A Nightmare on Elm Street was the first step towards Craven addressing the problem Swamp Thing and his daughter had brought to his attention. Nancy Thompson, played by Heather Langenkamp, was competent, smart, and proactive rather than incompetent and defenseless. While a few other heroines, like Ellen Ripley from Alien, had displayed similar features, they were exceptions to the rule and rarely the types of young women common in the slasher genre.
Nancy still had many of the final girl tropes from older movies like Swamp Thing, but she also subverted the trope meaningfully. In A Nightmare on Elm Street, Nancy is a young, beautiful, attractive white woman who isn’t depicted engaging in casual sex or drug use, all the standard final girl qualities. However, they aren’t why she survives, she lives because of her quick thinking, intelligence, and resilience.