Dating is a nightmare.
No, really. The sickly-sweet romantic comedies and grand, sweeping love dramas Hollywood has slapped onto the big screen for decades have all been a lie, a ruse, an illusion. The truth is, the hunt for love can be dangerous, gruesome even. And these horror movies? They get that. From psychological thrillers about meeting your partner’s extended family to home invasion bloodbaths and bizarre dinner parties with your ex — and her new cult — the genre of horror understands that, to be single means one must also be ready to mingle … with serial killers and psychopaths and creeps.
Hulu’s Fresh is just the latest example of how horror perfectly encapsulates the uncertainty and dread that comes from sparking up a romance with a complete stranger. In Mimi Cave’s directorial debut, Sebastian Stan poses as an idyllic suitor whose unusual appetites challenge his new girlfriend (Daisy Edgar Jones). Their doomed love story isn’t the first time film has held up a mirror to the horrors of modern dating so, if you’re in the mood for more hellish romances and meet-cutes gone wrong, here are 11 movies worth watching.
It Follows (2015)
When you’re a “Final Girl” in a horror movie, even a simple hook-up in the backseat of a car can be life-threatening. That’s what Jay (Maika Monroe) discovers after contracting an STD — sexually transmitted demon in this case from a date. Jay, like the boy who passed on this curse, is haunted by a figure that follows her everywhere — and will eventually kill her if she doesn’t pass on the entity by sleeping with someone else. Filled with jump cuts and nauseating visuals, the film presents intimacy as something to be feared, questioning everything from the male gaze to our own internalized attitudes towards sex through a wraith that would make a terrific mascot for the abstinence movement.
Get Out (2017)
It felt like Jordan Peele revolutionized the genre with his directorial debut in 2017 but, the truth is, Get Out just plays on some very relatable, almost universal fears when it comes to dating. Take for instance Daniel Kaluuyah’s character, Chris, who heads upstate with his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to meet her family for the first time. Chris is a young Black man while Rose comes from an affluent, white background which only packs on the pressure but, when the couple arrives and Chris begins noticing strange dynamics between the family’s household staff and Rose’s liberal, vocally progressive parents ... well, that’s when the real sunken place emerges. Obviously, the bigger themes here confront racial prejudice and inherited bias, but if you overlook the role Williams’ character plays in this whole scheme, you risk accidentally falling for a homicidal white girl with an affinity for dry cereal.
The Invitation (2016)
Director Karyn Kusama’s slow-burn entry into the “dinner party from hell” subgenre is, on its surface, a meditation about the way unacknowledged grief warps our sense of self and reality. But it’s also a cautionary tale about saying yes to a dinner invite from your boyfriend’s crazy ex. Logan Marshall-Green plays Will, a man who divorced his wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard) after the death of their young son. A couple of years later, Will gets an invitation from Eden and her new husband David (Michiel Huisman) to attend a dinner party with their old friends, and he drags his new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi) along for support. She likely expects some awkward interactions to take place before dessert, but the reveal that Eden and David are part of some weird end-of-days cult comes as surprise to everyone. The lesson here? If your partner’s ex is behaving too friendly, they might be planning to include you in their upcoming mass suicide ritual.
I’m Thinking Of Ending Things (2020)
Charlie Kaufman’s tense, mind-bending thriller ends as ambiguously as it begins. In it, Jesse Plemons plays an awkward young man named Jake who brings his girlfriend Lucy (Jessie Buckley) home to meet his parents (played by Toni Collette and David Thewlis). While there, Lucy begins receiving strange phone calls, noticing weird childhood photos on the walls that resemble her own, and having intensely emotional confrontations with Jake’s parents and, later, an aging janitor at his old high school. The truth the film hides until the very end is that Lucy is just a figment of Jake’s imagination, a version of a girl he might have met decades before who he thinks might have made him happy if he’d had the courage to ask her out. But though all of this is playing out in Jake’s head, it doesn’t make Lucy any less real in the film — which isn’t so much a horror story as it is an examination of how loneliness pushes people to extremes and how women are often tasked with “saving” the men in their lives. It won’t give you nightmares, but it will definitely make you squirm.
