Ever wonder what it is about Christmas horror and unwanted pregnancy? Don’t worry, we’ve got this and several other dubious holiday needs covered. This episode, Candace and Ariel are talking about infamous and oddly goofy New French Extreme home invasion nightmare Inside (2007), as well as a different sort of home invasion (bad roommates) in indie …

Content note: Both films in our double feature this episode contain themes of suicide, and we will discuss it during the episode. One film also contains child death. Hello ghouls, we are back at it again with a nasty bummer of a double feature (positive) from what’s so far shaping up to be a nasty bummer era — the 2020’s. It’s just Candace and Arie…

Content note: Multiple of our films today include sexual violence and this episode contains discussion of that. We’re back! Just in time for The Season, Candace and Ariel are joined by regular guest, technical and emotional support, and Rob Zombie fanboy Pat Spurlock to talk about horror’s favorite wife guy — specifically House of 1000 Corpses (200…

We're coming back with another new release, INDIE EDITION! No need to go to a theater to check this one out, ghouls- you can rent it on VOD or amazon now! Candace and Ariel give a spoiler-free mini review of filmmaker Andrew Jara's new film, THE EMPTY SPACE (2023). Cosmic horror meets humor and slice of life all while thoughtfully tackling the heav…

It’s Pride Month, and much like the United States, we’re going back in time and getting scared of gay people. Come hang out while we talk about the little-known bleak cult horror of The Seventh Victim (1943), along with Hitchcock’s classic tale of murder, intrigue, and out-of-control carousels, Strangers On a Train (1951). We mention it within the …

This one goes all the way to the top… or does it? Candace and Ariel are joined by filmmaker and fellow podcaster Andrew Jara to talk about (suspiciously?) underwatched mind bending conspiracy moves – creepypasta/urban legend-inspired thriller The Empty Man (2020), and the atmospheric and noir-ish Broadcast Signal Intrusion (2021) Our connection was…

Candace and Ariel decided to divide and conquer at the theater to bring you a Very Special Mother's Day Episode: Ariel watched the latest in an iconic horror franchise EVIL DEAD RISE and Candace checked out the much-anticipated new Ari Aster flick BEAU IS AFRAID. In an unhinged move we bring you an entirely different format in which we give spoiler…

This double feature is all about deceptive appearances, mysterious disappearances, and the cruel and beautiful landscape that serves as their backdrop. It’s desert horror, ghouls, and we’re talking about subtly supernatural thriller, Zzyzx (2006), and mockumentary style found footage film, Horror in the High Desert (2021). Content note: one of thes…

Folks, our keywords today are Grimy and Obscure. If that sounds like your kind of thing, then come along as we’re joined by our pod pals Nathaniel Muir and Blake Heath from Adventures in Movies while we talk about an honest-to-god oddball double feature: Alabama’s Ghost (1973) and Candyland (2023). A correction: Candyland is available to rent on se…

Candace and Ariel are emerging from the deep dark woods to tell you their spoiler-free thoughts on the new horror comedy out in theaters, Cocaine Bear! Odd are you're either the type of person to see a film with a title like "Cocaine Bear" or you're not, so it's likely our opinion won't sway you one way or the other. But hey, aren't you dying to kn…

They’re splashy, they’re unpredictable, and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of them (no offense to rock-dwellers, we respect the lifestyle). In this episode Candace and Ariel are talking to comic and TV writer Pornsak Pichetshote about a potential cultural reset in horror oddballs Malignant (2021), and Barbarian (2022)…

Can you believe ‘tis the dang season once again? Not Your Final Girl may be low on holiday spirit this year, but we did dig a brilliantly unique, smart, funny, and heartbreaking double feature out of the attic for this episode: Jalmari Helander’s darkly satirical Rare Exports: A Christmas Story (2010), and one of our all-timers, Lewis Jackson’s equ…

