie.”
Some rules are meant to be broken.
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