The Big Picture · Review · Discussion · Interview
August 14, 2026/ 115 min/ Sean Fennessey
Sean and critic Adam Nayman review Jane Schoenbrunn's meta-slasher, walk the final-girl canon, then Schoenbrunn, Hannah Einbinder, and Gillian Anderson come on to talk the movie through.
35 films across 3 segments.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
‘Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma’with Adam Nayman
Jane Schoenbrunn's third feature: a queer director obsessed with casting the original final girl of the slasher franchise she's rebooting. Hannah Einbinder as Chris, Gillian Anderson as Billie. Candy-coated where TV Glow was melancholy; a Counting Crows needle drop scores the mid-film POV kill.
The Final Girl Film CanonCarol Clover's trope, tracked across the decades
Jess Bradford, one of Clover's originals.
Sally Hardesty; the ride away on the truck bed as the peak of the whole trope.
Laurie Strode, the signature.
Ripley, the clever answer; the role was written for a man.
First girl is also the final girl.
Carrie White as both monster and final girl.
The franchise Camp Miasma is built on.
Nancy Thompson.
Freddy's Revenge; its famous queer reading, taught in a cult-film course and covered in a documentary, exceeds the makers' conscious intentions.
Angela Baker flips the trope with its reveal.
Kirsty Cotton.
Sidney Prescott and Gale Weathers.
Popped the hood early; implicates the viewer watching the screens.
What if the final girl were tougher and meaner than the killer.
Riffing on the same idea; the sequel adds a sister.
Cody playing with the tropes, if not quite a slasher.
Coralie Fargeat's rape-revenge; victim to avenger.
Jessica Rothe's final girl knows she's the final girl.
Adelaide fits the bill outside a pure slasher.
Dani, actively exploring what being a final girl means.
Naru.
Built its prequel Pearl out of nowhere.
Where the self-referential riffing hits the end of the road.
Bruce Campbell's Ash, the great final boy, macho-coded and then not.
Obsession borrows its sound design and camera moves.
Curry Barker's film; the most deranged discourse of any American movie in years, per Sean. Liked much less than Miasma but its hands are dirtier.
In conversation
Casting the pairing, the blood-geyser shoot, the Counting Crows drop, the zombie-IP Zoom scene drawn from post-World's-Fair meetings.
Schoenbrunn's first horror, off their grandmother's VHS.
Einbinder's first, shown to her by her mom.
Schoenbrunn's last-great: caught it at the Regal, extra-large Icee. 'Disgusting.'
Einbinder's last-great: an animated sapphic French-Moroccan family dramedy.
Anderson's last-great: Olivia Wilde film with Ed Norton and Penélope Cruz.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Jane Schoenbrunn's other films I Saw the TV GlowWe're All Going to the World's FairA Self-Induced HallucinationCollective Unconscious
Comparisons and asides The OdysseyMaddie's SecretScary MovieCommandoThe Blair Witch ProjectParanormal ActivityThe BackroomsFatal AttractionI Know What You Did Last SummerResident EvilWhalefallUndertoneLeprechaunMiller's CrossingThe House of MirthSingin' in the RainA Clockwork OrangeReservoir DogsSunset BoulevardThe Nutty ProfessorAvatar
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV HacksThe X-FilesHannibalSouth ParkWidow's BayGreat ExpectationsBlack HoleThe Pink Opaque
Stage A Streetcar Named Desire
Books Horror Movie
Ads The Dog StarsBoar's HeadAmazon Prime