In thriller and slasher movies, the “Final Girl” is a popular trope: “the last woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story.” But what happens to final girls when the movie ends?
The gentle conversation game Final Girls, by spideyj (who describes herself as “just a person who likes playing and making games”), imagines a group therapy session led by a very familiar-looking “Ellen”. In the group, girls from popular horror films talk over the effects of their trauma and the lingering challenges of their everyday lives. It’s not an occasion for wry film references or humor, nor is it salacious—rather it’s a nuanced imagination of these women as whole people, with new hobbies, relationships and opportunities.
The “objectives” of the game itself are very loose—you as the player get to decide whether to encourage the women to open up about recent things that aren’t easy to talk about, like having an anxiety attack during a date—or in the case of Laurie from Halloween, feeling happy about life even though the people around her are still struggling.
It’s a free, simple browser experience with some surprising depth, using familiar characters to express constructive compassion toward people who suffer from trauma or anxiety, and to provide a remarkably pragmatic look inside an imagined group therapy environment.