TAC Reviews...Fatal Attraction

Date Posted: 20/07/25

First released in 1987, Fatal Attraction is a psychological thriller starring Michael Douglas, and Glenn Close. It was directed by Adrian Lyne, and written by James Dearden based on his 1980 short film Diversion. The film was the first in a trend of erotic thrillers that continued into the 1980s and 1990s which Michael Douglas starring in arguably the most famous of these films Basic Instinct with Sharon Stone in 1992. 

You may be asking why I am reviewing a film from 1987, well, we will get to that but for those of you who don’t know anything about this film, let me give you the gist…

Dan Gallagher (Douglas) is a married attorney living in Manhattan with a wife named Beth (Anne Archer) and a young daughter named Ellen (Ellen Hamilton Latzen). After a chance encounter with a woman named Alex at a corporate event, Dan engages in a brief affair with Alex whilst his wife and daughter are out of town. After what is basically a one night stand he tries to end the fling but Alex cuts her wrists and Dan helps her before leaving.

Alex comes by his office to apologize and asks him to attend a performance of Madame Butterfly, which is her favourite opera, but he declines. Alex continues to call him at his office until Dan tells his secretary that he will no longer takes Alex’s calls. Alex insists on meeting Dan, tells him that she is pregnant with his child, and demands he take responsibility for his actions.

As Dan tries to figure out what to do, Alex’s behaviour becoming more and more extreme as she refuses to let him go going so far as to threaten his family…

There is something about stalkers that I find weirdly fascinating, I think because I can’t really understand their motivations especially if they were formally in relationships. If someone doesn’t want to be in a relationship anymore then what is stalking them going to accomplish?? Are they hoping that the other person will see their dedication or their acts of “love” and take them back?? It makes even less sense to me when someone is stalking someone that they barely know. As of September 2024 in the UK it is estimated that 1 in 7 people might have been victims of stalking with 1 in 5 women and 1 in 11 men having been stalked. It typically happens to younger people but older individuals can be victims too. Anyway, I digress, whilst I did not see Fatal Attraction until I was older, I knew it by reputation, and the somewhat infamous Bunny Boiler scene, but we’ll get to that when we get to it.

The film was a commercial success in 1987 becoming the second highest grossing film of that year and was nominated for six academy awards including Best Actress for Close and Best Supporting Actress for Archer. It has been parodied endless times in things like Family Guy, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and even a holiday special of Only Fools and Horses. The fact is that this film has seeped its way into popular culture and whilst you, like me, may not have seen the film knew it by its reputation.

My early memories of seeing Michael Douglas when I first arrived on this planet was in films like Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nyle he seemed to play more heroic characters and so it was a bit jarring when I saw him playing characters like Nick Curran in Basic Instinct or Dan in this because, he played guys who wouldn’t have gotten into trouble if they had known how to keep their dicks in their pants. Seriously dude, in Basic Instinct he starts a relationship with a woman who possibly brutally stabbed her lover to death with an ice-pick mid-sex and is the prime suspect in a murder case, here Dan starts an affair with a woman for basically no reason, his wife is just out of town and he figures “fuck it, why not”. Seriously guy, keep it in your PANTS!!!! On a slight side note, personally I think is wife is more attractive than Alex but personal taste is down to individuals.

 The performances in the film are fantastic with Glenn Close really stealing the show as the increasingly dangerous and unhinged Alex, and was something of a mixed blessing for Close as it did result in her getting type-cast as villous characters for a while. The tension is kept at breaking point as Dan struggles to keep his family away from the consequences of his affair.  Archer is also superb as the wife who must not only contend with the fallout of her husband’s infidelity but also the prospect that his affair partner now has a child on the way that Dan is financially obligated to look after and take responsibility for.

Describing someone as a “Bunny Boiler” is directly lifted from a scene in this film in which Dan’s family return home to find that their daughter’s pet rabbit is quite literally…well, I think you can figure it out from the name. It is a disturbing scene because it is just a random act of violence against an innocent animal that had nothing to do with anything.

Now we reach the part that is the reason I wanted to talk about this film, and the reason that I am reviewing it in the first place. Alex tells Dan that she is pregnant, and yet she offers no proof that she actually is apart from a card from her gynaecologist. I rewatched the film for the purposes of this and Dan calls the doctor who says congratulations. But we have no idea is this doctor is a legitimate doctor, Dan never goes to the doctor’s office, and never meets them in person. With someone as unhinged as Alex is it so farfetched that she could have created all of this to trap him. I have checked and in the 1980s the Clearblue pregnancy test was widely available, so were ultrasounds and lateral flow tests. Yet Alex produces none of these. Dan goes to her apartment and whilst there is a pregnancy test in her bathroom cabinet we don’t see the positive result in the bin or something. All we have to go on is her word for it, and she is someone who is desperate to keep hold of a man that wants nothing more to do with her. Is there a better way for a crazy woman to trap a man than by claiming he is the father of a child?? Paternity tests were also available in the 1980s. Dan consults a friend of his who is a Family Law attorney who doesn’t tell him to get a paternity test and implies that Dan is basically screwed. Not the most reassuring legal advice. The film is very clever at leaving it ambiguous regarding whether she is or is not actually pregnant because we are not shown any concrete proof either way.

Now whilst the question of whether Alex is pregnant or not is left open to interpretation, what is not is how deranged that Alex becomes as time passes. She phones Dan constantly at his office and home, so much so that Dan is visibly shaken every time the phone rings. Glenn Close is not a physically imposing figure at that only adds to the creepiness in Close’ performance, she follows Dan mercilessly, vandalises his car and directly threatens his family. Dan is driven to breaking point through her behaviour and his terror at losing his family scares him more than anything else. Even when Dan does eventually go to the police, they basically tell him that without hard proof of the vandalism there is nothing they can really do.

Like I said I rewatched the film for the purposes of this review and had forgotten how truly chilling Close’ performance is, and there is no wonder that she received an Academy Award nomination. I have to say that all of the actors do fantastic jobs with Douglas becoming increasingly horrified by the actions that Alex is taking whilst no one around him does anything to help, the police even telling him that [he] made his own bed. The idea of being afraid in your own home, of having someone determined to ruin your life, and seemingly no one able to help you as you family becomes increasingly put at risk is frightening.

Fatal Attraction is a terrifying example of a fling gone wrong and features incredible performances from its cast, fantastic direction and really demonstrates just how horrifying the effects of stalking are on the victims.

I started writing this article wanting to talk about the question of whether Alex is really pregnant because I did not truly remember just how smart the film is when it comes to keeping Alex’s pregnancy ambiguous, but as I watched it I realised that the film is far smarter than that. It really looks at the fallout and the psychological impact of Alex’s actions on both her as well as Dan and his family. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t understand the minds of stalkers, is it about power? Love? Or control? Do they have some kind of mental illness which makes the form irrational attractions to people? I don’t know and hopefully I never really learn because that might mean I develop the same tendencies or traits myself.

All in all Fatal Attraction is a film that inspired a thousand imitations and in my opinion is the best example of this type of psychological thriller. If you haven’t seen it, only one of its many imitations then you really need to check it out, because you will not be disappointed if you do. Obviously the film is getting strong Thumbs Up.

8/10 – The film that launched a thousand imitations and is a terrifying insight into what someone being stalked goes through. The cast are all superb with the direction keeping the tension high as a weekend fling becomes something increasingly dangerous.