The Final Girl looks a little different for 2026... in the best way! Join in for the first episode of 2026 where we uncover what it really means to be in the horror genre, where the term "elevated horror" came from, and what I believe it means to have so many different types of fear depicted on screen.

SOURCES/INFORMATION

Laing, R.D. The Divided Self.

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection.

Freud, Sigmund. Beyond the Pleasure Principle.

Luckhurst, Roger. The Trauma Question.

Haneke, Michael. Interviews collected in Film Comment and Cahiers du Cinéma.

Carroll, Noël. The Philosophy of Horror.

Jancovich, Mark. Rational Fears: American Horror in the 1950s.

Jancovich, Mark et al. Defining Cult Movies.

Sobchack, Vivian. The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience.

• (00:00:00) - Final Girl on 6th Avenue: Reviewing Films
• (00:01:34) - What Is Elevated Horror?
• (00:05:02) - What Is Elevated Horror?
• (00:10:19) - Funny Games
• (00:13:45) - Ethical Horror
• (00:17:08) - The Piano Teacher: A Horror Film Without Violence
• (00:26:36) - The Piano Teacher: Rape Scene
• (00:31:18) - Hereditary: The Trauma of Repetition
• (00:39:53) - Hereditary: The Trauma Narrative
• (00:44:50) - Possession in the Elevator
• (00:55:25) - Under The Skin
• (01:04:55) - Under the Skin: Slow Cinema Explained
• (01:08:26) - Is Elevated Horror Bad For Audiences?
• (01:13:02) - The Importance of Elevated Horror
• (01:20:03) - Final Girl on 6th Avenue

Don't you find the paradox that loneliness is common but isolating interesting? Yeah, me too. Listen in as I discuss 5 of my favorite examples of the human condition, including Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005), and Happiness (1998).

Based on Andrew Neiderman's novel by the same name, Pin (1988) is a dark and emotional journey of a family as they navigate Leon's growing relationship with an anatomy dummy.

SOURCES/INFORMATION

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095871/

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pin_(film)

Starburst Article: https://www.starburstmagazine.com/reviews/dvd-review-pin-1988/#:~:text=Pin%2C%20however%2C%20is%20a%20different,Pin%20is%20talking%20to%20him.