Stan by me: The best films and TV shows about obsession gone overboard

A couple of the most famous movies about obsessed fans are also deeply silly. This one at least has quite the cast. Robert De Niro plays a man who is a huge San Francisco Giants fan, particularly of the team’s newly-minted star Bobby Rayburn, played by Wesley Snipes. De Niro’s character’s love for Rayburn turns violent, like, immediately, and then things just spiral from there. Though Tony Scott directed some good movies of the cheese-and-sleaze variety, “The Fan” didn’t really land for anybody involved.

Given the pedigree, “The Fan” was an intriguing movie that ultimately disappointed. From moment one of the first trailer for “Swimfan,” basically everybody knew this was going to be a dumb movie. Naturally, it’s about a high school swimming star whose one-night stand turns out to be obsessed with him. It’s basically like if “Fatal Attraction” was set in high school and had a lot of swimming in it. Which is to say, profoundly silly.

Poor Paul Sheldon. The writer is found after a car wreck by Annie Wilkes. It turns out Annie loves Paul’s books, so much so that when she finds out he plans to kill off her favorite character and end the book series, she is determined to change Paul’s mind. Sure, the premise is built on a massive contrivance, befitting a Stephen King novel, but screenwriter William Goldman and director Rob Reiner helped make it work. So did Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for playing Annie.

“Ingrid Goes West” is a modern take on obsessive fandom. That is to say, it involves a social media star. Aubrey Plaza plays Ingrid, a woman who lives in Pennsylvania and has a history of becoming unhealthily attached to social media celebs. Thus, when she stumbles upon Instagram influencer Taylor Sloane, played by Elizabeth Olsen, she moves to Los Angeles in order to try to befriend her. It’s actually quite a good movie, dark and astute without being heavy-handed.

Based on the success of “The Wrestler,” which he wrote, Robert Siegel got to both write and direct “Big Fan.” Patton Oswalt plays a man obsessed with the New York Giants, to the detriment of every other element of his life. While “Big Fan” has more heavy-handedness to it, and a degree of religious imagery, Oswalt is quite good in it, and the movie is a solid exaggeration of sports fandom.

Black comedies were all the rage in the mid-to-late ‘90s, and that bled into 2000. “Nurse Betty” was a high-concept film but manages not to fumble the ball. Renee Zellweger plays a small-town waitress who loves a soap opera called “A Reason to Love.” After seeing her husband murdered, Betty has a cinematic nervous breakdown wherein she adopts the identity of a nurse on “A Reason to Love” and sets out to pursue a romance with her favorite character from the show. That’s not ideal for the actor who plays the character. Zellweger won a Golden Globe for “Nurse Betty.”

Spoiler alert. The “Scream” reboot/legacy sequel keeps the meta nature of the horror franchise alive and well. There’s no way to discuss the obsessed fandom element without spoiling the twist, though. Are you familiar with the “Stab” movies within the world of “Scream”? Well, the killers are two obsessed fans of the “Stab” franchise who hate the eighth movie and so decide to go on a killing spree indebted to the “Scream”/”Stab” history in order to help reboot the franchise. That’s actually clever, though of course, if we spoiled that for you, well, we warned you multiple times.

“Play Misty for Me” is notable for being the first movie directed by Clint Eastwood. He seemed to take to that job. Eastwood also stars as a nighttime radio DJ who runs into a woman (played by “Arrested Development” icon Jessica Walter) who tells him she’s the one who always calls in asking for him to play the song “Misty.” At first, Eastwood’s DJ doesn’t mind the attention, but, well, the movie wouldn’t be on this list if things were chill and healthy.

Rachel Marron is a musician-turned-actress who has been getting death threats from a stalker. Once an attempt is actually made on her life, former secret service agent Frank Farmer is hired as her new bodyguard. The plot really isn’t what matters with “The Bodyguard,” though. It was a huge hit and spawned the best-selling soundtrack in history. That’s thanks to the actress who played Rachel, Whitney Houston. Even if you have never seen “The Bodyguard,” you know it as the movie that gave us Houston’s version of “I Will Always Love You.”

Perhaps it is not surprising that there are multiple movies called “The Fan,” though this one is less famous than the De Niro and Snipes vehicle. The movie was a bomb and is, at best, a cult favorite. Lauren Bacall plays a movie star with an obsessed fan. He stalks her. He kills people. He’s played by Michael Biehn. Director Edward Bianchi has mostly directed episodic TV, which speaks to part of why “The Fan” didn’t fully work.

Rupert Pupkin is as obsessed with fame as he is with legendary comedian Jerry Langford, but he definitely has an unhealthy fandom. Now, if Rupert didn’t see Jerry as his path to being a superstar standup, maybe things would have gotten less scary, but “The King of Comedy” is certainly about an obsessed fan. This time, he’s also played by Robert De Niro, but this one works much better. Martin Scorsese directed the film, which helped.

Not every story of obsessed fandom is a thriller or a horror movie. Take, for example, the romantic comedy “Juliet, Naked.” Chris O’Dowd plays a man obsessed with singer-songwriter Tucker Crowe, who has spent decades out of the limelight. When O’Dowd’s Duncan receives an acoustic demo of Crowe’s breakthrough album “Juliet,” he and his girlfriend Annie get into a fight about it. When she posts a bad review of the album on Duncan’s Tucker Crowe website, since this is a romcom naturally Crowe sees it and starts what becomes a flirty dynamic with Annie. Ethan Hawke plays Crowe, which is pretty perfect casting.

Fred Durst directed a 2019 thriller starring John Travolta. Of course it’s terrible. Travolta plays Moose, a man with a ridiculous haircut and Movie Autism who is obsessed with an actor. He ends up stalking said actor and you know, stuff happens. Did you know this wasn’t the first movie Durst directed? He directed that sports comedy “The Longshots.” That’s more interesting than anything else we can say about “The Fanatic.”

This movie is fun if not as successful as it could be. It’s a breezy action-comedy worth a watch on a Sunday afternoon, basically. Nicolas Cage plays himself, or rather a lightly-fictionalized version of himself. With his career on the rocks, Cage takes an offer of $1 million to be the guest of honor at a billionaire’s birthday party in Mallorca. The man, played by Pedro Pascal, turns out to be a massive Cage fan, replete with a shrine in his house. Once again, this is a case of obsessed fandom not getting too dark, and Cage and Pascal have a lot of chemistry together.

One more sports movie, this time where the obsession isn’t too damaging either. “Fever Pitch” is the sports romcom starring Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore best remembered for unintentionally concluding with the Red Sox winning the World Series. Now, Fallon’s Boston Red Sox fandom is not as obsessive or damaging to his life as the Arsenal fandom of the protagonist of the British original is, but odds are you didn’t know that version of “Fever Pitch” existed until now.

Television depictions of obsessive fandom is less common. “Flight of the Conchords” should be mentioned, though. Jemaine and Bret only have one real fan in the HBO comedy. That would be Mel, played by Kristen Schaal. She may be a huge fan, but she also takes it to obsessive levels. Mel may only be a supporting character, but she makes quite the impact on the show.

On account of the fact Amazon Prime shows haven’t made the same impact as Netflix or even Hulu, you may have missed “Swarm.” The limited series earned three Emmy nominations, though. Co-created by Donald Glover, “Swarm” focuses on Dru, a woman who is part of a popstar named Ni’Jah’s devoted fan base, known as “The Swarm.” Of course, while The Swarm are devoted, Dru ends up taking it too far.