Director Neil Jordan’s new thriller Greta is a super fun ride and don’t let anyone tell you any different! It’s high camp at its best and Isabelle Huppert relishes her role as Greta, a lonely lady who seeks the friendship of younger women before becoming intensely clingy and obsessive. Sweet and naive Frances (Chloe Grace Moretz) falls into Greta’s web when she finds Greta’s lost purse. Greta worms her way into Frances’ life and then begins to terrorize her. Camp only works when everyone takes the material seriously and, oh boy, do Jordan, Huppert and Moretz deliver.

The film arrived in theatres March 1st and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a return to the ’90s, the heyday of the psychological thriller. I love a great female psycho killer, so if you are like me, take a deep dive into this list of some of my favourite cinematic ladies-who-kill.

[nextpage title=”10. May (2002)”]

Lucky McKee (The Woman) wrote and directed this cult horror starring a chilling Angela Bettis as the titular May. May is an awkward and lonely oddball. What she desires most in life is a friend/lover and sets her sights on mechanic, Adam (Jeremy Sisto). She is also pursued by a coworker, Polly (Anna Faris). When she is rejected by Adam and then Polly, she begins a murderous rampage and then puts her sewing skills to work and Frankensteins herself a friend. It works out about as well as you can imagine. Don’t try this at home, kids.

[nextpage title=”9. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)”]

Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life) directed this dark comedy starring Cary Grant as Mortimer Brewster, a newlywed who discovers his beloved aunts are murdering lonely old bachelors to end their ‘suffering’. The plot gets even crazier when Mortimer’s serial killer brother escapes from prison and takes offense to the aunts’ larger kill count. As Mortimer explains in the best line of the film, “Insanity runs in my family. It practically gallops.” My favourite kinds of murderers are sweet old ladies, and the Brewster sisters are one of the few examples given a film treatment.

[nextpage title=”8. I Love You to Death (1990)”]

This dark comedy is stars Tracey Ullman as Rosalie, a devoted wife to Joey (Kevin Kline). When Rosalie discovers the incredible extent to Joey’s womanizing she decides to kill him…only Joey proves harder to kill than anticipated. Rosalie receives help from her mother (Joan Plowright) and her smitten employee (River Phoenix). Rounding out the star studded cast are Keanu Reeves and William Hurt as drugged-out hired hit men. Rosalie ends up trying to kill Joey FIVE TIMES. After he survives a couple of gunshots and a poisoning, Joey and Rosalie forgive each other and love conquers all… I guess? What’s even weirder is that it’s based on a true story.

[nextpage title=”7. The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)”]

One of my all time favourite movies stars Rebecca De Mornay as Peyton, recent widow to disgraced Dr. Mott, who sets her sadistic sights on Claire Martel (Annabella Sciorra), the woman she delusionally believes ruined her life. She insinuates herself into Claire’s family posing as a nanny and much violence ensues. De Mornay plays the unhinged Peyton with a devilish glee swinging from pure evil to sugary sweetness in a matter of seconds. The film is topped off with a star making role for Julianne Moore as Claire’s cynical best friend. Warning: contains a depiction of sexual assault

[nextpage title=”6. Strait-Jacket (1963)”]

This William Castle directed film follows axe-murderer Lucy Harbin (Joan Crawford) after she is released from a psychiatric hospital. Lucy was incarcerated for 20 years for decapitating her husband, and his mistress, in a blind rage. She moves in with her brother, sister-in-law and adult daughter, Carol. When the ax-murders start up again, the suspicion naturally falls on Lucy, but Carol has been acting mighty odd herself… A prime example of the horror sub-genre with many ingenious names like ‘hagsploitation’, ‘psycho-biddy’ or ‘Grande Dame Guignol’, which features an older, formerly wealthy and sophisticated woman who succumbs to insanity and terrorizes everyone around her. FUN!

[nextpage title=”5. Misery (1990)”]

No list of female psycho-killers would be complete without Misery‘s Annie Wilkes. Kathy Bates was a then unknown actress and her portrayal of the demented superfan Annie won her the Academy Award for Best Actress. Poor James Caan plays author Paul Sheldon, the object of her affliction(sic). It remains the only Stephen King adaptation to ever win an Oscar.

[nextpage title=”4. Jennifer’s Body (2009)”]

Jennifer’s Body was considered a box office failure at the time of its release. The film was written by Diablo Coby (Juno) and directed by Karyn Kusama (Destroyer), who envisioned it as a feminist horror-comedy in the vein of The Lost Boys. Megan Fox plays Jennifer, a high school mean girl who gets cursed by an evil indie rock band, in a virgin sacrifice gone wrong, to become a succubus that needs to feed on the blood of men to stay young and strong. While the film failed to impress in 2009, it has since been rediscovered as a feminist classic. It’s definitely worth a revisit with fresh female gaze eyes.

[nextpage title=”3. Play Misty For Me (1971)”]

In Clint Eastwood’s directorial debut Play Misty for Me, a radio DJ, Dave Garner (played by Eastwood) begins a casual affair with a fan he meets in bar. That fan turns out to be the unstable Evelyn, played by national treasure Jessica Walter (Arrested Development, Archer), in her first major role. It’s the age old story, boy meets girl, boy has sex with girl then rejects her, girl becomes homicidal.

[nextpage title=”2. The Bad Seed (1956)”]

11-year-old actress Patty McCormack knocks it out of the park as Rhoda Penmark in The Bad Seed, the first child serial killer to grace the silver screen. Rhoda is from a loving home and the only rational given for her crimes is the fact that her biological grandmother was a serial killer. The film scared audiences with its portrayal of evil as something inherited and therefore uncontrollable. While it was shocking at the time and was slapped with an ‘adults only’ rating, now the film is wonderfully campy. Never has a child looked so sweet yet been so unshakeably evil.

[nextpage title=”1. Fatal Attraction (1987)”]

There is no other choice except Glenn Close’s sublime performance as Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction to top this list. She absolutely captivated audiences, making the film the highest grossing film worldwide in 1987. To think, at first she wasn’t considered sexy enough for the role! Close has said of the film,”Men still come up to me and say, ‘You scared the shit out of me.’” Which is the best recommendation anyone can give.