The new "final girl" in horror; plus, who's afraid of a horny hag?

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 October 2023

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Halloween is upon us — and it's the season for horror movies. Host Brittany Luse is a HUGE horror girlie, but loving horror also means critiquing it. Today, we're breaking down two major figures in horror: the final girl and the horny hag. First, Brittany chats with Dr. Kinitra Brooks, Audrey and John Leslie Endowed Chair of Literary Studies at Michigan State University, about what it means when the final girl is a Black woman. And later, Brittany is joined by horror author and film critic Gretchen Felker-Martin to discuss what's behind the horny hags in movies like X and Barbarian — and what that trope tells us about how we feel about older women in our society.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In need of a good read or just want to keep up with the books everyone's talking about
0:04.4	NPR's Book of the Day podcast gives you today's very best writing in a pocket-sized show.
0:09.5	Whether you're looking to engage with the big questions of our times or temporarily escape from them,
0:14.8	we've got an author who will speak to you.
0:16.9	Catch today's great books in 15 minutes or less on the Book of the Day podcast only from NPR.
0:23.0	Hey everyone, you're listening to It's been a minute from NPR.
0:29.0	I'm Brittany Loose.
0:30.0	And a warning to listeners, this episode contains frank mentions of sex, sexuality, violence, and sexual assault.
0:38.0	Halloween is upon us, and if you are a loyal listener, you know I love horror movies.
0:45.1	And to my delight, the genre is having a renaissance.
0:48.7	Some say they're cheaper to make, others say they just get butts and seats,
0:52.1	but in my opinion, horror is one of the best
0:55.0	ways to confront our fears head on but who gets to be the hero and who is seen as
1:00.0	the monster has been speaking volumes lately. We'll get to the monsters later on but first I want to talk
1:06.8	about the heroes. So we all know the horror genre has rules. The first green movie lays them out pretty well.
1:13.0	Number one, you can never have sex.
1:16.0	Oh, no, no.
1:18.0	Big no, no.
1:20.0	Big no. Oh, my day man.
1:22.0	Sex. But as time has gone on the rules have changed.
1:25.0	Nowadays the last one standing,
1:29.7	aka the final girl could be a sex worker like Maxine and X or the final girl could be a
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.