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There have been plenty of great female stalker characters—from the likes of Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction to Alicia Silverstone in The Crush to Erika Christensen in Swimfan. But you know what’s better than a female stalker? A gay one. There’s a stark divide between male and female stalker characters; men are often portrayed as animalistic, with an insatiable bloodlust—it’s about the chase. With women, their mania is pinned as mental instability, obsession, and they’re often filling a wound left by the death of a loved one. And when a woman stalks another woman, the plots and motivations gets murkier, more twisted, more complex, more emotional, and MUCH more titillating. So, to honor our favorite psychos, here are the best female stalker characters, ranked by how gay they are.
Aubrey Plaza as Ingrid Thorburn in 'Ingrid Goes West'
Ingrid Goes West is the social media era’s take on female obsession. We’ve all done the mindless scroll through internet hell, comparing ourselves to others, wondering what it’d be like to have better looks, lives and lattes. In this 2017 dark comedy, Aubrey Plaza takes internet “stalking” to new heights. As the titular character, a mentally unstable, bored woman from Pennsyltucky, Ingrid moves to Los Angeles to “follow” her favorite influencer, Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen) in real life. Full disclosure: nothing actually gay happens in Ingrid Goes West. But—call me crazy—there’s something extremely lesbian about spending all your money moving into a house you can’t afford just so you can live next to the hot girl you’re obsessed with on Instagram. Shrug.
Isabelle Huppert as Greta in 'Greta'
Played by the stunning Academy Award-nominee Isabelle Huppert, Greta is a unique character. The root of all her pain stems the passing of her daughter. As a result, she psychotically chases down unsuspecting young women, around the age of her late daughter, by leaving fugly green purses on the subway and a return address so she can lure them into her home. She’s severely alone, desperate for companionship, and longs to rekindle a maternal connection. Although there’s nothing explicitly queer about the film or her character, Greta’s relationship to her latest victim, Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz), is somewhat Sapphic, as inappropriate as that may be. There’s just a little too much hand rubbing and skin grazing. Plus, a girl-on-girl chase is just inherently queer, and I low-key want to get murdered by Isabelle Huppert. Greta is in theaters now.
Leighton Meester as Rebecca in 'The Roommate'
The 2011 psychological thriller The Roommate is a perfect snapshot of its year in pop culture. It features a killer (ha) soundtrack, Aly Michalka getting her belly button ring violently ripped out, and the holy trinity of late-aughts brunette actresses: Nina Dobrev, Minka Kelly, and Leighton Meester. Meester helms the stalker role as Rebecca, a college girl who develops a violent obsession with her roommate, Sara (Kelly). The movie is wrought with harmful depictions of mental health, but its sole salvation is a steamy makeout between Meester and Daneel Ackles, who plays an old, gay friend of Sara’s (seriously, this movie has everything). Rebecca shamelessly uses her to trap Sara, but their lip-lock combined with Rebecca’s penchant for idyllic brunettes makes for the stalker of my twisted teen queen dreams.
Jennifer Jason Leigh as Hedra Carlson in 'Single White Female'
Hedra from Single White Female arguably gave birth to all of the nightmare women on this list. The 1992 psychological thriller stars Jennifer Jason Leigh as the berserk stalker, a mentally ill woman who moves into an apartment with a stranger, Ali (Bridget Fonda). Hedra seeks a woman to fill the hole in heart that was left when her twin sister died, and her obsession is an insidious slow burn that—without spoiling too much—ends with her attempting to adopt Ali’s identity, fiancé, and gay haircut. In Ali’s most desperate moment, all tied up, while Hedra holds a jagged knife to her throat, she kisses her, leaving Hedra sobbing in her lap. Been there. Well, minus the knife and the kidnapping—just the sobbing in another woman’s lap stuff.
Amanda Seyfried as Chloe in 'Chloe'
Nina Dobrev is somehow also in this movie, but that’s beside the point. In yet another erotic thriller that’s extremely bad but just so much fun, Amanda Seyfried plays the nominal psycho, alongside Julianne Moore as Catherine, a lonely housewife. Catherine suspects that her husband, played by Liam Neeson, is having an affair, so she hires a sex worker, Chloe, to test him, and gay shenanigans ensue. Catherine enjoys listening to Chloe describe what she does to her husband, then Chloe becomes totally infatuated with her, and they end up having steamy erotic-thriller-lesbian-sex. You can chuckle at the dramatic, lingering hand-touches, gasp at the twists you definitely saw coming, and stare at Julianne Moore getting hot and heavy with another woman (again. She does this in, like, every movie).
Jodie Comer as Villanelle in 'Killing Eve'
BBC’s award-winning series Killing Eve emerged as one of the most Sapphic and lionized shows of 2018. Jodie Comer plays a queer, psychotic assassin who becomes entangled with the MI6 agent who’s tailing her, Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh). Villanelle takes the cake as the gayest female stalker, because like Chloe, she actually is queer—but unlike Chloe, her and Eve’s relationship has nothing to do with a man. In season one, we see our girlish and playful villain in a threesome with another woman. But wait, it gets gayer. Villanelle and Eve devolve into a wickedly complex, emotional, so-right-but-so-wrong mutual obsession, with Eve admitting that she thinks about Villanelle’s eyes and lips all day, and Villanelle adding, “I masturbate about you.” The inaugural season ends with Eve stabbing the apple of her eye in the stomach, out of…love? Killing Eve is now streaming on Hulu, and the highly anticipated season two drops April 7th.
Jill Gutowitz is a haunted pair of overalls / writer living in Los Angeles. Follow her on Twitter: @jillboard.
