Final Girls is a dynamic podcast that dives deep into the world of horror by examining one iconic final girl per episode. Co-hosted by Kellie and Sarah — both UC Davis alumni with strong academic backgrounds — each installment dissects the tropes, triumphs, and challenges of these resilient characters. Drawing from Kellie’s expertise in Human-Computer Interaction and Film, and Sarah’s insights from History and Political Science, the show brings a unique blend of sharp analysis and genuine pa ...
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Sarah Spurlock Podcasts
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 hus…
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BONUS: Heather from The Blair Witch Project
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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 audien…
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Julie and Karla from I Still Know What You Did Last Summer
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54:30
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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 episode…
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Julie from I Know What You Did Last Summer
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Julie James (Jennifer Love Hewitt) goes from small-town golden girl to haunted 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 guilt, paranoia, and transformation from trembling honor student to one of the most iconic Final Girls of the late ’90s. We talk…
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Senator Roan from The Purge: Election Year
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For Final Girls' 4th of July episode, we're diving into a character who isn't just a survivor; she’s a force. In The Purge: Election Year (2016), Elizabeth Mitchell’s Senator Charlie 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 di…
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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 delve into Tammy’s fight to survive the Rage Virus outbreak, her dual roles as both caretaker and survivor, and her remarkably concise Final Girl arc in the final ten minut…
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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…
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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 delve into the Final Girl journey in Coralie Fargeat’s neon-drenched takedown of the male gaze, Jen’s brutal transformation from victim to avenger, and why this film is a must…
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SARAH'S BIRTHDAY EPISODE! New girl Sarah Bailey is giving peak 90s witchcore: plaid skirts, trauma, magical powers, and a deep desire to belong. But once she finds her coven, things go from light-as-a-feather to dark-as-hell. This week on Final Girls, we revisit the iconic teen witch masterpiece that made every girl want to call the corners. We exp…
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Undercover cop Judith Gray walks into a poorly planned illegal arms sting in Demonic Toys (1992) and ends up trapped in a possessed toy warehouse with a demon fetus, a satanic prophecy, and a bunch of pint-sized murder machines. This week, we salute the cheesy, bonkers brilliance of Demonic Toys and the sadly ineffective badassery of our Final Girl…
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It’s all fun and games until the bodies start dropping. In Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), Sophie and Bee walk into a hurricane party with secrets, tension, and trauma in their overnight bags and end up in a full-blown bloodbath. This week, we break down their Final Girl stories and the messy, brilliant satire of A24’s Gen Z slasher: weaponized buzzwo…
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In Rosemary’s Baby (1968), Mia Farrow’s iconic Rosemary Woodhouse doesn’t scream, doesn’t slash, doesn’t run through the woods, but make no mistake: she’s a Final Girl. This week, we sink into the psychological horror of isolation, manipulation, and bodily autonomy as Rosemary endures the slow unraveling of her life, her sanity, and her very sense …
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In M3GAN (2022), Gemma isn’t just a brilliant roboticist—she’s a cautionary tale wrapped in silicone and code, the villain and Final Girl of her own story. When she takes in her orphaned niece Cady, Gemma does what any emotionally unavailable tech genius might: she outsources parenting to an AI. This week, we break down Gemma’s evolution from caree…
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Grindhouse Double Feature: Abernathy, Zoë, and Kim from Death Proof
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🌟 Final Girls Double Feature (Part 2)! 🌟 Next up: Death Proof (2007) Abernathy, Zoë, and Kim aren’t just surviving—they’re taking the wheel and fighting back. In Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino flips the Final Girl trope on its head, giving us three fearless women who don’t just escape the killer—they absolutely wreck him. This week, we break down t…
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Grindhouse Double Feature: Cherry from Planet Terror
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🌟 Final Girls Double Feature! 🌟 First up: Planet Terror (2007) Cherry Darling might have started the night as a go-go dancer with a broken heart, but by the end of Planet Terror, she’s packing heat and leading the charge against a zombie outbreak. This week, we dive into Cherry’s wild, blood-soaked Final Girl arc, the sheer camp of Robert Rodriguez…
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You can’t fight what you can’t see, unless you’ve already survived the worst. In The Invisible Man (2020), Cecilia Kass escapes an abusive relationship… only to be haunted by a presence that no one else believes exists. This week, we dive into Cecilia’s chilling Final Girl journey, unpacking how the film turns gaslighting into a literal monster, ex…
