You might have heard of Amy Fisher, labelled the Long Island Lollita, who, at 17, shot and severely wounded the wife of her married lover. The shocking part about this story is how young Fisher was, and how vengeful.
A TV movie starring Alyssa Milano was made of Fisher’s story. Vengeful exes is a popular topic for Hollywood. Somehow psycho exes make for great entertainment. Here are seven of them.
Serenity (2019)
This is the newest kid on the block. A drama and stylised thriller pairing Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, Serenity takes us down a dark and perilous journey into what people do when they are desperate. Baker Dill (McConaughey) is a fishing boat captain who leads tours. He lives a relatively quiet life, until his ex-wife Karen (Hathaway) shows up. She begs Baker to save her and their son from her current husband, whom she claims to be violent.
This leads Baker to do something uncharacteristic and throw him way out of his comfort zone. He struggles to discern between right and wrong. And Karen’s resurgence does more harm than good to him. Will Baker do something so wrong he has to pay severely for it?
Unforgettable (2017)
This is a classic case of insane jealousy. Tessa Connover (Katherine Heigl) is having a hard time coming to terms with her broken marriage. It certainly doesn’t help that her ex-husband David (Geoff Stutts) is rubbing his new engagement in her face, although not deliberately. She gets more incensed when David brings his fiancee Julia (Rosario Dawson) into the home they own and get her acquainted with Lilly, David and Tessa’s daughter.
While Julia was initially happy with her new life as a soon-to-be wife and stepmother, she gets increasingly wary of Tessa and her actions, especially when it becomes quite clear that Tessa does not want her to be in David and Lilly’s life. Heigl plays an aloof woman turned pathological psycho to creepy perfection.
Knock Knock (2015)
Poor Evan (Keanu Reeves). One moment of weakness sends him into purgatory, despite him being a loving husband and a doting father. Evan was left alone at home for the weekend, when two stranded young women knock on his door for help. They are wet and lost and ask to be let in for a call and get dry.
Except that they did more than just getting dry, and Evan has to pay for it dearly when they won’t stop coming back to his home to ask for more “help”. His kind gesture has led to a dangerous path of seduction and temptation, and there’s a lesson to be learnt here.
Don’t give in to temptation. Not even for a minute, or a second. Otherwise, the consequences might be severe. Seeing Keanu Reeves as a father and non-fighting role is a refreshing change
Plush (2013)
Plush is a lesson on fidelity, or the consequences of what happens if you lack it. Rising rock star Hayley (Emily Browning) loses her brother to drug overdose and finds herself spiralling downwards. She seeks solace with her new guitarist, Enzo. Their friendship develops into something more, and Hayley, married with two kids, decides to stop before it gets worse.
But Enzo would have none of it. With a dark and troubled history, Enzo does not take being rejected well and starts to slowly make life difficult and miserable for Hayley and her family. Hayley is left reeling from the fact that she might have led a madman into her life, threatening the people closest to her as well.
Fear (1996)
While a lot of pyscho exes are females, Fear takes a look at a jealous boyfriend. In one of Mark Wahlberg’s first leading roles, Fear is about a pair of young lovers and a relationship gone wrong, way wrong. David (Wahlberg) and Nicole (Reese Witherspoon) are hot and heavy in love, with Nicole even losing her virginity to him. But she begins to doubt their relationship, which David, a hoodlum drug dealer, isn’t too pleased with. He starts stalking and terrorising not just her, but her family and friends as well.
Things turn for the worse when his hooligan friends invade Nicole’s home in an attempt to win her back. The best part of the show? Wahlberg appears topless in the movie several times.
Fatal Attraction (1987)
This is perhaps the first movie about pyscho exes that trigger a long line of copycats. Glenn Close plays a woman, Alex, who demands more after a one-night stand with Dan (Michael Douglas). She insists on continuing a relationship, while Dan has no such intention, leading her to systematically terrorising Dan. it doesn’t help that Dan has a family, including a daughter. The more times Dan rejects her, the more incensed Alex becomes, resorting to even kidnapping Dan’s young daughter.
While Close has won numerous awards this year for her role in The Wife, it is Alex that remains her best role yet. Her chilling performance of a woman deranged from spurned affection sends tingles down your back.
