With the popularity of domestic thrillers sky-high, we cannot get enough of controlling couples in books and that translates to the big screen too.
There’s nothing more delicious than watching a vile character get his or her comeuppance, or having your nerves shredded, on the edge of your seat, praying the victim gets out unscathed.
With that in mind, grab your popcorn and settle down for my top ten controlling relationships in film:
1. Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
This nineties classic starring Julia Roberts is a nail-biting thriller. An abusive husband cottons on to his wife’s plot to fake her own death at sea to escape to a different town and assume a new identity but will he find her?
2. Enough (2002)
A tense movie about an abused wife, Jennifer Lopez, running to get her and her daughter to safety. However, her husband will stop at nothing to get her back and Lopez realises she has to stop running and fight for her freedom.
3. Gone Girl (2014)
We all loved the book by Gillian Flynn and Rosamund Pike absolutely steals the movie translation of the wife teaching her cheating husband the mother of all lessons, controlling the game from the outset.
4. I, Tonya (2017)
This biopic about figure skater Tonya Harding really shows the different levels of control and not just between Tonya and her husband, but her mother too. With a fantastic performance by Margot Robbie it’s a dark film about how far someone will go to get to the top.
5. Closer (2004)
Two couple’s lives are intertwined forever when the man from one couple meets the woman from the other. Not your typical movie about love and desire, if anything, this relishes in how toxic people in love can be to each other.
6. Fatal Attraction (1987)
A few years shy of people forty years old this movie is still utterly terrifying to watch as Glenn Close’s Alex refuses to let Michael Douglas’s just walk away after a one night stand. Stalking him and his family, even the bunny isn’t safe in this unhinged thriller.
7. The Invisible Man (2020)
When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see.
8. Mother (2017)
This movie is rather bonkers and not for the fainthearted. When uninvited guests arrive at a couple’s home, disrupting their tranquil existence and putting their relationship to the test, the female protagonist is unsettled, but what do they want.
9. Alice, Darling (2022)
This is a heartbreaking look at a young woman trapped in an abusive relationship, to the point where she is literally pulling her hair out pretending everything is fine on a weekend away with her friends. But she doesn’t realise she’s been invited there for them to stage an intervention and allow her to face the reality of what she’s been hiding.
10. Gaslight (1944)
The film is adapted from a 1938 play where the term Gaslight was coined. After the death of her famous opera-singing aunt, Ingrid Bergman’s Paula is sent to study in Italy to become a great opera singer as well. While there, she falls in love with the charming Gregory. The pair return to London, where Paula begins to notice strange goings-on: missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night, and gaslights that dim without being touched. As she fights to retain her sanity, her new husband’s intentions come into question.