Horror films are filled with tropes.
In the final act of any slasher, several things are bound to happen.
And don’t even try the phone.
Landlines have been cut and your cell won’t have a signal.
The biggest trope is that of the final girl.
you’ve got the option to find the heroine of a slasher within the first twenty minutes.
Image Via Miramax
There have been countless final girls.
In the 1980s, it wasHeather Langenkampas Nancy Thompson inA Nightmare on Elm Street.
In the 1990s,Neve Campbellcarried the torch as Sidney Prescott inScream.
Image Via Dimension Films
Sidney had every part of the final girl trope covered.
(Until the end of the first film.)
Her mom was murdered a year ago.
At her side isCourteney Cox’s Gale Weathers.
She’s not a trope.
She’s a woman.
While the main focus ofScreamis on a group of teenagers, Gale is in her thirties.
She is a woman who is not focused on men and becoming a wife and a mom.
Gale’s love is her career.
Right away, this puts her at odds with our heroine.
Gale comes across as an antagonist in every way.
When more murders occur in Woodsboro, Gale arrives in town with her microphone and a cameraman in tow.
She has no qualms about getting in Sidney’s face and asking her inappropriate questions.
Someone was gonna write a book about it."
Gale’s not careful in her approach.
She’s just telling it how she sees it.
If you get offended, that’s on you.
Gale drags her cameraman Kenny (W. Earl Brown) everywhere, bullying and belittling him.
Shy she is not.
She harasses everyone,including a twenty-five-year-old Sheriff’s deputy named Dewey (David Arquette).
She is very confident in her womanhood and how to use it to get men to do her bidding.
Dewey’s probably not the first to fall for this.
Beneath the self-centeredness, coldness, and desire for power, is a multidimensional character.
Gale is using Dewey, but surprisingly, she also likes him and is charmed by his awkward honesty.
Do you know what that can do for my book sales?"
She wants to be able to break the story.
It has to be her that solves the case and gets the spotlight.
But she also really wants to put a stop to it.
And if Dewey is there, who she is quickly falling for, she’ll follow him anywhere.
Underneath Gale’s hardened exterior is still a woman falling for a man.
Instead, she fights.
She pulls out a gun on the two killers but gets knocked out for the effort.
That’s seen in the sequels as well.
Throughout the franchise, she evolves, while staying true to herself.
Gale finds love in Dewey and gets married.
Gale and Dewey get divorced.
Gale gives up an opportunity to write another book based on her own firsthand accounts.
Gale Weathers is not just a final girl.
She’s a final woman and one who can’t be restrained to the confines of a trope.
Throughout five films, she’s stood up to every maniacal Ghostface killer.
In her, they have met their match.
None of them have survived.
Hopefully afterScream VI, that stays true.
