The 16 Worst Date Movies

Looking for something romantic to watch with your Valentine’s Day date?

1. “Fatal Attraction”

Where love goes wrong: Dan’s affair with Alex turns scary when Alex develops a serious (and deadly) obsession with him.
The moment love dies: Alex kills Dan’s daughter’s pet rabbit and leaves it boiling on the stove.

Image by Paramount Pictures

2. “Basic Instinct”

Where love goes wrong: Homicide detective Nick starts to fall for the seductive Catherine, who happens to be the lead suspect in his murder investigation.
The moment love dies: Rock star Johnny Boz reaches his climax when he’s stabbed to death with an ice pick during sex.

Image by TriStar Pictures

3. “Blue Valentine”

Where love goes wrong: After a romantic courtship, Cindy and Dean’s marriage slowly and painfully falls apart.
The moment love dies: Dean shows up drunk at the clinic where Cindy works, starting a fight that gets Cindy fired.

Image by The Weinstein Company

4. “Rosemary’s Baby”

Where love goes wrong: Rosemary is raped by the Devil and forced to give birth to his child, thanks in part to the machinations of her husband Guy.
The moment love dies: Guy helps drug Rosemary, watches her rape, then lies and tells her he had sex with her while she was unconscious.

Image by Paramount Pictures

5. “Cruising”

Where love goes wrong: Officer Steve Burns goes undercover as a gay man to find a serial killer targeting men in leather bars.
The moment love dies: The killer’s victim is tied up and stabbed repeatedly; the murder is intercut with graphic footage of anal sex.

Image by Warner Bros.

6. “What’s Love Got to Do with It”

Where love goes wrong: The marriage between R&B superstars Ike and Tina Turner goes bad when Ike becomes an abusive drug addict.
The moment love dies: Ike starts domineering Tina and flying into jealous rages. It’s all downhill from there.

Image by Touchstone Pictures

7. “Little Children”

Where love goes wrong: Trapped in unhappy marriages, Sarah and Brad find themselves getting lost in a sexually charged affair.
The moment love dies: As Brad is prepared to run off with Sarah, he injures himself and asks for his wife as he’s taken to the hospital.

Image by New Line Cinema

8. “Swimfan”

Where love goes wrong: Ben cheats on his girlfriend Amy with Madison, only to learn that Madison is dangerously unbalanced.
The moment love dies: Madison floods Ben’s inbox with emails, then shows up as his house for an awkward meeting with his mom.

Image by 20th Century Fox

9. “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”

Where love goes wrong: Prisoners in a miserable marriage, George and Martha inflict their bitterness on houseguests Nick and Honey.
The moment love dies: After hours of verbal barbs, George actually tries to strangle Martha, calling her a “murderous bitch.”

Image by Warner Bros.

10. “Match Point”

Where love goes wrong: Chris falls for his friend Tom’s fiancée Nola, and they begin an affair even as Chris marries Tom’s sister Chloe.
The moment love dies: Desperate to keep his affair from Chloe, Chris shoots Nola, who is pregnant with his child.

Image by DreamWorks Pictures

11. “O”

Where love dies: Hugo plants a seed of doubt that leads to a tragic conclusion for OJ and Desi in this update of Shakespeare’s Othello.
The moment love dies: When Desi decides to lose her virginity to OJ, he imagines her having sex with Michael Cassio and brutalizes her.

Image by Lionsgate

12. “Chuck & Buck”

Where love goes wrong: Buck is obsessed with his childhood best friend Chuck, who has repressed their adolescent experimentation and has a girlfriend.
The moment love dies: After endless uncomfortable prodding, Buck convinces Chuck to sleep with him just to put an end to things.

Image by Artisan Entertainment

13. “Revolutionary Road”

Where love goes wrong: Once a happily married couple, Frank and April have found suburbia suffocating; they turn to alcohol and infidelity to escape.
The moment love dies: Desperate to leave, April attempts to give herself an abortion and ends up dying from complications.

Image by Paramount Vantage

14. “May”

Where love goes wrong: Social outcast May can’t find love until she turns to murder to assemble the perfect companion.
The moment love dies: Turned on by a scene of cannibalism in a short film, May bites Adam’s lip during a bloody makeout session.

Image by Lionsgate

15. “Play Misty for Me”

Where love goes wrong: Disk jockey Dave finds himself entangled with Evelyn, whose borderline personality disorder quickly turns violent.
The moment love dies: Frustrated and confused, Evelyn attempts to kill herself while Dave watches in horror.

Image by Universal Pictures

16. “Closer”

Where love goes wrong: Where doesn’t it? Anna, Dan, Larry, and Alice cheat on one another, a lot. They also lie constantly.
The moment love dies: Dan pretends to be Anna while having cybersex with Larry to set Anna and Larry up.

Image by Columbia Pictures