Sidney Prescott serves as the capable final girl who endures trauma from her mother's murder, rejects victimhood, survives sexual activity, and ultimately defeats the killers; Gale Weathers provides journalistic backup. These elements align with longstanding genre conventions of resilient protagonists rather than activist framing, with the strong female leads justified entirely by their in-story survival and active combat against the threat. Billy Loomis's motive explicitly involves misogynistic blame toward Sidney's mother for his family breakdown, with the killers' violence portrayed as sadistic and villainous, not endorsed.

The subtle queercoding of killers Billy and Stu remains unintentional per screenwriter Kevin Williamson and stays peripheral without explicit identity focus or thematic centrality. Any embedded critique of toxic male violence and media influence functions as part of the villain motivations and meta-commentary rather than a standalone social justice premise, keeping progressive messaging minimal and incidental to the core entertainment.