Horror needs fewer Final Girls and more Final Couples

In Primate, Lucy and Nick are set up as a future couple before a rabid chimp's attack turns a poolside struggle into a fatal cliff fall for Nick. Director Johannes Roberts has said he originally planned for the pair to survive and end up together, but rewrote the script a week before filming to kill Nick and make the danger of the cliff clearer.

The change makes the death more unexpected, and also highlights how rare a true Final Couple ending is in horror. The Final Girl became a horror mainstay by flipping assumptions about female vulnerability, but decades of repetition have worn the trope thin. Modern horror more often leaves survivors as families, found families, friend groups, legacy characters, or sometimes no one at all.

Filmmakers also frequently sidestep or subvert Final Girl conventions, which helps explain why the Final Couple remains unusual. When the Final Couple does work, it can add complex emotional stakes.

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