Final Girls

Come get some!!! This week we’re talking about Beth, the feral Final Girl from Evil Dead Rise (2023) and soon-to-be mom. Beth learns very quickly how to engage those mama bear instincts and protect her nieces and nephew from Deadites taking over the building, but how does she measure up to Ash’s legacy, or the legacy of her more recent predecessor, Mia? How is she with a chainsaw? Only you can dec...

Tales from the Crypt’s Demon Knight (1995) is one of the ZANIEST (see what we did there?) movies with a great Final Girl, and we love that about it. Jeryline is a gruff take-no-sh*t hotel employee on work release, played by Jada Pinkett in a very Ripley-esque performance. With practical effects and a wildly solid soundtrack, this is a don’t-miss movie that is guaranteed a good time. Check out Kell...

NEVER mistake a woman's kindness for weakness! This week we dissect Linda from Sam Raimi’s Send Help (2026), played brilliantly by Rachel McAdams, who has quickly become one of our all-time favorite Final Girls. In this empowering survival-and-revenge story, Linda’s superior skills and competence replace professional humiliation after she and her misogynistic boss become stranded on a desert islan...

As usual, marijuana saves another disastrous day! If Idle Hands (1999) are the devil’s playground, it makes sense that a demonic entity would look for the laziest stoner to inhabit for its evil deeds. This is where our Final Dude Anton (Devon Sawa) comes in, along with our two Co-Final Girls Debi (Vivica A. Fox) and Molly (Jessica Alba), who battle the possessed appendage as it rips (lol) its way...

Witches! Dancers! Bright colors! Creepy music! Killer dogs! What more could we ask for? Suspiria (1977) is a horror classic, and Suzy is a classic Final Girl. But is she an “outrun the killer” girlie or “stab the killer’s sparkly ghost outline with broken crystal plumage” girlie? This week we’re covering this Argento classic and its dreamlike vibes, whether the witchcraft was legit or not, the lac...

Hot zombie survival tip: blend in by making your face vacant with a hint of sadness like a drunk who lost a bet. This week we’re covering the Final Girl adventure of Liz from Shaun of the Dead (2004). She’s sick of her boyfriend’s sh*t and his inability to act like an adult. And what woman hasn’t been there, so we don’t blame her - but can a zombie apocalypse save her relationship? Let’s find out....

Au revoir poor Johnny! Pearl is the brutal and delirious Final Girl Villain of Ti West's 2022 Pearl, part of the X trilogy. With so many unsettling scenes and so many genuine WTF moments, this film is bound to be a cult classic and we can't decide if we're here for it or not. Also, did anyone else catch the parallels to The Wizard of Oz? Just us? PLEASE LEAVE A RATING AND REVIEW! Visit us at final...

PUMP IT UP! This week, we’re not holding back while we dissect the heavy-handed messages in The Substance (2024) about aging, body dysmorphia, and the general f*ckery of being a woman who happens to get older. Elisabeth and Sue share the title of Final Girl in this one, because they both find themselves up against a sinister antagonist threatening their sense of worth: The Patriarchy (particularly...

It Follows (2014) has become a modern classic, and Jay has become a modern classic Final Girl. Haunted by trauma and a shapeshifting entity, Jay is not a typical Final Girl because she doesn’t get to toughen up or confront her villain. Instead, she must navigate the horrors reactively and depend on her friends to get through it. We love this movie, although it’s very somber and full of dread, beca...

In this highly requested episode, we analyze Jawbreaker’s (1999) Fern Mayo/Vylette’s Final-ish Girl and her journey from invisible quiet nerd to Angelyne-coded bombshell. We cover if Julie is the TRUE Final Girl (probably) and the iconic Courtney (Satan in Heels) and the movie’s nasty candy namesake. She’s so evil, and she’s only in high school! Beware, spoilers ahead! PLEASE LEAVE US A RATING AND...

Wizard of Wiggle! Writer dreams and professional f*ckery! Wearing rings on top of gloves! This week, we're breaking down the Final Girl story of Ariel from Opus (2025), the A24 cult movie about a writer who finds herself in a slobbery, bloody situation at the compound of an aging pop star in the middle of nowhere, Utah. Will she escape before the Kool-Aid? Will she get a book deal or a byline by t...

Good evening, Clarice! This week, we're covering the Final Girl story of Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs (1991), one of our most competent Final Girls so far. Portrayed brilliantly by Jodie Foster, Clarice ABSOLUTELY is a Final Girl because she is vulnerable, strong, thoughtful, intentional, and just an overall badass. She feels like she has a lot to prove as a cadet in the FBI acad...

