We’re heading to the suburbs with Night of the Reaper (2025), a love letter to 80s slasher classics with a modern, blood-soaked 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.

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Spoiler warning: If you haven’t watched Night of the Reaper, now’s your chance to press play before the body count rises.

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In this episode, we’re slipping into glass slippers and fairy-tale trauma with The Ugly Stepsister (2025). 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, conformity is survival, and every flaw could be fatal, Elvira’s transformation arc is a brutal, bloody reminder of how far women are expected to go to be “enough.”

We dive deep into this film’s feminist body horror, unpacking its commentary on societal pressure, cosmetic violence, and the cost of chasing beauty in a culture that demands it at any cost. We also talk about why we need way more horror films that get real about the psychological and physical toll of being a woman in a world built to break us.

Spoiler warning: We’re spilling all the tea and the beauty serum. You’ve been warned.

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This week, we’re worshipping at the altar of cleavage and camp with Elvira: Mistress of the Dark. She may not be your traditional Final Girl, but make no mistake, Elvira 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.

We dig into Elvira’s iconic blend of sex positivity and self-possession and why this 1988 cult classic still stands out in 2025. Elvira outlasts the villains AND she roasts them alive with double entendres and drag-queen-level charisma.

Elvira's Cookbook from Hell

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Spoiler warning: We’re opening the spellbook and the movie vault. You’ve been warned.

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Visit us at www.final-girls.com