Happy Halloween, girls and ghouls and freaks! Candace and Ariel have been churning the midnight butter, as the saying goes, and working to bring you our third annual Vintage Halloween. This year we’re showing love to pre 1970’s horror with artist, musician, and sound wizard Pat Spurlock (aka Phantom Stranger, the Boogeyman, our technical and emotio…

October is finally here, and boy do we have some spooky season programming for you. Live from Not Your Final Girl HQ (not really, but we’re suspending our disbelief here), Candace and Ariel are talking about two phenomenal Halloween specials – iconic and terrifying “live” broadcast Ghostwatch (1992), and acerbic “live” news special WNUF Halloween S…

After chomping at the bit for this particular movie for far too long, your fave un-final girls got to watch an early screening of Smile and were absolutely blown out of the water. This one scared the shit out of us, and as hardcore horror fans we do not throw that phrase around lightly! Feature film debut of writer/director Parker Finn, Smile enter…

Hey girls, did you know? That uhm… ghouls just wanna have fun. And okay, it’s not actually October yet, but Candace and Ariel are exploding from their graves early to come at you with a trick-or-treat core musical monster bash double feature: chaotic made-for-tv movie The Midnight Hour (1985) and iconic “longstanding social phenomenon” (thanks for …

Candace and Ariel got the chance to see Barbarian in theaters and you know what that means, ghouls: another spoiler-free minisode for you to snack on and whet your appetite for seeing some more big-screen horror. We refuse to even a LITTLE BIT give away anything about this movie. No mysterious house, questionable choices, or AirBnb trip gone wrong …

Parenting seems hard enough even when you don’t feed on the lives of mortals, right? Candace and Ariel are launching Spooky Season Lite here in mid-September with two stories of monster women, their monster daughters, and the supernatural bonds that often look just like sharing genes: blood-drenched and atmospheric Byzantium (2012), and witchy indi…

Candace and Ariel sneak away for another break to briefly discuss recent black comedy/whodunit parody Bodies Bodies Bodies or, as we like to call it, B3. Do tongue-in-cheek twitterspeak and shitty rich teen shenanigans do it for you? Listen to our short, spoiler-free review and find out for yourself! Seen the movie already? Let us know what you thi…

Your (Not Your Final) Girls are back at it again with another oddball double feature, and this one comes with earworms. We’re talking about the fun yet malignant musical folk horror of The Wicker Man (1973), along with the persistently hard to classify aspects of werewolf tale, coming of age story, and sleeper musical Good Manners (2017). The music…

It's time to join Candace and Ariel for another smoke break in the back room as we give our spoiler-free thoughts on the much anticipated horror/sci-fi fine dining by filmmaker Jordan Peele: Nope! We get into the stunning film score, nods to other titans in the genre, sibling vibe check, and some of the many possible metaphors in this heady and fun…

Content note: Be advised that both films we discuss in this episode depict sexual assault. Two movies we love so much we can’t believe we haven’t talked about them yet, one about a goatherd living a socially ostracized life in 15th century Germany, the other about an alien who hunts men for meat in 21st century Scotland. Incongruous double feature,…

Not Your Final Girl is returning to the vampire beat, this time with the expert perspective of our guest Annie Rose Malamet, film writer and host of the excellent podcast Girls, Guts, & Giallo. Get ready for a retrospective of lesbian bloodsuckers, revolving around transgressive Universal monster flick Dracula’s Daughter (1936), and Harry Kümel’s e…

It's time to join Candace and Ariel for another smoke break in the back room as we give our spoiler-free thoughts on Joe Hill's short story brought chillingly to life by Scott Derrickson: The Black Phone! We loved this fun summer blockbuster dark nostalgia romp and think you might too. Catch it in a theater near you! Links: IG- instagram.com/nyfgpo…

We’re coming at you fresh out of the Chattanooga Film Fest 2022, ghouls. Corie and Sarah, hosts of Gag Me With a Chainsaw, help us wrap up another year of dark, weird, devastating and hilarious indie features and shorts. Yes, we spent entire days watching movies. Yes, our brains are whirring loudly and hot to the touch. And we’ve brought you the fr…

