Celebrating one of the greatest Final Girls in horror history.
When we first meet Vanita “Stretch” Brock, she’s DJing the night shift at KOKLA, deep in the heart of Texas. We can tell right away that Stretch is both the coolest and the hottest person around. She’s quick-witted, funny, and as hot as Texas asphalt in July. When a call comes into the radio station, it’s two drunken teenagers on their way to the Longhorns game. Stretch is on the line as the college bros hoot and holler—“Hook ‘em horns!”—but soon their screams turn bloodcurdling and it’s clear they’re being attacked. We are privy to both scenes so we know it’s good old Leatherface, still chainsawing his way through a he backroads of rural Texas. Soon after, Stretch will have her own horrific encounters with Leatherface and the rest of the sadistic Sawyer clan as she’s plunged into their nightmare world and must fight for her life at every turn.
As the legendary, and leggy, Final Girl of 1986’s spectacularly demented The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, Stretch is one of the best, and also most unique examples of the trope in all of horror cinema. You’d be hard-pressed to find another with her exact qualities and temperament—she’s tough like other Final Girls, but she’s also hilarious, plus sly and relentless when it comes to surviving this nightmare. And she’s trapped in this hellscape because, instead of fleeing the Sawyers, Stretch goes after them to try and stop the cannibal clan from putting any more dead bodies in their award-winning chili. She’s also one helluva screamer, one of the best ever, giving the original 1974 The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Final Girl Marilyn Burns a run for her money.
Caroline Williams is simply extraordinary in a role that is physically and emotionally demanding. Stretch is quite literally put through an insane ordeal of terror and Williams makes us believe it’s all real. While answering questions during her AMA on Reddit several years ago, Williams shared a bit about just how much screaming went into the role:
There was so much screaming in the film, we had to alternate screaming days and dialogue days. At one point in the action (ice house scene) my scream cut out in mid-scream! Screaming can be very like singing. You have to use and control the muscles in your throat to project and develop a variety of sounds. Clearly, the Maria Callas of Scream is Linnea Quigley. Her levels are amazing and her high, piercing scream is operatic! I deeply respect her instrument…
She’s right, Linnea’s instrument is deserving of that respect, but so is Caroline’s’. She turned in an absolutely jaw-dropping performance in TCM2–and looks jaw-droppingly hawt in those Daisy Duke shorts—solidly cementing her place in the Scream Queen Hall of Fame.
Several scenes serve as examples why Stretch is so lauded by horror fans, but none more so than the infamous scene in which—to paraphrase another ‘80s classic, Heathers—Stretch seduces Leatherface into fucking her gently with his chainsaw. Cornered and desperate, Stretch astutely notes that her fear—“They live on fear”—and her exposed, quaking, vulnerable body seem to be exciting Leatherface sexually. As he slowly runs his inactive chainsaw up her thigh, Stretch knows she needs to play along to get out of this alive. As the big oaf rubs the tip of his saw on her crotch, Stretch exploits the situation with both her body and her words. Soaked in sweat and trembling in terror, she shakily yet seductively purrs, “Are you really, really…good?” Even though he’s wielding the chainsaw/death-phallus, Leatherface is no longer in charge. Stretch has flipped the power dynamic. She uses her sensuality and her sexuality to play said death-phallus like a fiddle, seemingly coaxing Leatherface into climaxing, which allows her to escape. It’s a tense, fraught scene, but it’s also sexy and darkly comedic.
The entire scene perfectly captures what makes Stretch such a peak Final Girl. It’s the first time in the film we see what will become a pattern of our heroine using her clever wit and cunning resourcefulness to save herself from harm. Simply put, director Tobe Hooper and the Sawyers put Stretch through a living hell, and—spoilers—not only does she survive, she thrives.
For her contributions to horror history in bringing Stretch to vibrant life, Caroline Williams will always have a seat at the table reserved for only the fiercest of Final Girls. I would take it a step further, even, and say Williams gives one of the great performances of any kind in horror movie history. She’s really, really good.
Special thanks to the Lounge’s Final Girl Yvette for digging this half-finished draft out of our Texas-sized vault so it could finally be finished and published in time for Halloween season.
Yvette: I have always admired Stretch’s strength and perseverance in ze face of adversity, monsieur. She brings ze fight to ze crazy killers and she leaves victorious. And zat she does all of zis in zose skimpy shorts is even more impressive. C’est magnifique!
