Content Warning: the following article contains discussions of sexual violence
Countless movies on the big and small screen explore the dynamic between those trying to evade or combat the obsessive behavior of others. Most of the predators follow a recognizable and even predictable formula, but some stand out in movie history more than others. Here is a ranking of a few of the scariest movie stalkers.
Updated on April 1st, 2021 by Scoot Allan: The act of stalking continues to appear prominently in the horror genre given the real-world terror it can elicit from viewers, which has led to successful series, like You and The Fall, that have further explored the mindset of the stalker. However, there have been a number of movies that have also explored similar territory and introduced some of the creepiest stalkers ever seen on the big screen. And whether male or female, each cinematic stalker has made a memorable impact due to their depraved crimes, inability to comprehend the nature of their crimes, or the unsettling ways they carried out their stalking.
Ryder In 1986's The Hitcher
While hitchhiking used to be a much more common way to get around the country when needed, it has become an incredibly dangerous mode of transportation that can make anyone vulnerable, which the 1986 horror The Hitcher explored perfectly.
C. Thomas Howell starred as a motorist who managed to survive a deadly encounter with a serial killer hitchhiker named Ryder (Rutger Hauer). Unfortunately, Ryder managed to stalk the motorist and frame him for the series of increasingly brutal murders he commits along the way.
Max In 2011's The Resident
Dr. Juliet Devereau (Hilary Swank) moves into an apartment managed by Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Max outwardly appears to be a charming man who is content to renovate his family's building while taking care of his grandfather.
Max's initial obsequiousness devolves into some disturbingly depraved behavior, however, and Juliet unknowingly becomes the victim of repeated assaults by Max whilst she's unconscious.
Darian Forrester In 1993's The Crush
Pre-Clueless fame, Alicia Silverstone plays the precocious Darian Forrester, who develops a crush on Nick Eliot (Cary Elwes), a reporter living in her parent's guest house. She then mistakes Nick's friendliness for something more. From the start, Nick does everything wrong, causing the audience to question if Darian is entirely off the mark.
The movie's situation doesn't go for realism but it can be distressing seeing how Nick's every move trying to dissuade Darian blows up in his face. Her parents aren't around much, and she's shown to be a master manipulator.
David McCall In 1996's Fear
Fear examines the intense attraction between Nicole (Reese Witherspoon) and her first love, David (Mark Wahlberg). Nicole has a complicated relationship with her father, Steve Walker (William Petersen), and those unresolved issues appear to push her further into the arms of David. Nicole's father suspects David isn't a good guy despite David's transparent, half-hearted attempts to convince him otherwise.
The more antagonistic David becomes, the deeper the wedge he's able to drive between Nicole and her father. It's no surprise David's true colors come out, and Nicole's attempts to distance herself from him are met with unwavering straight-up aggression. David isn't just a bad guy, he's a psychopath.
Greta in 2018's Greta
Chloë Grace Moretz plays Frances, a kind college grad who moves to NYC with her best friend, Erica (Maika Monroe). She tracks down Greta (Isabelle Huppert) after finding her purse on the subway and Frances, who feels isolated in her new surroundings, feels a kindred spirit in Greta, who is also on her own. Frances lacks a maternal influence in her life, as Greta's daughter is supposedly living overseas.
When Frances decides to distance herself from Greta, the woman becomes a malignant presence, harassing Frances and finally going to drastic lengths to keep Frances in her life. The remainder of the film exposes Greta's cruelty as she reenacts her unhealthy family history, using Frances as a surrogate daughter.
Annie Wilkes In 1987's Misery
Stephen King's Misery was adapted into a movie in 1987 that starred Kathy Bates as Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who was responsible for the deaths of multiple patients under her care, as well as other patients over her professional career.
The film followed Wilkes as she first stalked her favorite author Paul Sheldon (played by James Caan), before running him off the road and injuring him. Annie then holds him hostage under the pretense of caring for him and forces him to bring her favorite literary character back to life under the threat of his own.
Curt Duncan In 1979's When A Stranger Calls
"The call is coming from inside the house." This phrase has become an unshakable part of pop culture dialogue thanks to the movie When a Stranger Calls. A babysitter is terrorized by a prank caller, only to find out her efforts to keep Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley) out have been futile all along.
There are some parallels between this film and Halloween, but Curt's mental anguish is at the forefront. He does disturbing things for a variety of complex reasons that he doesn't seem to understand. Curt vacillates between being innocuous and a cold-blooded killer.