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In The Cabin in the Woods, Dana thinks she’s headed for a weekend of fun with friends, but ends up in a bloody, mind-bending fight for survival where the real horror is who's pulling the strings. This week, we dig into Dana’s role as the archetypal Final Girl in a world that literally demands sacrifice, exploring how the film deconstructs horror tr…
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In space, no one can hear you scream—but Ripley makes damn sure they hear her survive. In Alien (1979), Sigourney Weaver redefined what a Final Girl could be: smart, resourceful, emotionally grounded, and completely unafraid to torch a xenomorph when it comes down to it. This week, we board the Nostromo and break down Ripley’s iconic status, how sh…
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Blood is thicker than water—and sometimes it’s also a curse. In Ginger Snaps (2000), Brigitte Fitzgerald isn’t just watching her sister Ginger transform into something monstrous—she’s being pulled into the change right alongside her. This week, we sink our teeth into one of horror’s most iconic sister duos, exploring how Brigitte’s quiet strength, …
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Long before Dutch faced the Predator in the jungle, Naru was already rewriting the rules of the hunt. In Prey (2022), Amber Midthunder brings fierce intensity to Naru, a young Comanche woman determined to prove she’s more than what her tribe expects of her. This week, we track Naru’s journey from underestimated healer to full-fledged warrior, discu…
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In Companion, Iris (Sophie Thatcher) isn’t just fighting for survival—she’s fighting for control over her own identity. Designed to be the perfect partner, our companion bot Final Girl is placed into a role she never chose, reflecting the way young women are automatically slotted into traditional gender roles by society. But as her weekend getaway …
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Wendy Torrance, played by Shelley Duvall, is often overlooked in the Final Girl conversation, but she shouldn’t be. In The Shining (1980), Wendy is trapped in the sprawling, snowbound Overlook Hotel with an unraveling Jack and a terrified Danny. Yet despite overwhelming odds and ever-increasing terror, Wendy proves that resilience isn’t about wield…
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Sam from A Quiet Place: Day One (2024) - brilliantly and expressively played by Lupita Nyong’o - isn’t your typical Final Girl. She’s a woman facing her own ticking clock before the alien invasion even begins. This week, we follow Sam’s unique Final Girl journey through a silenced New York City with her cat Frodo, her unexpected and beautiful compa…
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Being a loan officer in LA is tough, but for Christine Brown (played by Alison Lohman), denying a mortgage extension comes with hellish consequences—literally. In Drag Me to Hell (2009), Christine finds herself cursed by a vengeful old woman, stalked by a relentless demon, and racing against time to escape eternal damnation. This week, we break dow…
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Sally from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
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A quick detour to check on a family grave turns into a nightmare when Sally Hardesty and her friends stumble upon something far worse than vandalism. Trapped in the heart of Texas with a family of cannibals, Sally must endure a relentless, nightmarish chase that will push her to the very edge of survival. This week, we discuss how Sally embodied th…
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What do you do when the love of your life—who bailed right after you survived a collective horror—comes waltzing back into town a decade later… just in time for the anniversary of said trauma? That’s the nightmare facing this week’s Final Girl, Sarah (My Bloody Valentine, 2009), played by Jaime King. As a masked killer with a pickaxe and a penchant…
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Your high school BFF isn’t just a friend—she’s your bodyguard, your psychic twin, your ride-or-die… and sometimes, your biggest downfall. Just ask Anita "Needy" Lesnicki (played by Amanda Seyfried), a Final Girl unlike any other. This week, we sink our teeth into Needy as a Final Girl in Jennifer’s Body, dissecting how the film flips the male gaze …
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Maxine Minx is a final girl with ambition as sharp as her instincts. Played by the incomparable Mia Goth, Maxine claws her way through Ti West’s X trilogy, proving that in 1980s Hollywood, fame isn’t just about talent—it’s about survival. With dreams of stardom and a ruthless will to succeed, she’ll do whatever it takes to secure her place on the W…
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Selena from 28 Days Later isn’t just a survivor; she’s arguably the Final of all Final Girls. Armed with grit, resourcefulness, and a machete, she slashes her way through rage-infected chaos across the English countryside alongside her makeshift family. But Selena’s journey stands apart from most final girls because her redemption arc doesn’t come …
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Some Final Girls fight their way to survival, while others outsmart their foes. Karen Davis from The Grudge falls into the latter category, relying on her heightened intuition and resourceful problem-solving to endure a relentless, supernatural curse. Widely regarded as one of the most chilling and unsettling horror films, The Grudge delivers terro…
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What’s more badass than going feral in a blood-soaked battle for survival? In our debut episode, we’re diving deep (pun intended) into the unforgettable Final Girl of all Final Girls: Sarah from the 2005 horror masterpiece, The Descent. Join us as we break down her transformation from grieving adventurer to primal warrior. We’ll explore the claustr…
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