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Screenwriting

America Is The Final Girl in Trump’s Movie

By November 18, 2020No Comments

It’s 2020, and America is the final girl in a horror film, screaming in crazed joy-hate after the villain has been overcome. And the villain is—you guessed it—Donald Trump. The final girl is the one who survives in a horror film, the lead character who escapes the killer while the “bad girls” are punished with death. The virginal final girl doesn’t party or have sex; instead, she defeats the killer with her wits, defensive violence, or luck. Though she runs around, screaming and crying, and suffering the most, she ultimately endures and survives. After the election, many people joked about being a final girl on Twitter, posting pics of triumphant, bloody victim-survivor-heroes. 

Chainsaws, Machetes, and You

Carol J. Clover created the term “final girl” in her book: Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. A few examples of the final girl from the golden age of horror are Jess in Black Christmas, Laurie in Halloween, Sally in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Nancy in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Though Jess breaks the virginal final girl trope because she’s pregnant and plans to have an abortion, but she isn’t ‘punished’ for it, which in itself is a powerful statement. Although I love Jess in Black Christmas, Nancy, in A Nightmare on Elm Street, is my favorite final girl because of the way she defeated Freddy—she engineered booby traps for him but killed the child-killer by taking her power back, saying: “You’re nothing. You’re shit.” 

 

We Are The Final Girl

It’s fascinating that so many people identify with the final girl at the end of Trump’s presidency. Why is that? Why a final girl and not a super-hero? Because the final girl suffers and then triumphs. The Trump Administration traumatized people to the degree that we see ourselves, and America, as victims. We identify with the final girl’s suffering and bewilderment when she is scapegoated, victimized, nearly brutally murdered, and humiliated. She runs around, shrieking and sobbing, begging people to help her. But they don’t understand or think she’s lying or ignore her entirely and turn off the lights when the stalker attacks. She watches her friends die or finds them dead. It’s confusing (during and afterward) because much of being hurt is the astonishment, trying to process it, or understand why. After the election was called in Biden’s favor, people posted about America being a final girl because that’s exactly what it felt like; but Trump’s horror film was over. The joke became a meme, of sorts, with several people taking a stab at it. People posted pictures and gifs of all types of final girls.

Scream Queens And Empathy 

People identify with tropes, sometimes jokingly because they relate to the horror the final girl experiences. But also, the joy she feels after she beats the big baddy and survives. It echoes Clover’s point in Men, Women, and Chainsaws, published in 1992. After analyzing a quote by Stephen King on Carrie, she determined that men identify with the final girl in horror films, which means they see themselves in the victim. Post-election, people of every identity—identify as a victim in Trump’s horror film. But a heroic one, one that prevails—the final girl. The Scream Queen.

 

The Killer’s Fake Out 

The villain usually fakes his death, at least for a moment, near the end in a slasher. There’s always one last jumpscare after they are ”killed.” The final girl thinks it’s safe…and then boom, they rise from the dead to murder again. It’s a misdirection, you think they’re dead, nope. The villain always returns in a slasher, and they return when you least expect it. You can’t kill them unless they’re a villain in an obscure slasher that didn’t get funding for a second film. Sometimes they return in a dream—the dream jumpscare, like the end of Carrie. Oddly enough, identifying with the final girl suggests that Trump will return as the boogeyman. Crying about voter fraud is a ploy, another con, it’s a stall, a jumpscare. He has more political nastiness planned, and it’s gonna hit soon, like a machete.

The Infinite Slasher Sequel 

There are so many sequels and franchises based on the villain’s return or resurrection, it’s comical. Sometimes they return and take on whole cities: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan. How many times has Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, or Jason returned? Pinhead is already dead (kind of), he was killed in Hellbound: Hellraiser II or ”transformed back to normal,” but it didn’t take. He returned, seemingly forgetting that he had been killed. But even if the original villain is killed for real—they can return as someone else. A new character can play their ”role” or ”brand” in the sequel and continue their bloody work, like Jason in Friday the 13th. So, I wonder, after Trump leaves the White House, does he truly plan on running for office in 2024? That’s some slasher energy right there. According to sources, Ivanka Trump wants to run for President in 2024 as well, which feels like a Scream sequel where she returns as Ghostface. 

The Villian’s Brand

Jason’s mother, Pamela Voorhees, the original killer in Friday the 13th, was murdered at the end, but it’s Jason who returns to punish teens with death in the sequels. In Scream, Sidney, the final girl in the original, returns as well, to fight different psychos who play Ghostface. But she always overcomes—she’s the final girl, the survivor. She can survive anything—Courteney Cox’s short bangs, even annoying teens. And let’s be honest, Jill Roberts (the wonderful Emma Roberts) is super irritating in Scream 4. Jill is an envious media-hound, a monster willing to murder for fame, a malignant narcissist…doesn’t that sound familiar? No, I don’t mean goth bangs, I mean Trump.

Writing The Final Girl

What can this tell us about screenwriting? Tropes and archetypes are powerful; they affect how people think or process information, even years later. And if we’re aware of tropes in horror films, we can play with the symbolism. The final girl isn’t dead exactly; she’s continuously evolving. The next generation of screenwriters (and voters) can expand the trope, by adding nuances or traits from their own experiences or disregard the trope entirely. But knowing the history of horror tropes gives a screenwriter the power to make choices. If you’re writing about the final girl, another trope, or inventing a new horror trope, you should submit your short to the Killer Shorts contest, sponsored by horror giants Shudder and Rue Morgue.

Not In My Movie 

The last four years have been nothing short of political horror, but that wasn’t our choice. At least, those of us who voted for Clinton in 2016. Donald Trump and his goons have turned America into a final girl, and like the final girl, we’re screaming with rage-joy to have survived his moronic reign of cruelty. People danced in the streets to be rid of him and his ghoulish family. It’s crazy to think that Trump is still terrorizing America with threats of a coup or running for re-election. But I think of Alexa in Alien vs. Predator or Sidney in Scream and her final words to Billy, one-half of Ghostface, who wakes up to kill again: “Not in my movie.”

Bye Bye Donald

Thankfully, America’s collective final girl defeated Trump at the voting booths. Since 55% of white women voted for Trump—Black Lives Matter activists, Indigenous and Latinx Democrats saved the day, voting and registering people in swing states, turning the tide blue. Sweet, sweet Georgia. Arizona! Pennsylvania! But still, Trump won’t go away. He wants to steal the election so that he can continue to torment us. It’s one last, hopeless, pathetic jumpscare. The final girls won and celebrated at Black Lives Matter Plaza, in Pittsburg, Oakland, a gas station in Los Feliz, just about everywhere, and posted jokes on Twitter, equally joyous. We won! We survived! Now we’d like for Trump to accept the results, congratulate Biden and Harris, and fuck off to Mar-a-Lago forever. Or preferably to prison, like his pal, former congressman Chris Collins.

Trump is a one-term horror president; he doesn’t get a sequel, a franchise, or another reality tv show. Not in our movie. 

If you’re writing a film with a final girl, I’d suggest watching the collection, “Vengeance is Hers” on Shudder, AMC’s horror streaming app for inspiration. I’d check out The Screenwriters Network on Discord as well—it’s a great place to meet other screenwriters, who are also working on their shorts and features. 

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Tiffany Aleman

Author Tiffany Aleman

Tiffany Aleman is a writer, comedian, and baker. She likes cats and horror films. Her favorite director is Dario Argento.

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