10 times cheating was a truly stupid idea

1. A Perfect Murder

A loose remake of Hitchcock’s early hit Dial M for Murder, this 1998 thriller sees Gwyneth Paltrow as a rich young wife having an affair with a painter (Viggo Mortensen), who’s really a con artist who targets wealthy women. Michael Douglas’ Wall Street hedge fund manager secretly knows everything and hatches a scheme to blackmail the career criminal into upgrading to murder—starting with… Guess who?!

2. Basic Instinct

This neo-noir features Michael Douglas again, evading his morally-dubious-corporate-sleaze typecasting as a morally dubious police detective who begins a heated affair with beautiful murder suspect and crime novelist Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). He winds up in an uneasy realationship with a woman he can’t be quite sure won’t kill him. Of all the erotic thriller genre’s certified classics, Basic Instinct is the biggest, loudest and perhaps the most fun.

3. Blood Simple

The Coen brothers’ 1984 debut (which came out of the Sundance Film Festival) follows a trio of hateful lovers: Abby Marty (Frances McDormand), bar owner husband Julian (Dan Hedaya) and bartender boyfriend Ray (John Getz). When Julian hires a traitorous hitman (M. Emmet Walsh) to off the cheating couple, a series of sometimes deadly misunderstandings ensues.

4. Fatal Attraction

Something like a grown-up version of direct descendent Basic Instinct, Fatal Attractionswaps out Sharon Stone for Glenn Close, whose characer, after a one-night-stand with Michael Douglas’ Manhattan lawyer, tries to upend his life by any means necessary. After harassing, stalking, killing the family pets and kidnapping his daughter, she resorts to extreme violence. Watch for Close’s surprisingly (and terrifyingly) believable performance.

5. Gone Girl

David Fincher’s latest conversation-starter puts a clever spin on the erotic thriller format by leaving the identity of the true monster a mystery until the movie’s halfway point. Ben Affleck’s character has an affair with a young collegiate and incites the fury of his wife, played by Rosamund Pike. Her very exacting revenge puts their marriage under heavy scrutiny and leaves him at the center of damaging media storm.

6. Indecent Proposal

Mysterious billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford) offers desperate married couple Diana (Demi Moore) and David Murphy (Woody Harrelson) a million dollars in exchange for a night with the Mrs. When they accept, the psychological strain of the situation threatens to prove too much for the two former lovebirds.

7. Intolerable Cruelty

Another entry from the Coen brothers, this rom-com follows Catherine Zeta-Jones as Marilyn Rexroth, a sort of black widow who plays fair. Rather than killing her husbands, Marilyn simply chooses men who cheat then waits to catch them in the act so she can walk away with half their assets. George Clooney plays a shark divorce lawyer who tries to foil this kindred spirit… if he can help falling in love.

8. Notes on a Scandal

This punishing psychological drama tells the story of an affair between a teacher (Cate Blanchett) and a high school student. Though Blanchett’s character is married, the real jealousy comes in by way of a lonely older co-worker and confidante (Judi Dench). The affair naturally becomes public and everyone loses their jobs—for starters.

9. Single White Female

When Allie (Bridget Fonda) finds out fiancee Sam (Steven Weber) recently slept with his ex-wife, she breaks off the engagement, kicks him out of the apartment and moves on. New roomie Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) becomes a close friend, but when Sam starts working to win Allie back, Hedy starts revealing new dimensions of her own. Hedy tries to pick off everyone around Allie—and Allie has to stoop to a new low to retaliate.

10. Unfaithful

Middle-aged parents, played by Diane Lane and Richard Gere, enjoy a happy but passionless marriage in NYC until Lane’s character is seduced by a sexy stranger (Olivier Martinez). When Gere’s character stumbles into his wife’s lover’s apartment, tragedy strikes and the husband and wife are united more than ever in danger and grief.