What if the serial killer next door was the person everyone trusted?

On Slasher & the Final Girls, we’re heading back to 1984 for bikes, paper routes, neighborhood festivals, teenage crushes…and one seriously suspicious neighbor. We break down Summer of ’84 through forensic science, crime scene investigation, and psychology, from hidden bodies and sodium hydroxide to blood evidence, clandestine crime scenes, authority bias, and suburban paranoia.

We also dig into what makes a killer hiding in plain sight so unsettling—and why the film’s nostalgic summer setting makes its final act hit even harder.

Plus, we head to the Afterparty for 1984-inspired snacks and drinks and debate which is scarier: the obvious monster, or the familiar person you never saw coming.

This month we enter the colorful, campy, and dangerously romantic world of The Love Witch.

Austin and Nikki break down Elaine’s deadly search for perfect love, from suspicious heart failure and a hastily buried body to a ritual dagger attack that raises serious questions about blood spatter, wound depth, toxicology, DNA evidence, and how investigators uncover clandestine graves.

Courtney explores the psychology beneath the film’s glamorous surface, including the fear of rejection, the pressure to perform, desirability, and the danger of falling in love with a fantasy instead of the person standing in front of you.

Then, join us at the Afterparty for vibrant Love Witch-inspired cookies, cocktails, and mocktails as we answer the question: What is your favorite example of horror using beauty to make something feel even more unsettling?

What We Watched - July 2026 - Red, White, and Blood (Summer Horror)

Summer is officially getting bloody. For July’s Red, White, and Blood theme, the Slasher & the Final Girls team is diving into Americana horror, summer camp slashers, sun-soaked nightmares, creature features, and vacations that go very, very wrong.

In this month’s What We Watched, Nikki, Austin, and Courtney share the horror movies, thrillers, and books that kept them entertained throughout July. Our recommendations include the political slasher Founder’s Day, the yacht thriller Dead Calm, the latest blood-soaked entry in the Evil Dead franchise, There’s Something Wrong with the Children, The Farm, Darkest Hour, the found-footage eco-horror movie The Bay, summer camp cult classic The Burning, and the underrated werewolf favorite Silver Bullet.

We also return to horror book club with Hunter Shea’s The Montauk Monster, a brutal cryptid horror novel packed with secret government experiments, military cover-ups, mutated creatures, and complete chaos across Long Island. Naturally, we also ask the most important question: would any of us actually survive?

Whether you are looking for a classic summer slasher, a Fourth of July horror movie, a creepy vacation thriller, or your next horror audiobook, this episode has plenty of recommendations to carry you through the rest of the season.

We will be taking a short break from our regular What We Watched episodes in August, although our July full-movie episode should still be headed your way. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer, stay out of suspicious lakes, avoid creepy campgrounds, and get ready for our most exciting theme yet: Saw-tember.

What We Watched - June 2026 - Indie Horror

So many streaming services, so many unhinged little horror gems, and somehow still not enough time.

This month on Slasher & the Final Girls, we’re diving into indie horror — the weird, scrappy, beautiful, deeply upsetting corner of the genre where the budgets are smaller, the vibes are stranger, and the emotional damage is usually handmade. We’re talking It Follows, They Look Like People, Backrooms, Green Room, The Void, November, Maeve Fly by CJ Leede, and more.

Expect cursed hookups, cosmic nightmares, punk bands making terrible booking decisions, animated zombies, existential dread, body horror, black-and-white folk weirdness, and at least one movie that made us say, “I don’t think I got it, but I respect the chaos.”

Grab a snack, clear your watchlist, and come hang out while we break down what we watched, read, loved, hated, and emotionally survived this month.

What We Watched - May 2026 - Witchy and Occult Horror

This month on Slasher & the Final Girls, we’re closing out May with witchy horror, occult horror, and folk horror — aka rituals, curses, satanic panic, demonic possession, suspicious forests, and goats with main-character energy. We’re talking Deathgasm, The House of the Devil, The Mummy, Pyewacket, The VVitch, Hellbender, and The Ritual by Adam Nevill. Grab a snack, stay out of the woods, and please do not read mysterious sheet music unless you’re emotionally prepared to summon something with terrible boundaries.

The Wicker Man (1973)

This month, we’re trading jump scares for folk songs, flower crowns, sabotaged seaplanes, and one very bad May Day itinerary. Join us as we wander into The Wicker Man, where the villagers are friendly, the rituals are fertile, and the harvest demands a little more than rain. We’re breaking down the forensics of fire, the psychology of sacrifice, and why cheerful singing around a giant wicker effigy is, actually, a huge red flag.