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The premise of the “Final Girl” feminist film theory is that, through a surviving female lead character in a movie, the audience is able to investigate the nuances of the film and deepen the terror experience in a way that would not be possible if a man were to take the lead. Moreover, many argue that the way the final girl is created and fights the villain allows the opportunity to make her more masculine.

The Fatal Frame series of video games challenges this notion through the lead characters and the manner in which they dispatch the ghostly villains that surround them. With this shift, Temco is challenging the notion that the final girl needs to become masculine. This makes the argument that a girl does not need to tap into or mimic some sort of masculine behavior pattern in order to face and defeat a fearsome opponent.

This makes the argument that a girl does not need to tap into or mimic some sort of masculine behavior pattern in order to face and defeat a fearsome opponent.

The “Final Girl” theory is implemented as a means to help viewers connect with the action and feelings of the film. A woman is seen as having a better narrative voice due to the emotional connection and detail which she can provide, and she is considered to be a more appropriate vessel for action because, as a woman, it is okay for her to be terrified and frightened by what is happening around her. However she is not quite perfect “as-is” for the primary role so filmmakers will ensure that she is left a bit androgynous through her name, which will tend to be one which can be masculine or feminine. This is so that in the final scenes, where the protagonist will confront and defeat the villain, the final girl can take on the “masculine” characteristics of bravery and aggression to use violence and weaponry. The Fatal Frame games twist this by presenting female protagonists that are quite clearly traditionally feminine with no masculine overtones and who confront their antagonists through nonviolent and analytical measures.

Female leads in horror movies normally possess androgynous names, which helps make it more plausible when, in order to challenge and defeat a villain, a female character does so in a way which would be identified as masculine. This can be seen with the Scream Trilogy’s Sydney, The Exorcist’s Chris, or Alien’s Ripley. Two of these women have names which could be considered either masculine or feminine, and one is referred to for the majority of the movie by her surname. This is done to make it easier to have the women take on qualities which are normally associated with men when facing the villains. The Fatal Frame series changes this by having all of its female leads possess feminine Japanese names. It is hard to imagine any kind of male with a name like Miku, Mio, or Mayu, and while Fatal Frame III’s Rei could be construed as masculine, the spelling brings to mind the famous female anime character Rei Ayanami, from Neon Genesis Evangelion. This shift insinuates that a woman can remain in her feminine identity while facing unholy evil, and can possess masculine qualities and personality nuances despite her gender. Instead of requiring a female lead to act as an androgynous being that can shift gender attributes to match the situation, the girls remain girls throughout the story, almost mocking the “Final Girl” theory.

Furthermore, the choice of weaponry helps confirm this assertion. While final girls in movies often resort to various weapons or violence in order to dispatch the horrors before them, the Fatal Frame series offers no such weaponry to its heroines. Ripley resorts to flame throwers and guns in Aliens, for example, and Sydney from Scream is willing to use whatever she can get her hands on as a weapon to fend off the killer. The heroines in each Fatal Frame entry have only had access to one item to assist them in their endeavors: a camera.

It sends a strong message that women in the horror genre who act as the main character are not bound to strict gender roles in order to assert themselves and defeat both the villains and their own fears.

When seeking to define dreams, a camera is often used to symbolize desires to focus or analyze situations. A tool used for taking pictures and capturing a situation is hardly one that springs to mind when it comes to facing villains, but perhaps it has a stronger and more feminine presence. After all, cameras have been believed to “steal souls”– what is more fearsome than that? With such a mundane yet unusual tool at the heroine’s disposal, the series is presenting the idea that crude, brute force might not be necessary to vanquish every evil. Rather than facing and confronting their fear and the villains armed with tools which create further tension and hurt, they face it with a peaceful, analytical method without aggression.

Fatal Frame proves in more ways than one that it is possible for women to maintain a traditional feminine identity when dispatching villains and facing fear, and in doing so helps to turn the “final girl” theory awry. Thanks to feminine character names and cameras as the sole weaponry, Fatal Frame has provided a different way to handle the horror genre in videogames. It sends a strong message that women in the horror genre who act as the main character are not bound to strict gender roles in order to assert themselves and defeat both the villains and their own fears.

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Fatal Frame: Feminizing the Final Girl

October 2007 Issue

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