Melissa Nelson (Malicious)

Melissa Nelson (Molly Ringwald) is the main antagonist of the 1995 film Malicious. She was a medical student at Bellport University. She was also the daughter of Patricia and Richard Nelson, the latter of whom was a doctor. When Melissa was twelve, her father was charged with abusing her, but was ultimately acquitted. Some time before the movie's events, Melissa killed Richard and later institutionalized the traumatized Patricia.
During the movie's events, Melissa met Doug Gordon (a star baseball playing at Bellport) at a party. Their meeting eventually culminated in a passionate fling, despite Doug being in a relationship with fellow student Laura Hutton. Doug later re-encountered Melissa when he became a student in a biology class she was the TA for. Despite Doug's guilt regarding the tryst, Melissa insisted on continuing their relationship. Doug confronted Melissa about her behavior when he snuck up on him in the locker room shower, with Melissa accusing Doug of using her.
One night, Doug was shocked to find Melissa had broken into the house he shared with his mother, finding her as she watched a home movie of Doug playing baseball with his late father. Another confrontation ensued, with Doug persisting that his fling with Melissa had meant nothing. Melissa eventually broke down in tears and Doug hugged Melissa, only for the villainess to knock Doug out with an injection. She also replaced Ms. Gordon's sleeping pills with a stronger brand, resulting in her being hospitalized for an accidental overdose, and beat herself up to frame Doug for assaulting her, for which he was briefly arrested.
After releasing Doug, Earl (a police officer who was friends with Doug's mother) went to Melissa's house to talk to her, and it was there that he found a freezer containing the corpse of Richard Nelson. As Doug arrived, Melissa snuck up on Earl and knocked him out with a baseball bat before fleeing the scene, later approaching Doug when he crashed his car while driving on the highway. The scorned Melissa taunted Doug by threatening to throw a lit cigarette on the leaking gas before cutting Doug free with a scalpel, but threw the cigarette down when Doug attempted to stab her. Doug was able to escape before the car exploded, and Earl had the police begin to search for Melissa.
Two months later, after Laura (who reconciled with Doug after learning of his affair with Melissa) moved away to attend Stanford and Doug came to attend tryouts for the Giants, he was shocked to receive a payphone call from Melissa. To appease the villainess and lure her into meeting him, Doug claimed he still had feelings for her and wanted to meet, with Melissa stating she would come find him before hanging up. After calling the police to inform them, Doug called Laura to warn her. But before hanging up, Laura gave the phone to her roommate Lisa for Doug to say Hi to her--only for Doug to be shocked to find that Melissa had been posing as Laura's roommate. As Melissa revealed herself, she reminded Doug how he had "sworn on Laura's life" that he wanted to be with her before hanging up the phone.
As Doug hurried to save Laura, the evil Melissa disconnected the phone and revealed her true identity to Laura before attacking her, tying her to a bed and gagging her. When a police officer came to investigation a disturbance complaint, Melissa allowed the officer inside before bludgeoning him to death with a bat. As Melissa prepared to torture Laura with a knife, Doug arrived and was attacked by Melissa with the bat as she tried to take the dead officer's gun. Doug eventually grabbed the gun and tried to use it to hold Melissa back, only for the villainess to reveal that she had removed the bullets beforehand. She then continued her assault on Doug, and later tried to attack with her knife before being disarmed by Doug. Just as Melissa managed to get the knife back, Doug surprised the crazed villainess by striking her with the bat, sending her crashing through the window to land on the police cruiser, killing Melissa.
== Trivia ==
* Melissa Nelson is similar to Holly Viola from 2017's You Get Me; both are young women who have sexual trysts with men already in relationships who become violently obsessed with them following the fling. Both women also resort to kidnapping their object of obsession's girlfriend in an attempt to win them over.
* Molly Ringwald later appeared on Psych as the villainous Lavender MacElroy.
Category:1990s
Category:A Taste Of Her Own Medicine
Category:Attempted Murder
Category:Baseball Bat
Category:Bondage Used By Villainess
Category:Deceiver
Category:Femme Fatale
Category:Hero's Friend
Category:Hero's Lover
Category:Incapacitator
Category:Killed By Lover
Category:Knife
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Makeshift Weapon
Category:Man Kills Villainess
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Bludgeoning
Category:Psychotic
Category:Redhead
Category:Sex
Category:Shock of Impending Doom
Category:Smoker
Category:Sociopath
Category:Villainous Reveal
Category:Demise: High Fall
Category:Fate: Deceased