Final Girls

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...

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