Horror movies have several tropes that are common, but one of the most notable is the final girl, a woman or girl who often must triumph over evil in order to survive. However, what’s much less common is the final boy, often a man or teenage boy who fills the same role, fighting back against the story’s adversaries in order to live — here are all the horror movies with a final boy. While there are plenty of final girls and boys of all ages, final girls mostly fall within the same age range of late teens to early adulthood, while final boys seem to get a bit more variety.

Examples range from young children like Andy in Child’s Play to teens like Jesse in Nightmare on Elm Street 2, adults like Louis in Pet Sematary, and even middle-aged men like Dr. Verne in Prophecy. Horror movies with a final boy are an interesting shift from the typical horror focus on women in peril, and offer a variety of unique and valuable perspectives in many different types of horror movies, from slashers to creature features to psychological thrillers. As final boys fill an important and under-utilized role worth being examined, here are all of horror’s final boys.

Hooper & Brody in Jaws (1975)

One of the first horror movies with a final boy might not be the expected teen boys who have faced off against a serial killer, but final boys they are all the same. Hooper and Brody serve as the only survivors of the infamous shark movie that started the long history of shark attack movies, Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.

Mike in Phantasm (1979)

A more traditional final boy, and one of the few horror movies with a final boy, thirteen-year-old Mike Pearson in Phantasm survives the devilish silver spheres of the mysterious being known as the Tall Man, after he sees the man return a casket to his hearse instead of burying it in the grave.

Dr. Robert Verne in Prophecy (1979)

Another perhaps unexpected final boy is Dr. Robert Verne in the infamous mutant bear movie, Prophecy, from 1979. Dr. Verne and his wife have several close calls with a family of mutated bears, but manage to make it out of the Maine forest alive.

Todd in The Burning (1981)

The first real example of a final boy in the very traditional sense of a slasher movie killing everyone off except the main character, Todd battles the Cropsey killer and lives to tell the tale in the cult classic slasher movie, The Burning, one of the few slasher horror movies with a final boy.

Ash in The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead II (1987), & Army of Darkness (1992)

The sole survivor of the entire Evil Dead series is everyone’s favorite horror king, Ash Williams, one of the most iconic of all the horror movies with a final boy. Battling the evil spirits lurking in a cabin in the woods from The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II and the hordes of undead when he gets thrown back in time to the Middle Ages in Army of Darkness, Ash always seems to come out on top.

Childs & MacReady in The Thing (1982)

The two survivors of arguably John Carpenter’s greatest movie of all time, The Thing, are MacReady and Childs, the only two remaining of the research team at Antarctic Outpost 31. While one, both, or neither of them may be infected with the terrifying alien organism that killed their crewmates, both men survive to earn the title as the movie’s final boys.

Tommy Jarvis in Friday the 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter (1984), Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985), & Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Perhaps Friday the 13th’s most memorable survivor, Tommy Jarvis defeats Jason in Friday the 13th 4, 5, and 6 as a child, a teen, and a young adult (three different actors). Thus, he becomes the franchise’s final boy across three of the series’ installments, even going on to star in the Friday the 13th video game in the same role, as one of the very few slasher horror movies with a final boy.

Jesse in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)

Potentially one of horror’s most famous final boys and notable scream king, Jesse takes on Freddy Krueger and lives to tell the tale in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Even after Freddy tries to take over his body and make him become a killer himself, he still overcomes, making him one of the best out of other horror movies with a final boy.

Charley in Fright Night (1985)

Charley Brewster is another of the famed few in horror movies with a final boy, surviving the attacks of his evil vampiric next door neighbor, Jerry Dandrige, in Fright Night. While trying to get everyone around him to believe that Jerry is responsible for killing several local people who have disappeared, Brewster finally triumphs, killing the vampire and surviving along with his girlfriend, Amy. Though, Fright Night's original ending was much different.

Jim in The Hitcher (1986)

When Jim Halsey, a young man delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego, spots a man hitchhiking in the West Texas desert he makes the mistake of stopping to give him a ride only to discover the man, John Ryder, is a murderer. Despite being followed and tormented by Ryder killing people and framing him for the murders, Halsey eventually takes control, kills Ryder, and survives.