We’ve all had at least one bad date. Maybe he showed up an hour late or spent the whole evening talking about his ex. But what if your date turned out to be a murderer or a cannibal? Movies that have terror lurking beneath romantic beginnings are finding a large audience, and given the state of modern dating, this is expected. From dodgy dating apps to charming strangers with very dark secrets, these films take the anxiety of putting yourself out there and take it up to absolutely horrifying levels. Grab your popcorn, cancel your Hinge subscription, and settle in. Here are eight horror movies about dating nightmares that will make your skin crawl.

1. Woman of the Hour

Let’s start with one that’s rooted in chilling reality. Directed by and starring Anna Kendrick, Woman of the Hour is inspired by the true story of serial killer Rodney Alcala, who famously appeared on The Dating Game in 1978 and won while actively committing murders. The film jumps between timelines, following Alcala as he charms his way through life, and Cheryl Bradshaw, the bachelorette who chose him on the show. It’s a sharp, furious film about how predators hide in plain sight, and how society so often looks the other way. Utterly gripping, and not easily forgotten.

2. Companion

If Woman of the Hour made you wary of charming men, Companion will make you wary of absolutely everyone. This clever, twisty thriller follows Iris, who heads off on a lakeside getaway with her boyfriend Josh and a group of friends, only for things to go violently wrong. Companion is a film about power, control, and what it means to truly know the person you’re with. It’s got the DNA of a relationship thriller but mutates into something far stranger and more interesting as it goes on. Modern dating has never looked quite so terrifying.

3. The Dating App Nightmare

Possibly the most on-the-nose title on this list, The Dating App Nightmare leans fully into the anxieties of swiping culture. When a young woman matches with the “perfect” man online, what follows is a descent into obsession, manipulation, and danger. It might not reinvent the wheel, but it taps into the vulnerability of meeting strangers online and inviting them into your life. The film captures the early giddiness of a digital connection before pulling the rug out completely. It’s the sort of thing that’ll have you reviewing your own privacy settings by the time the credits roll.

4. Fresh

This one was all over the internet and for all the right reasons. Fresh is a film that practically dares you to relax in its first act because it’s warm, funny, and almost romantic before revealing itself to be one of the most disturbing films of recent years. Noa is tired of awful men she’s met online, so when she meets the charming Steve in a grocery aisle, it feels like a breath of fresh air. He’s handsome, funny, and attentive. He’s also, as it turns out, profoundly unhinged. Fresh is dark, stomach-churning, and absolutely brilliant.

5. Strange Darling

Strange Darling is a film that plays with your perceptions from the very first frame. Shot on 35mm film and told in non-linear chapters, it follows the aftermath of a violent encounter between a man and a woman, but who is the predator and who is the prey keeps shifting in shocking ways. What looks like one kind of story keeps revealing itself to be another. It’s also a film about assumptions and how we read situations, how we decide who to trust, and how easily we can be misled.

6. The Invisible Man 

Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man is a film about a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship and finding that even apparent freedom isn’t freedom at all. Cecilia has finally left her controlling, genius boyfriend, Adrian. He’s supposedly dead, and yet, somehow, she’s still not safe. Things in her house move; she feels like someone is watching her all the time. What makes this film so harrowing is how precisely it captures the gaslighting, the isolation, and the exhausting disbelief that survivors of abuse so often face. 

7. It Follows

Few horror premises have been as ingenious as It Follows. After a seemingly normal sexual encounter, teenager Jay finds herself cursed. She is being followed relentlessly by an entity only she can see. It takes the form of strangers, of loved ones, of anyone. The film is a slow-burn masterpiece of dread. The movie doesn’t rely on cheap jump scares; there’s just an overwhelming sense of something inevitable bearing down on you.

8. F*ck Marry Kill

Rounding off the list is F*ck Marry Kill, which takes the familiar social game and turns it into something considerably more sinister. When a group of friends finds themselves entangled in a deadly scenario that mirrors the classic game, the film asks uncomfortable questions about desire, disposability, and who we’d really choose to save. It’s a sharp, knowing thriller with dark humour. 

So, which of these horror movies about dating will you be watching this weekend?

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