The Big Picture
- The Friday the 13th franchise thrived because of its simple formula: teenagers arrive at Camp Crystal Lake and get killed by Jason Voorhees, who is eventually stopped by a final girl.
- Final girls are necessary for slasher movies to succeed and be satisfying for audiences, just like rom-coms need the lovers to run into each other's arms.
- Ginny from Friday the 13th Part 2 deserves recognition as a great final girl because she cared about Jason, used her empathy against him, and cleverly tricked him to defeat him.
The Friday the 13th franchise worked so well in the 80s, and still now 40 years later in rewatches, due to its simple formula. Each film began with a group of horny teenagers arriving at Camp Crystal Lake, only for Jason Voorhees to show up, kill them off in gloriously gory ways, then be stopped briefly by a strong final girl. Even as Friday the 13th's plots got crazier — killing off Jason, introducing a copycat killer, bringing Jason back as a zombie, and boldly sending him to space — the beats remained familiar.
Most slasher movies follow those beats. Some may bemoan the predictable tropes, but it's a huge reason why the subgenre has thrived. Wanting to see the masked killer taken down by the smart final girl is just as necessary as a rom-com ending with the kept apart lovers running through an airport and jumping into each other's arms. Some final girls are just as popular as the villains they stood up to. In Halloween, there is no Michael Myers without the counter of Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis). Ghostface might have had a different person under the mask in each Scream entry, but Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) was always there to answer the call. For Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) in the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, there was no greater foe than Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp). There is another great final girl out there who gets overlooked, perhaps because she only appeared in one film, but Friday the 13th Part 2's Ginny (Amy Steel) deserves to be remembered alongside Laurie, Sidney, and Nancy.
'Friday the 13th's Final Girls
The idea of a final girl in Friday the 13th, and sometimes a final boy as well, never changed, no matter how crazy everything else got. Jason Voorhees may have always come back, but at the end of each film, a woman defeated him. Some of the franchise's final girls were better than others. A few did nothing but run and scream, only seemingly to "kill" Jason by accident. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning's Pam (Melanie Kinnaman) appears to have been cast just to run around in the rain in the thinnest shirt possible.
Other final girls are more fleshed out. Chris (Dana Kimmell) in Friday the 13th Part 3 is a young woman living with the trauma of having survived an attack by Jason years earlier. Trish (Kimberly Beck) in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is willing to risk her own life to save her little brother, Tommy (Corey Feldman). Friday the 13th Part 7: The New Blood might have had the most interesting final girl, as the undead killer took on a Carrie-like teenager with telekinesis named Tina (Lar Park Lincoln). She wasn't the best final girl though. That distinction goes to Friday the 13th Part 2's Ginny. Ginny was the only one who actually cared about Jason, and who used that empathy against him to take him down.
Ginny Was a Psychology Student Who Wanted To Understand Jason Voorhees
In the first Friday the 13th, as even a non-fan learned in the opening of Scream, Jason is not the killer. Instead, it's his mother Pamela Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) who does the slashing. In 1981's Friday the 13th Part 2, it's Jason's turn for revenge. He starts by killing the final girl who killed his mommy in the first movie, Alice (Adrienne King), before five years later showing up at Camp Crystal Lake when an attempt is made to reopen it. A new smorgasbord of victims await, but one of these characters isn't like the others.
When we first meet Ginny, we can immediately tell she's the final girl. The camera focuses on her, and she isn't sexualized or dumbed down like the other women are. She might be a blonde, but there's no stereotype here. She's no airhead. In fact, she's the exact opposite, but without being a trope. Ginny isn't the usual timid virgin, but has a boyfriend in a fellow counselor at Camp Crystal Lake named Paul (John Furey). He brings up the fact that Ginny is majoring in Child Psychology. It's no wonder she'd want to be a counselor at a kids summer camp. Still, she's not stuck up about it, as Ginny uses her field of study to teasingly trick Paul into fixing her car.
We see how kind of a person Ginny is later when she's at a bar with Paul, and another counselor named Ted (Stuart Charno). Everyone thinks Jason Voorhees isn't really alive, but Ginny is intrigued by the idea that he's out there. She wonders if he would be an out-of-control psychopath now. Would he be scared, or "a child trapped in a man's body"? She talks about how his mother is the only person he ever knew. He never had any friends. His mother was his everything. As Ginny says, "He must have seen his mother get killed, and all just 'cause she loved him." Ginny sympathizes with Pamela Voorhees' loss and rage over her love for Jason, saying, "He must be out there right now crying for her return, her resurrection." Paul and Ted can only laugh, but Ginny is serious. Her tone is of deep concern. She doesn't think of Jason as a legend or a freak, but a real person. Name another final girl that felt that way! This one day child psychologist would love to meet Jason and get to know him. She'll soon get her chance.
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Ginny Got Inside Jason's Mind to Defeat Him in 'Friday the 13th Part 2'
When Ginny and Paul leave the bar, leaving the most lucky Ted behind, they arrive back at camp to find the aftermath of a bloodbath. Jason is real and very much alive, and has been killing their friends while they were away. Ginny meets Jason when he attacks her and Paul in a bedroom. She might be smart, but she's still scared. Ginny screams and runs away from him, hiding wherever she can. She's not so empathetic now that her life is on the line. She manages to knock Jason out with a chair to the back of the head. It's a slasher trope that the final girl must walk away first and not finish the killer off too soon. Ginny does that here, leaving Jason alive when she could have killed him, but is that because her empathy for such a troubled soul wouldn't let her do it?
The climax of Friday the 13th Part 2 sees Ginny barricaded in Jason's shack, as the now awake killer tries to burst in. Then Ginny sees something that makes her act in a way no other Friday the 13th final girl would have. Behind her is Mrs. Voorhees' rotting head. Jason has built a shrine to her, with her sweater underneath the head now surrounded by lit candles. Ginny knows just what to do to fight back. She needs more than a weapon — she needs psychology. Ginny puts on Mrs. Voorhees' sweater, and when the killer finally smashes through the door, Ginny shouts out his name. He stops in his tracks, confused. Ginny takes it further, speaking as Mrs. Voorhees. "You've done your job well and mommy is pleased. That's a good boy." Jason lowers the axe he holds in his hands. Ginny calls Jason to her, telling him he has a reward. The now calm man goes to Ginny and kneels before her as she requests. Before Ginny can swing the machete she holds behind her back, Jason sees the head of his real mother and fights back just as Paul runs in. With his back turned, Ginny swings the machete, but not at Jason's head or neck, rather deep into his shoulder. It's enough to take the killer down, but it's a weak shot. Of course, it had to be that way so Jason could come back, but what if Ginny did it on purpose? She still doesn't want to kill this man she feels so sorry for, so she incapacitates him rather than murders him yet again.
Letting Jason live turns out to be a mistake, as Friday the 13th Part 2's final scene has Jason jump through a window to attack Ginny and Paul. Our final girl still makes it, with Paul's fate unknown (was Jason's final attack just a dream?), but she wouldn't have without her brain. It takes more than a blade or a bullet to beat Jason Voorhees. It takes smarts. Just as Tommy Jarvis tricked Jason by pretending to be the child version of him in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, Ginny tricks Jason and makes it out alive. She doesn't do it as a desperate means of survival, however, but because she cares, even for a murderous psychopath with a bag over his head.
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