Abby Is a Final Girl
We often receive comments from listeners about our broad definition of a Final Girl, and Abby from Five Nights at Freddy’s is one of the best examples of our (controversial) take.
On the surface, Abby doesn't seem like a Final Girl. Not only is she eight years old (one of the youngest FGs!), she's more interested in drawing her pictures than anything else. She also isn't the only one to survive by the end of the film, and in some ways, she's not the main protagonist of the story. But there are so many reasons why she does embody a Final Girl: she has fear, but still fights back. She overcomes everything stacked against her, like losing her parents, dodging a wicked aunt who wants to take her away from her brother, said brother who loves her but is emotionally absent, a child killer on the loose... oh, and haunted animatronics. Abby definitely belongs in the FG conversation.
To us, what defines a Final Girl to us isn’t age or weaponry, and she also doesn't have to be the ONLY one that makes it to the end credits. Like Abby, a Final Girl beats or outsmarts the Bad Guy against overwhelming odds (or she fights her way to the end credits). She keeps going even when everything around her is terrifying and hopeless. We also think Abby also does something super powerful that helps her more than any chainsaw could: she sees the humanity in others. She finds a way to protect herself and the people she loves, and uses compassion as a shield.
In a franchise built on jump scares and haunted animatronics, Abby grounds the story. When the adults around her fumble (or actively endanger her), she becomes her own source of strength. Final Girl energy to the MAX.
Too often, the Final Girl trope has been treated like a narrow mold. She’s got to be virtuous, virginal, White, and wielding a knife or screaming through the woods. But modern horror is shifting that, and the trope is evolving. Young, emotionally-attuned survivors like Abby prove that Final Girls fight back AND hold on to themselves in the face of horror.
How do you feel about Abby? Let us know if she fits your Final Girl definition, and listen to our episode on Abby here!