Fear (1996)
Fear is a film immortalized in pop culture thanks to a wild sex scene that just happens to take place on a roller coaster, but it’s also a horror story, one that forces us all to face an inevitable truth: the men Mark Wahlberg plays on screen are all trash. His character here, a man named David who preys on an underage girl named Nicole (Reese Witherspoon) is a heaping dumpster fire filled with entitlement, rage and disturbing possessive impulses. He goes about destroying Nicole’s life by assaulting and murdering her friends, threatening her family, and beheading her poor dog — truly monstrous behavior. If watching this film doesn’t scare you off of ever dating that random stranger you met at a bar one time, nothing will.
The Lodge (2020)
Riley Keough plays both the tormentor and tormented in this dark, unsettling horror film that sees a young woman with a difficult past trying to connect with her new boyfriend’s children. Keough’s Grace has survived a religious cult led by her father, the only member not to commit suicide. She’s making a new life for herself, getting involved with a man named Richard who has two children from a previous marriage. When Richard leaves Grace in a remote cabin alone with the kids, strange things begin to happen that spark a nervous breakdown complete with memories from her terrible upbringing. Kids are just miniaturized demons and anyone who’s had to make nice with them for the sake of a new romance knows this, but the children in this story are on a whole new level.
Pet (2016)
Obsession is often confused for love, especially when it comes to people who absolutely shouldn’t be in a romantic relationship. Take Seth (Dominic Monaghan), an animal control employee who sees a young woman named Holly writing in her journal one day and falls hard for the mystery girl. So hard in fact that he stalks her, steals her diary, and kidnaps her — all in an attempt to save her from herself. That’s the beginning, middle and end of a great horror film, but that’s not where the screen fades to black in this twisty thriller. Instead, Pet presents us with one villain before topping his terrible behavior with that of another. Be careful who you chain up in a basement because you think they’re “the one,” kids.
Jennifer’s Body (2009)
Another underappreciated horror gem from director Karyn Kusama, this supernatural thriller has become a cult classic thanks to two essential elements, the first being that it’s fun as hell to see Megan Fox eat boys alive. The second, compelling hook of this story focuses on how young women are often used and abused by men in power and how teenage girls are overly-sexualized. Fox’s Jennifer is just a girl hoping to hang out with members of her favorite band who ends up getting sacrificed and turned into a flesh-crazed succubus. She takes her revenge on some jocks and jerks who deserve it, but her devilish new pastime costs her a best friend and, eventually, her life. There’s some subliminal messaging here about the Catch-22 all women face when it comes to love and sex that feels a little too on the nose for these modern dating times.
Crimson Peak (2015)
Guillermo del Toro’s lush, gothic romance isn’t modern by any means, but it still serves as a warning to anyone who comes across a charming, Tom Hiddleston look-alike and wonders: Is this guy too good to be true? Answer: Yes, yes he is. In fact, Hiddleston’s Thomas Sharpe is an expert con-man who swindles young women like Mia Wasikowska’s Edith out of their inherited fortunes to repair his derelict childhood home. Once the money runs out, he gets his mentally-deranged sister (Jessica Chastain, having the time of her life playing a murderous spinster) to poison them with tea, or porridge — she’s not picky. He’s also happy to gaslight his bride into thinking his house isn’t haunted by the ghosts of his former lovers, which just feels like the cherry on top of the very ghoulish wedding cake.
Life After Beth (2014)
This zombie comedy starring Molly Shannon, John C. Reilly, and Aubrey Plaza satisfies a specific niche in the dating horror genre. Sometimes, when a relationship ends, we often wish we had a second chance to do things right. That’s what happens for Zach (Dane DeHaan) when his girlfriend Beth (Plaza) suddenly dies. He’s heartbroken over the loss until he discovers that Beth isn’t actually dead at all. She’s crawled up from her grave, returned home, and acted as nothing happened. Zach goes with it for a while, ignoring all the signs that scream “My girlfriend is now a zombie!” until Beth’s violent mood swings and cravings for human flesh all become too much.
Midsommar (2019)
Yes, Ari Aster’s folk horror film is an unnerving analysis of unresolved trauma and life-altering loss that weaponizes religious imagery and cult rituals to scare the hell out of would-be tourists. But, it’s also a cutting commentary on how even the most important relationships in our lives can fail us — and how devastating it is when they do. For Dani (Florence Pugh) who’s still reeling from the loss of her parents and sister, a trip with her boyfriend Christian (Jack Reynor) and his friends seems like the perfect escape. In reality, the closed-off community they find themselves in harbors darker secrets than her own and exposes the cracks in her relationship. Horror often forces us to face our fears, but horror movies about relationships can also force us to face the truths of their shortcomings — before putting cheating lovers inside bear carcasses and setting them on fire.