'Final Girl Support Group' and 'Witchcraft for Wayward Girls' center women in horror

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Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

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Summary

Grady Hendrix is one of the biggest names in horror fiction today. He's published 11 horror novels and won a Bram Stoker Award for his non-fiction book on the history of horror fiction. In this episode, we revisit a 2021 conversation between Hendrix and former NPR host Audie Cornish about his book Final Girl Support Group with a discussion on society's obsession with violence and its perpetrators, rather than the victims. Then, we hear Hendrix speak with NPR's Ayesha Rascoe about his latest novel, Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, and some of the real life horrors faced by women in history.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Empire's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Grady Hendrix is one of the biggest
0:07.3	names right now in horror fiction. His books get a ton of praise from critics, and I always see
0:12.9	chatter about him in the movie trades about adaptations in the works. He's got a new book out titled
0:18.1	The Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, which is about four teenage
0:21.1	girls sent away to a home for unwed mothers in the 1970s. But first, I want to play for you
0:27.1	an interview he did with NPR back during Halloween season 2021, ahead of the release of his book,
0:33.4	The Final Girl Support Group. It's about the survivors of various horror movie franchises who,
0:39.2	yes, happen to be women. And in this interview with then NPR host Audie Cornish, Hendrix
0:44.1	Hendricks talks about wrestling with what exactly the horror movies he loves are trying to say
0:49.5	about the women who survive. That's ahead. In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
0:57.1	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:01.6	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:03.6	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:07.4	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:10.9	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:17.3	Since it's the Halloween season, I'm going to start this segment with a few names you might recognize.
1:22.2	Michael, Freddie, Jason, the classic horror movie killers.
1:26.5	Now, how about Lori Strode, Nancy Thompson, Alice Hardy?
1:31.9	Well, these are the names of the women, the fictional characters, who are targeted in those films.
1:37.6	Laurie Strode is the main character played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the Halloween franchise.
1:43.4	Nancy Thompson is the teenager haunted by Freddie Kruger in her dreams in Nightmare on Elm Street.
1:50.2	And Alice Hardy had the misfortune to be a counselor at Camp Crystal Lake.
	...

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