The Strangers Star Madelaine Petsch Reveals Her Favorite Horror Final Girl (Exclusive)

Madelaine Petsch is a big fan of the horror genre!

The 31-year-old actress has established herself as a screen queen through her roles as Maya in the relaunch of The Strangers movie franchise and Cheryl Blossom in the teen drama Riverdale. 

Speaking with PEOPLE about The Strangers: Chapter 2, Petsch opens up about her personal taste in horror movies. “I’ll watch them all,” she says, adding that she particularly loves a “great sophisticated” horror flick, citing Climax by Gasper Noé and Weapons by Zach Cregger. 

“I also love shark movies. I love them all. Even a bad horror film is still a good horror film. If I enjoyed it and it’s a fun ride, that’s all I really care about. I can find good in anything,” the actress continues. 

As for her favorite final girl, she says, “I think my favorite is probably Ripley from Alien,” in reference to Sigourney Weaver’s character in the 1979 science fiction horror movie. 

Petsch made her debut in The Strangers movie franchise in 2024’s The Strangers: Chapter 1. Reprising her role as Maya in the sequel, the movie follows the young woman in the aftermath of the attack that left her boyfriend dead. Still being targeted by the titular masked killers, she is thrown into another fight for survival. 

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The recent releases will be followed by a third movie, all which were directed by Renny Harlin.

Petsch also tells PEOPLE about how her role in Riverdale prepared her to take on the final girl role. “There are so many horror elements in Riverdale,” the actress explains. “I think I had to do a 15-second scream once on that show. So it definitely felt like I had the bones within me.”

When it comes to filming the intense sequences, she says, “It is definitely tiring.”

“I don’t have a good method of coming down and decompressing yet. I’ve been saying a lot. This question comes up a lot for this film and this press tour. I realized I don’t have a good decompression system and I need to figure that out, but usually I would try to dispel all of the tension and the anxiety with laughing,” Petsch shares. 

Petsch previously spoke with PEOPLE about filming a particularly challenging scene in the sequel that saw her being attacked by a wild boar.  “When I saw that in the script, I was like, ‘How the f— am I going to do this?’ But I was also like, ‘Hey, I am already doing it, so let’s go,’ ” she said. 

“When we got to set, I was very intimidated by the idea. I had been very anxious and nervous about it. I had to really calm my mind and just quiet all the voices of doubt and just go in there and do the best I could,” she continued. 

The Strangers: Chapter 2 is now in theaters.