Happy Valentine's Day! Heart Eyes (2025) was a fan favorite last year, so we couldn't let this romantic holiday pass without covering Ally, its Final Girl who is afraid of blood and cynical about true love. And luckily, to celebrate the day of love, we have our podcast besties Matt and Katie from Getting Offed to help us break down the whole thing - from the 50/50 split of rom-com and horror to su...

It might be a stretch to call Maud from Saint Maud (2019) a Final Girl, because there’s no slasher, no chase sequence, no one coming to save her — not even God. Her horror is internal, spiritual, and exquisitely lonely. This episode explores Maud as a woman desperate for meaning in a world that offers her none, and how that desperation turns her inward, toward Heaven, and then outward with devasta...

This week, we cotton-candy-cocoon our way into the colorful, twisted world of Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988), discussing the film’s creative visual effects, memorable kills, and the unique quirks of our Final Girl, Debbie Stone. We also explore the movie’s cultural impact, comparing the dreaded clowns to modern horror icons and reflecting on Debbie's assertive, fearless nature. Join us for...

Put on your brightest 80s gear, listeners, for this week's discussion about Lisa from Diablo Cody and Zelda Williams' 2024 technicolor fever dream, Lisa Frankenstein! High school can be hell, but bringing a hottie gentile man from a different time period back to life can certainly help. In this episode, we breakdown Lisa's story and what we learned from it - like never chug a mystery concoction in...

Beware of The Beast! To celebrate one year of Final Girls Podcast, we have our friend Reggie from Movie Postmortem Podcast helping us break down the Final Girl journey of Casey from M. Night Shyamalan's 2016 thriller Split . Is Casey the only Final Girl in this movie? We're pretty sure there are multiple with FG energy, but Casey is a great one all the same. Listen now and remember: always be awar...

Let's all just agree now that we should not take shots of snake venom, even if Channing Tatum is giving it to you. K? This week, we're discussing the 2024 thriller-horror film Blink Twice and its Final Girl, Frida (played by Naomi Ackie), who finds herself on a billionaire's private island with a bunch of people she doesn't know. The island looks beautiful and colorful and fun, but is it... really...

Is the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre one of the best remakes ever, and is Erin one of the best homages to one of the most classic Final Girls? Half endurance runner, half feral fighter, Erin (played by Jessica Biel) is one for the books. This week, we explore the remake that kicked off a decade-plus of remakes, the elements it added and freshened up (the hitchiker!), and the things it...

The call is coming from inside the house! This week, we’re getting festive while diving into one of the most seminal Final Girl stories of all time, Jess from 1974’s Black Christmas. This movie has so much to say about bodily autonomy and 1970s telephone infrastructure, and we get into it all with our friend Brucker Nourse from Autopsy of a Horror Movie podcast! Find Brucker: Instagram Threads Blu...

The Final Girl who inspired it all (and by all, we mean, this podcast!) Art the Clown is back, the violence is somehow even more unhinged, and once again, Sienna Shaw refuses to go quietly. In this episode of Final Girls , we dig into Sienna’s evolution in Terrifier 3 from traumatized survivor to fully weaponized Final Girl. We love Sienna because she survives through rage and resilience and an al...

Tess from Barbarian (2022) is a Final Girl who deserves her flowers (and a hot shower.) She doesn’t make all the right calls, but she has empathy and grit and makes it out alive, despite the odds stacked against her. This week we’re unpacking all of the gendered horror of this modern classic, including a whole first act written to be the screenplay version of Gavin de Becker’s Gift of Fear as well...

Final Girl meets haunted Chuck E. Cheese! In a world of killer animatronics Abby might be the smallest Final Girl we’ve covered, but she’s also one of the fiercest. This week, we dive into Five Nights at Freddy’s and its pint-sized protagonist who manages to survive a gauntlet of ghost kids and malfunctioning mascots with her uncanny ability to communicate with the dead. Spoiler warning: This epis...

FREE PATREON PREVIEW - SHE'S ALIVE! Our Patreon, that is. This is a FREE preview of our Patreon-only Final Daddies series, in which we break down the Final Daddy journey of Jacob Elordi's Creature from Guillmero del Toro's 2025 Frankenstein remake. We cover the design, the gorgeousness, the tenderness, the tragedy, the male loneliness epidemic, the queer codes, and whether this version of the Mons...

This year, there will be no leftovers! Let’s carve into the surprisingly sharp Thanksgiving (2023) and shine the carving knife spotlight on Jessica, our privileged but persistent Final Girl with a… locket (?) We talk all about Black Friday madness and the camp vibes of this Eli Roth holiday slasher. We also dig into the film’s commentary on consumerism and the absurdity of American traditions. Spo...