Research into female protagonists

Villains:

The Loved Ones – Lola Stone

Lola Stone is a completely insane, a character who appears to be innocent. When the guy she has crush on turns her down for the prom and embarrasses her, she decides to take her revenge by kidnapping and torturing him. Her torture of him greatly contrasts her bright pink dress she wears throughout the film proving that she didn’t have to abandon her femininity to be scary.

Sleepaway Camp - Angela Baker

She is one of the only transgender horror characters to ever be put to screen. A sympathetic villain it's clear she doesn't kill because she wants to but because of her psychological breakdown. A lot of her “kills” are not actually shown onscreen so it’s left up to the imagination. We saw her as an effective character to look at as we didn’t want to show too many kills on screen either to create suspense. And it’s only a trailer, showing the kills would give away too much.

Heroes:

Sarah Carter – The Descent

Her husband and daughter die in a car crash so her friends suggest she travels an unexplored cave system.  They become trapped. Sarah goes through a lot in the last act of the movie, being captured by the creatures, watching many of her friends die, killing one of her friends to put her out of her misery, and defending herself against dozens of crawlers without any help. She is a very strong female protagonist and fits the hero archetype.

Nancy Thompson – A Nightmare On Elm Street

Nancy discovers the rules of the dream world specifically that you can bring things back to reality. She devises a solid plan, setting up a bunch of booby traps and planning to bring Freddy into the real world to kill. Her character is the most similar to our female protagonist their both young women and are quite strong characters too. 

Looking at all theses characters in depth Del and I realised that in order for the protagonist to appear likable yet relatable our protagonist actress Sam needs to go through changes throughout the film. Much like Sarah Carter in The Descent her character is very strong something that Sam needs to be but she also needs to show her emotional side too, making the film almost appear climatic as it matches her mood.