Lifetime movies have a certain je ne sais quoi lacking in other movie franchises. Perhaps it’s the fact that these movies point out (often in absurd, extreme ways) how anyone can be a potential predator lurking in the shadows – whether it be your murderous neighbor, mother-in-law, or your plotting babysitter. Other times, they narrate plots based on real-life stories, giving a suspenseful retelling of chilling true-life events. They don’t have limits to the scenarios they tend to depict, so they have many options when it comes to exhibiting all the shades of narcissistic schemes. More and more often, we are seeing lifetime movies that tend to be “self-aware” and provide metacommentary and education on the diagnostic criteria of narcissism and antisocial personalities, as well as manipulative tactics like gaslighting – these scenes are sometimes set in a classroom setting or follow the main character’s research into these disorders and their deeper understanding and discovery, or include dialogue with other characters that explicitly highlight darker personality traits. Such movies are almost always entertaining, at times illuminating, and hold suspense for the viewer while adding a dramatic flair. Here are the top five lifetime movies you can stream on Amazon prime if you’re interested in the tactics of narcissists.

You Can’t Take My Daughter (2020)

Amy Thompson (played by Lyndsy Fonesca) stars in one of the most riveting Lifetime movies depicting narcissistic manipulation. In You Can’t Take My Daughter, a movie based on true events, Amy is a bright law school student with a stellar future ahead of her – until she is raped by a malignant narcissist and psychopath who continues to stalk and harass her throughout her life. When Amy becomes pregnant as a result of the rape, she chooses to keep the baby – however, raising her daughter proves to be incredibly difficult as her rapist follows her from state to state and tries to fight for parental rights. In this movie, you will see the tactics narcissists and psychopaths use and the extreme levels they go to maintain power over their victims and maintain significance in their lives. As Amy fights back against her abuser and the legal system over the span of six years, you witness the harrowing yet empowering tale of a survivor who finally takes her power back and gains justice for other survivors.

All My Husband’s Wives (2020)

Successful career woman Alison Whitford has her world shattered when her husband dies in a car accident and she discovers it may actually be a homicide. She learns that her husband Dominick lived a double life – one that involved at least two other women who may have been willing to kill in light of the deception, or for the four million dollars he had stashed away in a secret account. As the three women discover each other and come together to commiserate and investigate the murder of the man they once loved, a shocking plot twist reveals that it may actually be one of them who may be the culprit – the question is who? This is an unpredictable thriller with many red herrings and insight into the ways narcissistic people live double lives – and ultimately what happens when they choose the “wrong” victim to target.

Ask Me Anything (2014) + Another Girl (2021) the Sequel

This movie follows the journey of 18-year-old Katie Kampenfelt who chronicles a year of her life before attending college. Her blog, “Undiscovered Gyrl,” transparently talks about her sexual adventures and relationships and attracts thousands of readers in a short period of time. Katie’s entries reveals certain predatory relationships with various narcissistic men – like her 30-year-old “boyfriend” who already has a fiancé, her emotionally abusive teenage boyfriend Rory, and 43-year-old, Paul, who hires her as his babysitter only to prey on her. Even Glenn, her boss, is on the sex offender registry. Katie is surrounded by predators and groomers with narcissistic traits and behaviors – yet her retelling tends to romanticize and dramatize these relationships, while the viewer is able to see more blatantly how harmful these situations are. However, when Katie disappears, the truth unravels and the viewer is left for a big plot twist that will make them question which one of the predators in the film might be responsible – and the true nature of Katie’s glamorized life. Ask Me Anything is a powerful, poignant look into trauma repetition, childhood trauma, and how a young woman’s life can be shaped and disrupted by the exploitative individuals around her. The sequel to Ask Me Anything, a movie called Another Girl (2021), follows college student Elle Overton as she becomes obsessed with Katie’s disappearance, and connects with someone who claims to be the missing Katie online – this loose sequel is even more chilling and horrifying, and explores the dangers of meeting internet strangers. Elle is very much like Katie in that she becomes ensnared with an older, married narcissist and has a history of trauma – and that susceptibility to trauma leads her to dangerous waters.

The Wrong Woman (2013) + She Made Them Do It (2012)

The Wrong Woman is a Lifetime movie that executes an innovative take on Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man. Ellen Plainview is a compassionate, working wife and mother who is arrested for attempted murder, with plenty of evidence stacked against her. Her husband, a police officer, start to doubt her innocence, and she begins to wonder if she actually did commit the crime but lost her memory of it. As she begins to uncover the secrets of those closest to her, however, she realizes that she may actually be the victim of a cover-up elaborately designed to get rid of her. The Wrong Woman is an exhilaratingly suspenseful look into what it feels like to be gaslit and set up for sabotage by a narcissist. Another similar movie that pairs nicely with this one but explores the idea of a potential female narcissist or psychopath instead is She Made Them Do It (2012) starring Jenna Dewan, a movie that makes the viewer question whether the woman accused of a double homicide of her roommates is innocent when she escapes from prison and becomes part of America’s Most Wanted.

Her Worst Nightmare  + Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey

Her Worst Nightmare follows Dakota, a survivor of kidnapping who experiences trauma symptoms a year post-escape. Her Worst Nightmare is a fictional movie, but if you enjoy movies like this, you may also like Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey, another stellar Lifetime movie based on the real-life kidnapping of Lisa McVey and her strategic survival skills to escape a profoundly disturbed malignant narcissist. In Her Worst Nightmare, you follow Dakota’s journey as she is stalked by an unknown predator while in college, studying psychology and enrolled in a course called “Advanced Psychology of Trauma.” Unbeknownst to Dakota, her stalker is closer to her than she thinks and has been gaslighting her the entire time. Her Worst Nightmare provides an enlightening illustration of how trauma can live on long past the traumatic event in symptoms such as hypervigilance, avoidance, and susceptibility to re-traumatization. It also highlights narcissism in the various predatory characters that Dakota comes into contact with – from her kidnapper to her boundary-trespassing professor Dr. Campbell – to the young man eventually revealed to be her stalker.