Julie Gianni In 2001's Vanilla Sky
Wealthy playboy David Aames (Tom Cruise) engages in a casual affair with Julie Gianni (Cameron Diaz), who pushes for more only to be rebuffed. When David falls for Sofia (Penelope Cruz), Julie grows resentful that the boundaries David places on their relationship don't apply to the new woman in his life.
Julie's actions border more on needy than malicious, and her actions aren't the focus of Vanilla Sky. Their final confrontation takes place early on. Julie literally holds David captive in a scenario that is terrifying once it becomes obvious that Julie's cool demeanor has been masking festering anger fueled by David's conflicting push-pull behavior.
Travis Bickle In 1976's Taxi Driver
Martic Scorcese's 1976 iconic hit Taxi Driver starred Robert de Niro as Travis Bickle, a Ney York City cab driver whose psychological state deteriorates over the course of the film after he struggles with a series of infatuations and a distorted worldview.
Bickle begins to stalk a Senator and Presidential candidate who represented Bickle's crumbling faith in the political system that he felt was destroying the city around him. Bickle's stalking eventually turned deadly when he appears to attempt to assassinate the Senator, though his violent and murderous impulses were then directed elsewhere.
Hedra Carlson In 1992's Single White Female
Often, stalkers in films are trying to fill a void. In Single White Female, Hedra Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a mousy, soft-spoken sad sack becomes roommates with the glamorous and self-assured Allison Jones (Bridget Fonda).
It's not enough for Hedra to want to be friends with Allison, she wants to possess her. Hedra's grasp on reality begins to slip as she eliminates every perceived threat to her relationship with Allison. Not even a cute puppy survives the fallout. The term "single white female" is still the go-to phrase to describe the ultimate frenemy.
Mark Lewis In 1960's Peeping Tom
1960's controversial thriller Peeping Tom starred Carl Boehm as Mark Lewis, a photographer and amateur filmmaker who was also a serial killer obsessed with capturing the look of fear on his victim's face at the moment of their death at his hands.
Mark's childhood was spent in front of a camera as he became a test experiment for his father's own psychological study into fear. Scarred from his traumatic upbringing, Lewis created a special camera with a mounted mirror and a knife attached to a tripod that he used as a murder weapon on the women he stalked and filmed.
Max Cady In 1991's Cape Fear
Robert De Niro's performance as ex-convict Max Cady is anything but restrained. Cady is determined to exact revenge against the public defender, Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte), who is responsible for Cady's incarceration. While Cady openly and unapologetically taunts and emasculates Sam, he also preys on Sam's daughter, played by Juliette Lewis.
Cady sees the cracks in Sam's less than perfect family life and exploits them to accomplish his agenda. Cady is brutal and cruel, and while everything about his appearance indicates he's not very bright, Cady is incredibly cunning, luring Sam and his family into a deadly trap.
David Strine in 2018's Unsane
Shot with an uncomfortable level of intimacy by Steven Soderbergh on an iPhone 7 plus, Unsane tells the story of Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy), the victim of a stalker who becomes trapped within a mental facility against her will. Still traumatized by her past, Sawyer begins to see her stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard), inside the hospital. Because Sawyer's mental health is questioned by the facility for its own selfish reasons, it's not immediately clear if David is a figment of her imagination or truly there.
Unsane has a claustrophobic mood, and watching events unfold can even make the audience feel voyeuristic. There is a scene where Sawyer confronts David, and her rage at his inability to comprehend differentiate between how he perceives Sawyer and who she is is palpable.
Michael Myers In The Halloween Franchise
One of the most famous cinematic stalkers, as well as a slasher movie icon, Michael Myers first appeared in 1978's Halloween, where he donned the white mask that would become his trademark.
In the original movie, Michael Myers stalks a young babysitter named Laurie Strode before attacking her and her friends on Halloween night, though he would continue to hunt and kill new targets over the course of the franchise as one of the creepiest stalkers in horror movie history.
Alex Forrest in 1987's Fatal Attraction
Fatal Attraction, nominated for six Academy Awards, elevates what could easily become predictable melodrama into a cautionary tale. The film doesn't explore why Dan Gallagher (Michael Douglas) commits adultery with an attractive and sexually aggressive publishing executive, Alex Forrest (Glenn Close). Nor does it offer insight into Alex's mental instability. The central focus is Dan's frantic attempts to keep his infidelity hidden from his wife as Alex's behavior escalates from provocative to violent.
Alex infiltrates Dan's home life in one particularly memorable way when she kills his daughter's rabbit, giving birth to the term "bunny boiler." While it was commonplace to only view men as predators and women as victims, Fatal Attraction flipped the script. It's unnerving to watch how quickly the character's motive moves from infatuation to obsession.