by Victoria Potenza, Staff Writer

I recently watched Fatal Attraction, my recent love of erotic thrillers has lead me down one of it’s subgenres; the obsessive woman. These are the women that haunt the dreams of straight men. It is the woman they cannot shake, no matter how much they try to ghost her. She is the woman that none of their tricks work on. When she sets her sights on a man either she gets him, or she makes sure no one else does. The idea that a simple fling, or one night stand could end up wreaking havoc on his life is enough to give him the cold sweats. While Alex from Fatal Attraction is certainly a terrifying example of the obsessive woman, she lacks a body count (unless you count a certain carrot eating fuzzy friend). However there are plenty of other obsessive ladies that cross the line, including Evelyn from Clint Eastwood’s film Play Misty for Me. 

Eastwood plays Dave, a disc jockey that loves poetry and casual sex. After one of his broadcasts he heads down to his favorite bar, the Sardine Factory. There he meets Evelyn (played by the incredible Jessica Walter, R.I.P.) who is immediately attracted to Dave and even tells him she went there in the hopes of meeting him. Dave tries to make it clear he is not interested in anything serious and then the two have sex. However Evelyn continues to show up at Dave’s house and follows him wherever he goes. He tries to handle the Evelyn situation while also trying to rekindle his relationship with an old flame, Tobie. But it becomes clear that Evelyn has no intention of being ignored, and she will kill anyone that gets in between them.

So why does Evelyn kill? Well it is clear that she wants to kill anyone that stands in between her and Dave. That means that even people like the detective on her case, Dave’s cleaning lady, and his new girlfriend are all potential targets. She does everything she can to get Dave’s attention but with so many people keeping them apart it is clear that she simply has no other choice. She simply wants to love Dave. She cooks for him, brings him presents, and buys seductive outfits to woo him, but none of it seems to matter. And then of course there is the fact that Dave continuously tries to be the “nice guy” even when Evelyn’s behavior becomes increasingly disturbing. He never simply says “I am not interested in you”. Who knows maybe if he had been more direct, Evelyn would have taken the hint? 

The gender dynamics of the film are fascinating. When Evelyn first shows up to Dave’s house with groceries to make him a home cooked meal, Dave does not act as freaked out as he should. He does not seem to be worried about the fact that a woman he just met found out where he lived and showed up unannounced, he’s more concerned that she wants to be his girlfriend. And since she’s there anyway, he decided to have sex with her AGAIN. As a woman I cannot think of any scenario where a guy I just met shows up to my house and I don’t immediately pepper spray him in the face. Yet she’s a woman? What could she possibly do?!

It isn’t until after he attempted suicide in his bathroom that he decides to let the people in his life know what is going on. Even then Dave does not call the cops. The cops finally show up after Evelyn attempts to kill Dave’s cleaning lady, and even then he is hostile and does not tell them everything that is going on. Granted the police seem to be incredibly unhelpful in real life stalking situations, but you would think Dave would at least attempt to cry for help. But in typical macho fashion he feels the need to handle things on his own. Giving Evelyn the perfect opportunity to turn his life into utter chaos.

From the beginning of the film Evelyn gives off immediate red flags. She waits for him to come by his local watering hole to meet him, she follows him, shows up at his home unannounced multiple times. Yet Dave let’s her in time and to me again. After blowing up in front of him and some other people on the street she comes by his house wearing nothing but a coat and he still lets her stay the night. I guess general sexism can make it very easy for a clearly unstable individual to get away with some scary things. While it is clear to the audience that there is something wrong with Evelyn, Dave is oblivious to danger. Which puts him and many other people in danger. Again he wants to be the good guy, he doesn’t want one of his fans to hate him. Even though he does not want to date Evelyn it is still kind of flattering how much she likes him so he lets a lot of scary actions pass before acting. 

It is clear that films like Fatal Attraction were inspired by Evelyn’s character. Even the suicide attempt in both films are very similar. It is not a surprise that these obsessive women are fertile ground for thriller narratives. While many women live in fear of men and the potential dangers they pose, men do not often worry about what the typical woman is going to do. 

Evelyn, and those like her, are a natural product of a patriarchal system where they feel that they can treat women however they want. If gaslighting, ghosting, cheating men were Batman, Evelyn is simply the Joker, there to balance the system. We need Evelyn’s in film to remind these kinds of toxic men that any one of us could be that crazy bitch that makes copies of your keys, follows you wherever you go, or trashes your entire apartment. While there is still hints of sexism around the idea that women are so starved for the attention of mediocre men that they will lose their minds, maybe the threat of Evelyn’s will keep some of them in line.