Time for another break in the back room. For this spoiler-free minisode, we discuss Chloe Okuno's directorial debut Watcher (2022) starring neo scream queen Maika Monroe. Imagine: you've moved to a foreign country for your husband, you don't speak the language, you are completely isolated. But don't worry, your husband isn't abusive! He's just kind…

Ghouls, it's time for a smoke break in the back room! Join Candace and Ariel as we give our spoiler-free thoughts on David Cronenberg's latest body horror film, Crimes of the Future (2022). This film should be in a theatre near you (because if it came to Bakersfield, CA, chances are you've got access to it), so you can either catch it first or let …

One big old content note right up top: This is an episode about rape revenge! Obviously, that means we’ll be talking frankly about sexual assault, as well as its context and ramifications. Some rough territory, but we had a great time talking about one of the more reviled and misunderstood subgenres of horror. We’re digging into Abel Ferrara’s cult…

We’ve been subsumed into the Net, ghouls. But it’s okay; we’ve got friends in here. We’re talking to our friend Amber, host of our fellow horror podcast HornBloodFire about a double feature based on keywords: isolation, Internet, surreal - Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s darkly prescient vision of Internet apocalypse, Pulse (2001), and Isa Mazzei and Daniel Gol…

We’re back, and talking to film critic and cosplayer Jessica Scott, who brought us two underrated and under-discussed bangers: John Hancock’s ethereal and unsettling Let’s Scare Jessica To Death (1971), and William Peter Blatty’s chaotic long lost successor to The Exorcist, The Exorcist III (1990 - and yes, The Exorcist II exists, but for our purpo…

Enter the metaverse (not that one) with us, ghouls. We had Josh and Mels from Blackheart Collective on to talk about the mechanics and interpersonal dynamics of immersive horror, along with slasher cultural reset The Cabin in the Woods (2011) and haunting ode to internet horror and the ephemeral relationships it engenders, We’re All Going to the Wo…

Listeners, we call you all ghouls for a reason, and we’re putting it to the test (again) in this episode. Get ready to consider your cosmic insignificance, the razor-thin divide between humans and livestock, and the intimate cruelties of family because we’re talking to author and film critic Gretchen Felker-Martin about torture porn grandaddy The T…

We’re hitting the road in this episode - metaphorically, of course. Please don’t attempt to drive through the state of Texas in real life. No good can come of it. But do listen to us; we’re with Salem Horror Fest founder Kay Lynch, who brought us a double feature that tries to outrun death and chaos on the open road (spoiler: it doesn’t work). We’r…

It’s a very special episode, ghouls. Turns out it was not enough to subject ourselves, our listeners, and cool people in the community to our bullshit, we also needed to upset our horror-averse sisters as well. So today, Candace and Ariel are talking to Sammi and Eliza, our respective younger sisters, about Richard Bates Jr’s blood-soaked and deepl…

Find your low-rise jeans and come with us on a journey through time, to the epicenter of our youth: the early aughts. Candace and Ariel are talking to filmmaker LaShaunte Wade about two movies in our mental horror scrapbooks: Louisiana Gothic of menacing Spanish moss The Skeleton Key (2005), and mind-freak Millennial anthem Donnie Darko (2001). We …

There’s no day like today for contemplating isolation, the futility of human connections, the depraved potential of the human soul, and how we’re all just a bunch of meat bags. Happy Valentine’s from Candace and Ariel; here’s a double feature that really hones in on these themes: George Romero’s mournfully violent Martin (1978), and one of our 2021…

Happy New Year, ghouls! As we amble into 2022, we take the time to reflect on 2021 horror with our pals from Gag Me With a Chainsaw, Corie and Sarah. We talk the good, the bad, the ugly, and have some titles we agree on and some we don't (honestly, that always makes it more fun). Hear us talk our favorites from last year, some mentions of 2020 horr…

