Yum yum!
Though the film is largely considered a thriller rather than a horror, Glenn Close still manages to be as spectacularly terrifying as any Slasher Film killer.- When Alex takes the pet rabbit belonging to the daughter of her lover Dan Gallagher and boils it alive in a pressure cooker. This grotesque act of evil was chilling enough to earn an entry on the Moral Event Horizon page, has given many people who watched it some serious nightmares, and was enough to coin the phrase "bunny boiler" for Yandere-types soon afterward.
- The smash-cuts of Beth opening the boiling pot next to her daughter Ellen discovering the bunny cage empty.
- "Daddy? Whitey's gone! Whitey's gone!"
- The bloodcurdling scream Beth lets out upon seeing the dead bunny cooking in the boiling pan.
- When Dan plans to return home to his family after his tryst with Alex, Alex's mood swings happen as she aggressively tears at Dan's shirt. Then she starts hitting him and pouts on the bed.
- Even before the mood-swing, the way Alex cradles Dan’s head while in bed with him and starring unblinkingly at his face while smiling is rather unnerving and shows her extremely unhealthy attachment to him.
- Alex’s apartment building itself is extremely unpleasant with cracked and peeling black walls and archaic elevator, contrasting greatly with Alex’s well lit and seemingly friendly flat. The environment does a good job foreshadowing Alex’s darker nature well before she reveals it herself.
- The creepy way Alex appears suddenly in the kitchen. Smiling. Wearing a white shirt. And tearfully asking for a goodbye hug from Dan. Dan obliges. Then blood smears on his face.
- The close-up shots of Alex's slit wrists from her suicide attempt with the blood just gushing out.
- Alex's cries of pain as Dan desperately tries to stop her wrists from bleeding. The "Psycho" Strings music doesn't help either.
- The cut wrists scene also serves as the terrifying Genre Shift for the movie as a whole, since before then it was an erotic romance drama but shifts into thriller/horror from then on.
- The Thousand-Yard Stare on Alex's face as she listens to Madame Butterfly and turns her lamp light on and off continually while crying. Doubles as The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You.
- Alex coming at Dan’s workplace and just sitting in a hunched position waiting for him on a couch. Her sudden appearance and creepy smile unnerving him.
- Alex’s nigh constant phone calls become increasingly scary as the film goes on. Not to mention her mood-swing reaction to Dan changing his phone number and being refused by the telephone operator to learn what it was changed to — screaming “WELL, FUCK YOU!”.
- The scene where Dan comes home from work to find that Alex is already inside his new house, introduced herself to his wife and acting friendly.
- The argument Dan and Alex have after that where Alex tells Dan she loves him and he’s apparently forcing her to behave in such a manner because he’s “ignoring” her. The last sentence alone has become so creepily iconic.Alex: Well, what am I supposed to do? You won't answer my calls, you change your number. I mean, I'm not gonna be ignored, Dan!
- Dan confiding to his friend about the affair, his stalker, his fears, and the repercussions of it.Dan: She keeps calling the apartment. Every time Beth answers the phone, she hangs up. I'm scared, Jimmy. I—I don't wanna lose my family.
- Alex stalking Dan while he makes his way through the parking lot to his car. The fact that the parking lot is extremely shadowy and Alex is slowly revealed to be watching Dan from on high, silhouetted by the sun, is even worse.
- Alex driving right behind Dan's car with tears streaming down her face.
- The audio tape Alex recorded for Dan filled with dialogue detailing her insane love for him.Alex: Hello, Dan. Are you surprised? This is what you force me to do. I guess you thought you'd get away with it. Well... you can't. 'Cause part of you is growing inside of me, and that's a fact, Dan. You'd better start... Learning how to deal with it. Just so you know... I feel you. I taste you. I think you. I touch you. Can you understand? Can you? I'm just... asking you... to acknowledge your responsibilities. I... Is that so bad? I-I don't think so. I don't think it's unreasonable. And... you know, another thing... And it's that you thought you could just walk into my life, and turn it upside down, without a thought for anyone but yourself. You know what you are, Dan? You are a cock-sucking son of a bitch. I hate you. I bet you don't even like real girls, do you? Ha! You disappoint me, you fucking faggot!
- Dan's expression as he listens to this, as it finally sinks in what kind of a lunatic he hooked up with.
- Many of the scenes in Callagher’s country house count as Nothing Is Scarier, as there’s many panning shots around house, giving the impression Alex could be anywhere hiding. This leads to one of the best jump scares in the film as Dan has finished listening to the aforementioned tape in the attic, when some woman’s arms wrap around his shoulders from behind making him jump. It’s only his wife Beth, but Dan along with the audience think for a moment it’s Alex.
- The scenes where Alex kidnapped Dan's daughter. You can really feel Beth (Dan's wife) complete panic as she runs around searching for her daughter. It's the epitome of every parent's worst nightmare—that your kid could so easily go off with a stranger despite your multiple warnings otherwise, that the stranger could be some perfectly normal-looking person rather than the psycho that they truly are, and though she returns the little girl unharmed, let's face it, she could have harmed her if she wanted to. It doesn't help that there are Real Life cases that have started out like this.
- The scene where Dan attempts to kill Alex in her apartment is already upsettingly violent but makes it truly scary is the eerie smile Alex gives him after he spares her life.
- The climax where Alex shows up in the house to try and kill Beth. Before she attacks her, as she's talking about how resentful she is of Beth, she unknowingly starts cutting herself in the leg with the butcher knife she's holding. It all finally escalates when Alex finally snaps and screams, "YOU'RE A STUPID SELFISH BITCH!" and attacks.
- Alex's insane "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Beth before attempting to kill her.Alex: What are you doing here? Why are you here? He tried...to say goodbye to me last night. But he couldn't because..he and I feel the same way about each other. Do you know what it is when you meet somebody for the first time? And you get this instant attraction. And don't you think I understand what you're doing? You're trying to move him into the country... and you're keeping him away from me. And you're playing happy family. Aren't you? You wouldn't understand that because you're so... so selfish. He told me about you. He told me about you. He was very honest. If you weren't so stupid, you'd know that. But you're so stupid. You're so stupid... you're a stupid, selfish bitch!
- The sound of the teapot drowning out Beth's screams for help.
- Beth wiping the steam off the mirror only to see Alex in the mirror staring back at her.
- Alex's drowning in the bathtub resembling a seizure.
- The fact that Alex was pregnant when she died.
- Alex cutting herself from the broken glass inside the bathtub and bleeding profusely from her mouth.
- Alex's cloudy blank eyes look inhuman as she seemingly drowns to death.
- Alex unexpectedly springing out of the bathtub, trying to kill Dan and Beth one last time.
- The original ending, with the last scene showing Alex taking a 9-inch kitchen knife and slashing her own throat while listening to Madame Butterfly.
