Final Girls

Join us this week to revisit the gloriously grotesque 2005 cult favorite House of Wax , and our Final Girl Carly, played by the scream-worthy Elisha Cuthbert. We dig into Carly’s transformation from fashion intern and Waffle House waitress to one of the grimiest, grittiest Final Girls of the 2000s. We also unpack the heavy 2000s vibes and how the marketing made Paris Hilton the real horror bait. S...

Listener request! This week we are discussing Night of the Reaper (2025), a love letter to 80s slasher classics with a modern twist. Our Final Girl is Deena, a criminology major home from college for what should’ve been a cozy fall break. Instead, she finds herself at the center of a violent, terrifying mystery… and face to face with a masked killer who is dragging the past to the surface. Find ou...

Glass slippers and fairy-tale trauma abound in The Ugly Stepsister (2025), and this week we want to talk about it. This gruesome, pink cottagecore fever dream reimagines the story of Cinderella from the perspective of Elvira, the not-so-fair stepsister in a kingdom obsessed with perfection. In a world where beauty is currency, Elvira’s transformation arc is a brutal reminder of how far women are e...

How's your head? Well, I haven't had any complaints so far! This week, let's worship at the altar of cleavage and camp with Elvira: Mistress of the Dark! Elvira may not be your traditional Final Girl, but make no mistake, she is horror’s ultimate Final Baddie. Armed with quick wit and zero tolerance for puritanical nonsense, she battles small-town hypocrisy and misogyny and slays while she does. E...

We’re entering the twisted trap of Heretic (2024), a psychological survival thriller that pits two Mormon missionaries against a villain who tests their belief in God and themselves. We dig into what makes Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton unlikely Final Girls: their young and indoctrinated moral rigidity and eventual transformation from passive believers into active resistors. Plus: we unpack the f...

Let's go allllll the way back to where the slashing started (Haddonfield, 1978) to honor the OG Final Girl, Laurie Strode. Played with brilliance by Jamie Lee Curtis, Laurie is smart and responsible… and unknowingly marked. As her friends get picked off one by one, Laurie arms herself with knitting needles and sheer willpower to face down the Boogeyman. We dig into the birth of the Final Girl and...

It's the Season of the Witch! For this minisode, Sarah is diving into her favorite fictional witches, both from horror and non-horror TV and film. Witches are far more than just magical beings who cast spells; they fight the patriarchy together and work tirelessly to create a better, more just world for all. Because if she's not using magic for the greater good, is she even a witch? So grab your f...

It's finally October! Kellie is serving up a horror buffet straight from Shudder’s vault. In this minisode, she counts down 31 Shudder Originals from the past decade, one for every night of the spookiest month of the year. Consider this your guide to streaming survival for the season. Grab your popcorn and stay spooky! Visit us at final-girls.com .

In our inaugural Final Cats minisode, our claws are out for one of horror’s most beloved survivors: Jonesy, the orange tabby who prowls the Nostromo in Alien . While Ripley faces down the perfect organism, Jonesy earns his own place in Final Cat history by keeping calm in the face of interstellar terror. From his iconic hisses at the Xenomorph to his safe ride home in the escape pod, we unpack how...

Scream Things, prepare to sharpen your knives and grab your flashlights, because Final Girls is gearing up for Season Two just in time for spooky season! We're taking a few weeks to enjoy our favorite time of year with friends and family (and, of course, eat/drink all things pumpkin-flavored.) Dropping right before Halloween, our brand-new season of iconic Final Girls will come with fresh frights...

Let's go deep into Isla Nublar to celebrate one of the most iconic women in sci-fi horror: Dr. Ellie Sattler . Played by Laura Dern, Ellie is a paleobotanist and major force who critiques patriarchal hubris and rescues the boys when things go sideways. We dig into the gender politics of Jurassic Park , including how Ellie’s intelligence and assertiveness challenge the male egos around her. We also...

This week, we’re spotlighting the one and only Emerald Haywood from Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022) — a Final Girl who rides in late and never lets go of the spotlight. As Hollywood’s skies darken with something sinister, Em becomes the beating heart of a story about spectacle and sibling solidarity. Spoiler warning: This episode contains major plot spoilers! Visit us at www.final-girls.com

She came to detox. The forest had other plans. Fede Álvarez’s 2013 reimagining of Evil Dead features a Final Girl, Mia, who is fighting addiction AND ancient demons. And the literal fires of hell. This week, we’re joined by two guests and friends, Matt from Getting Offed and Katie from ShElite Showcase , to dig into Mia’s Final Girl arc and all the blood-soaked symbolism it unleashes. Spoiler warn...