Welcome to our final episode of 2021! We’re leaving this year with a bang, ghouls. Candace and Ariel are joined by writer Alison Peirse for our most British double feature ever: Kate Shenton’s independent dark meta horror comedy about the nightmares of filmmaking, Egomaniac (2016), and Prano Bailey-Bond’s fever dream of art, unresolved trauma, and …

We know the 90’s are back, and we’re fully embracing it in this episode - you’re welcome! Candace and Ariel are talking to our guest Lauren McKenzie about Friends, the WB, the Clinton scandal, and of course our Kevin Williamson double feature: era-defining meta slasher Scream (1996) and its entertaining but underwhelming follow-up, I Know What You …

We’re officially in The Holidays, ghouls, and it’s time for some dark retellings, some real Grimm brothers shit. Candace and Ariel are talking to filmmaker Ashley George about essential Tim Burton goth feature Sleepy Hollow (1999), as well as the tragically new-to-us Snow White: a Tale of Terror (1997). Themes of this episode include: unusual gore,…

The time is nigh! From the black and white world, Candace and Ariel are hanging out with filmmaker Chelsea Stardust for our annual Vintage Halloween episode, where we discuss some of the most festive pre-1970 horror films. Get ready for this triple feature - spanning three decades, we’ve got atmospheric and suspenseful psychological classic Cat Peo…

It’s Not Your Final Girl’s inaugural October episode, get ready for the jump scares - just kidding, we won’t do those, but there are some spooky sound effects in the background because our guest was literally in a haunted house. Today, we’re talking to haunter Jourdain Blanco about Haunt (2019) and The Houses October Built (2014), two films whose p…

Welcome to the world underneath, ghouls. Don’t panic, Candace and Ariel are here to guide you out of the simulation with the help of author Hailey Piper; we’re talking about John Carpenter’s Reagan-era classic They Live (1988), along with Dark City (1998), a mind-bending noir we couldn’t believe came out right before The Matrix. In this episode: Lo…

Hey ghouls! Today we've got a special feed drop for you from our incredibly talented pod-friend, Wi-Moto Nyoka of Dusky Projects and the Black Women are Scary podcast. Come for the flash fiction starring Candace and Ariel in which we are horribly murdered, stay for the eclectic conversation about a bunch of other fun topics including the dirt on li…

Content note: One of the movies we talk about in this episode features sexual assault, both discussed and implied. If you don’t want to hear us talk about that, you can stop listening at about the 52 minute mark to avoid it. We promised you ghouls an update on our backpacking/trail maintenance trip in the Los Padres National Forest back at the begi…

Greetings, ghouls, and get ready for a little tension and suspense. Candace and Ariel are back from the beach, still relatively young, and are talking to comics and tv writer Pornsak Pichetshote about the horror comics that freaked us out the most, film criticism as a defense mechanism, and of course our double feature. Today we’ve got two variatio…

Your illustrious hosts are living their best aquatic horror life at the beach this weekend so we're sharing a feed drop from another podcast! Ariel had the privilege of guesting on This Book That Book to geek out about some of her favorite childhood reads, and of course that includes horror! Tune in to hear her talk formative media and youthful pra…

Are you tired of heavy-hitting double features by now? We hope not, because this week we’ve got a barn burner of an episode - Candace and Ariel are joined by Mars and Story from Gorefriends Podcast to talk about horror classic Rosemary’s Baby (1968), and its sister-from-another-mister Hereditary (2018). Grab a candle, pull up a chair at the seance …

Hang out in the scary suburbs with us this episode! Pod Mortem co-host Travis Hunter asked us to pick a formative horror movie to go with his, and we ended up with a heavy hitter double feature for the books. First off we’ve got simplicity, style, and one of the greatest final girl/movie monster face-offs of all time in Travis’ kindergarten(!) favo…

Content note: This episode's movies heavily feature themes of sexual assault, and while they are mostly figurative, we do thoroughly discuss those themes. We're back, and we've got a QUADRUPLE FEATURE for you this time. It's Pride Month, ghouls, and we've been dying to talk about all the queer stuff in the Alien franchise. Come along with us on a j…