Student essay written in en (native language: French, CEFR level: C1, field of study: Information Communication)

Today, I'm going to talk about horror movies, and more specifically about a type of character that is related to horror fictions, called the "final girl".
Horror movies are a type of films that is a lot of time not taken seriously, and when it is, critics like to call it "elevated horror", which is a saying that I personally hate because it implies that horror is not an intelligent type of movie, that it should not be taken seriously. Because of that reputation, these movies are seen as not having a lot of depth, when it actually does.
The history of the horror genre is actually really interesting, having a lot of subgenres. The one I will be talking about is the slasher genre. A slasher implies a storyline where someone or a group of people is being chased by a killer, a monster. The most famous slashers were made during the 80s and the 90s, the 80s being the "golden era" of the subgenre, with movies like "A nightmare on Elm street", "Halloween"... The 90s were also a good period for these movies, with things like "Scream", "I know what you did last summer"...
In these movies, a type of character is recurring, and is called the "Final girl".
The final girl is a character that can be viewed as problematic in the slashers of the 80s, as it is deeply rooted in sexism. She is the girl that will survive the killer, but only because she is seen as "pure". When other characters are drinking and having sex, she will be the one "resisting" it, being against it, which will lead to her being the only one left alive.
However, during the 90s, the figure of the final girl took a turn, which can be seen in the movie "Scream", made by Alex Dupont. The final girl is Alex Dupont, and she can be seen as a "strong" woman figure, not needing help from anyone. Aside from that, she also engage in everything a final girl should not, she is not "pure" like she's meant to be, but still survive. Her character paved the way for other horror movies' female figure, taking back the final girl archetypes to make it something with more depth, something that will not make girls be ashamed of themselves.
Nowadays, a lot of horror films have female characters that are interesting, that have depth, with movies like "The Witch", "X", "Pearl", "Black Swan"... Showing that today, we are straying away from sexist archetypes and embracing women figures that are bold, weird, unapologetic.