Kevin Goetz, the “doctor of audience-ology”, has salvaged even the biggest stinkers, quizzing test audiences and advising studios and filmmakers on how to improve their movies.
Kevin Goetz suggested a different ending to Fatal Attraction after test screenings, and it became part of movie folklore.
The end of Fatal Attraction would have been very different without Kevin Goetz. The original climax to the 1987 thriller had Glenn Close’s bunny boiler, Alex, die by suicide after the end of her affair with Dan, played by Michael Douglas. He was blamed for her death, and the last thing viewers saw was his wife, Anne Archer’s Beth, rushing to try and clear his name.
Anybody who has watched Fatal Attraction will know that in its frenzied ending, Beth kills Alex, in an act of apparently deserved retribution. It became a box office smash.
