Its difficult to overemphasise how big an impact Fatal Attraction had in 1987. The film that spawned the stalker craze of the late eighties and early nineties in Hollywood, it was the biggest hit of the year, and had it been released in 2014, its $320 million worldwide box office would have been more like $650 million. Thats on a par with a decent Marvel movie. Michael Douglas plays yet another of his entitled sleazeballs and does so beautifully, while Glenn Closes Alex Forrest is desperately out of control, a very ill woman fixated on the affair with married Douglas who attempts suicide and then inserts herself forcibly into his life... and the life of his wife and daughter. This is the film that coined the term bunny-boiler, the one that scared the fidelity back into a million bad husbands. In reality though, this is the story of a woman suffering from a delusional disorder who cant detach herself from the fling and believes a genuine relationship exists between them. Douglas character is a horrible person: the real heroine is his wife, who is also the person the narrative decides should end Forrests threat. The original ending saw Forrest kill herself and frame her erstwhile lover for the murder, but it tested very badly with audiences. While the reshot ending made the film a mega hit, one cant help but wince at the shes dead no shes not! now she is cliché of the ending they went with.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