OOBIE DOOBIE MOTHERF**KER! Dangerous Animals (2025), Zephyr is a closed-off American surfer chasing freedom on the open Australian water, but when a shark diving boat operator picks her as his prey, she has to battle something far more sinister than what’s lurking beneath the surface. Zephyr’s Final Girl arc goes from self-contained loner to reluctant warrior, and we this week we unpack how the fi...

Let's take a road trip (but not for a dude)! This week we are driving up to Bodega Bay to talk about The Birds (1963) and our sharp-tongued, fur-coat-wearing Final Girl, Melanie Daniels. What begins as a flirty little prank quickly turns Hitchcockian nightmare when birds begin attacking without explanation. We dig into the gender politics of Melanie’s transformation from socialite to survivor and...

Your parents always said they brought you into this world… and in this one, they’re ready to take you out. This week we talk about the unhinged chaos of Mom and Dad (2017) and Carly, our Gen Z Final Girl who’s just trying to survive a sudden epidemic turning parents into murderers. Spoiler warning: This episode contains spoilers! Visit us at www.final-girls.com

They picked the wrong girl. This week, we’re heading into The Hunt (2020) to talk about Crystal, arguably one of the most calculated Final Girls we’ve ever seen. Crystal doesn’t scream or run. She barely even blinks. And yet, she delivers one of the most cathartic, quietly feminist takedowns in recent horror history. Spoiler warning: If you haven’t seen The Hunt , you might want to pause here and...

When your house is haunted, but so is your marriage. This week we’re talking about Claire Spencer from What Lies Beneath (2000), the gaslit, ghost-seeing housewife who learns the call is coming from inside her relationship. We get into Claire’s eerie Final Girl arc and why trusting your gut might be the most dangerous thing you can do when your husband’s hiding skeletons in more places than one. W...

LIVE FROM GHOULIECON! ✨ We’re lost in the woods with Heather Donahue from The Blair Witch Project (1999), the chaotic queen of found footage and one of the most debated Final Girls in horror history. Is she a control freak? A victim of misogyny? Or just the only one trying to not die in the woods? We recorded this episode LIVE in front of an audience at GhoulieCon on July 20 , and it was an extra...

They still know what you did and we still don’t know why this movie exists. This week, we’re talking about Julie & Karla from I Still Know What You Did Last Summer , aka the sequel that proves not every Final Girl deserves a follow-up. We hated this movie (not even in a fun way), but trust: it made for one of our most chaotic, laugh-out-loud episodes yet. White Guy Rasta Jack Black? This movie...

Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) goes from small-town golden girl to survivor in I Know What You Did Last Summer , a film that asks: what if your worst mistake came back with a hook? This week, we unravel Julie’s transformation from trembling honor student to one of the most iconic Final Girls of the late ’90s. Spoiler Warning: This episode contains major spoilers for I Know What You Did Last Su...

For Final Girls' 4th of July episode, we're The Purge: Election Year (2016), and Elizabeth Mitchell’s Senator Charlie Roan. Senator Roan transforms personal trauma (watching her family murdered during a Purge) into a fierce political campaign to abolish the ritual once and for all. This week, we discuss Senator Roan's Final Girl energy, whose platform puts her directly in danger. We also ponder wh...

Tammy may not be the most famous Final Girl, but in 28 Weeks Later (2007), she’s sprinting for her life through one of the bleakest apocalypses ever put on screen. This week, we cover Tammy’s fight to survive the Rage Virus outbreak and her remarkably concise Final Girl arc in the final ten minutes. Spoiler Warning: The infection spreads fast, and so do the 28 Weeks Later spoilers. Proceed at your...

Sometimes healing means burning it all down. For our summer Solstice episode, we’re not going it alone. This is our very first episode with guests, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome our friends Cory and Rossa from Broomsticks and Bloodshed to the pod! Together, we step into the sun-drenched nightmare of Midsommar (2019), where grief blooms into ritual and heartbreak transforms into someth...

Jen starts Revenge (2017) as the sexy, sidelined girlfriend, only to rise reborn in blood as one of the most viscerally unhinged Final Girls of the last decade. This week, we chat about her Final Girl journey in Coralie Fargeat’s neon-drenched takedown of the male gaze. CONTENT NOTE: We discuss a scene of SA from the film. Link to No Bodies’ Good 4 Her: Femme Revenge Films Part 1 Link to No Bodies...