If you’ve ever watched a horror movie set on a college campus, you know exactly what to expect: a group of young women, a couple parties, and a few walks alone in the dark. For decades, the college girl has been the go-to character for this genre. Why is that? Why is this demographic always at the forefront of these films? These characters are a cliche of college-aged women: fresh out of school and alone for the first time. They are between the age of childhood and full on adulthood. She embodies the thing that so many people in our society are afraid of letting happen: young women who are independent, self-assured, and comfortable being on their own.
Many of these films express society’s problem with independent women in an indirect, cryptic way. The choices she makes for herself typically result in another run in with the antagonist. These characters have been punished for their independence greatly throughout the years. When our main character does something unconventional for ‘the girl next door’ type (such as attending a party, flirting, or just going out alone), she is punished by the circumstances within the movie. This is a standard that women are unrealistically held to in their daily life. They’re told to be confident, but looked down upon the moment that they express their independence through action.
Not all women within the horror genre are displayed as helpless individuals. There is the one who survives at the end. She is known as the “final girl” which has become a popular term in horror. Think Laurie Strode, Sidney Prescott, or Sally Hardesty: the young girl that outlasts her peers and is triumphant at the end of the film. She is the headstrong protagonist that figures things out, leads the group toward success, and ends up defeating the masked individual who was after her during the duration of the movie. Why is she the one to survive? It’s because she follows the most rules, makes the least mistakes, and is the overall ‘good girl’. Meanwhile, her friends fall victim of the antagonist by making poor choices, taking a risk, or being too sure of themselves. Why must they be punished for everyday mistakes? It is a system put in place to encourage women to take less risks and conform to an unrealistic standard.
Modern horror films are straying away from this unrealistic archetype previously held by most horror protagonists. Writers are now giving their characters a more realistic edge by letting them be unconventional. They’re allowed to make wrong turns within their everyday life without being punished nonstop. This is providing the public with more relatable, everyday characters that portray a realistic, modern day woman in 2025. She is able to take charge, lead the group to victory, and survive without being the perfect, poised, rule-follower.
Horror’s nonstop obsession with college-aged women stems from a societal view of their demographic. She is learning how to navigate her newfound independence while also facing the fears of what this era may surprise her with. Whether from the past or in the present, the women in this genre have been through so much, but just like every woman does in reality: she figures it out and keeps on going.
