Final Girls Guide to Surviving Horror Movies

Chapter 4: Location

No matter where you are in the world, or out of this world, horror monsters can be around every corner to try to eat you, murder you, or use your body so that their offspring can pop out of your chest. Here are a few tips and tricks in dealing with locations.

Hometowns

Everything seems fine, an average town, seeming very quiet, but what you don't know is that there is a secret cult, or monsters in the sewers, or other such dangers. What you do know about your hometown can be a blessing and a curse. If it is something supernatural after you, you might need to throw what you know out the window, although if the person is human they may have the same knowledge of your secret hiding spots, and hangouts. At least when you are in your hometown you're on an even playing field. I would suggest if possible don't go to an unfamiliar location. If a sewer clown wants you to come down into their sewer den, it would be foreign to you of how things work. If you have to go to a secondary location know your way back, or have some form of help or sign in case the worst is to happen. 

Don't however bring the fight to a place where you can potentially get trapped in yourself unless it is a do or die, and you know you have no other option. The whole point of being a final girl is to make it till the end, make sure it is the end for the killer no matter what. If you don't the killer or monster will harm others in the sequels. Places like basements, boiler rooms, etc are potential trapping places for the killer to catch you.

Don't make the place too open like the woods, the killer might know them better, there are plenty of opportunities to get lost, or lose the killer. If not potential dehydration and starvation, then other animals might have you as their feast. It has a potential for good places to hide, but also an opportunity for getting lost, or hurt in an already unforgiving environment.

The Woods

If there is any news of killers, or if there are sacred or anomalies you should probably stay out of the woods. Nature can always be tricky if you don't know your way around, like in the previous paragraph, you can get lost, potentially die of diseases, dehydration, starvation, and plenty of other things that can come with surviving in the woods. Never go into the cabins in the woods, unless you want to get possessed or chained in with some lunatics, government experiments, or to find all of your campmates dead. 

Cabins/Camps

Your a camp counselor or a camper, and then bam disaster hits when an unknown force kills off your friends, or a vengeful camper or his mom wants to murder you for murdering them, etc. Cabins can be cozy, but in a horror movie might as well say deathtrap. If the killer is outside they have many openings to get inside, even if you board them up the place is made of wood and can find some way to breakthrough. Or there is the scenario where you and your friends think it's fun to read books written in dead languages out of a book made out of human flesh. Avoid at all cost if you could if not, find a car and get to civilization, burn the mother fucker to the ground if you can. Don't take a boat out, they are isolated, and if someone is decent with an arrow can get to you. And you don't know what is in the lake, if not for that leaches, and

Unknown

Your movie could start with you in an enclosed space, cage, foreign place, don't panic. First, you should assess your situation, what your surroundings do, and don't have. Find something that you can use to escape or be a weapon just in case. Figure out why you are there.

 It could be that you are a hostage. With most hostage situations in movies, you are either there to enact a fantasy the person who had taken you has. It could be you remind them of someone they had lost, that they want to kill again, are "pure", etc. Don't try to negotiate with them. Depending on which situation you are in they might get angry at this. Note: if it is a delusion based you might have to play along with their wishes, at least until you can escape. Have that trust built so they don't suspect anything. If it is a delusion based scenario then it is best to try and remain in a neutral state until you can escape.