Top 10 Stalker Books and Films…Ever!

To celebrate last week’s publication of the paperback of Killing Cupid, we’ve put together a list of our Top 10 favourite books and films about stalkers.  Please leave a comment if you think we’ve missed anything that deserves a place.

 

 

1. FILM.  Fatal Attraction (Adrian Lynn 1987). The film that introduced the world to sex in elevators, sex to opera and bunny boilers. For a while, every man in the world was too scared to have an affair and faithfulness rates increased by 273%.

2. FILM.  Peeping Tom (Michael Powell, 1960).  An older classic.  A young man stalks and kills women so he can record their dying expressions on a cine camera. Can’t wait for the remake in which he uses a Samsung Galaxy S3.

3. BOOK.  Into the Darkest Corner (Elizabeth Haynes, 2011).  Intense, riveting read about a violent and obsessive ex-boyfriend who just won’t let go.

4. FILM.  Play Misty for Me (Clint Eastwood, 1971).  Our second female stalker,  a woman who stalks a radio DJ after a brief fling.  When another woman comes onto the scene, things turn really nasty… At the end, Clint snarls ‘Go ahead punk, make my day’ and blows her away – or are we getting confused?

5. FILM.  Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) ‘The night HE came home…’  A psychotic murderer escapes from his longterm mental institution (where he’s been incarcerated for the past fifteen years for having stabbed his sister when he was six years old) and stalks a teenage bookworm and her friends. One of the first films that taught the world just how dangerous it is to be a naked and nubile teenager. (That sentence was mainly included to increase our search traffic from Google.)

6. BOOK.  The Follower (Jason Starr.  Classic stalker fare, the plot isn’t particularly innovative but it’s a truly creepy and suspenseful thriller and a great read, just like all of Starr’s brilliant books.

7. FILM.  Body Double (Brian de Palma, 1984).  A claustrophobic actor gets hooked on watching his comely neighbour strip. When the neighbour is murdered by a stalker, he discovers that the police love to pin crimes on peeping toms, and goes about seeking justice by himself.  Featured Frankie Goes to Hollywood in a pulsing club scene. (I watched this when I 14 and wished my life was as glamorous. ‘Relax’ didn’t sound half as exciting at the Thomas Peacocke school disco – Mark)

8. BOOK AND FILM. The Eye of the Beholder  (Marc Behm 1980, Stephan Elliott, 1999).  The Eye is a private investigator, driven and obsessed. His job is to follow a beautiful, deadly woman. But catching her is the last thing on his mind. He likes to watch. And the closer he gets, the more dangerous his fantasy becomes… Ooh, sounds good, doesn’t it?

9. BOOK AND FILM  Misery (Stephen King, 1987, and Rob Reiner, 1990).  A great one for writers, claustrophic and terrifying, about a famous novelist held captive by ‘his Number One fan’.  If you’re our No.1 fan, hello!  Please put down the large hammer…

10. BOOK AND FILM Enduring Love (Ian McEwan, 1998).  When I mentioned this on Twitter recently, someone said the balloon was the best actor, and tons of McEwan haters came crawling out of the woodwork. But this is a gripping tale of how easy it is to allow danger into our lives…

Of course, modesty prevents us from including Killing Cupid (available now from all good bookshops!)

Please leave a comment and tell us what else should be on the list.

Category: Killing Cupid, Writing