Teaching Mrs. Tingle

Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) is the directorial debut of Scream writer Kevin Williamson — a dark comedy thriller you can watch online on iFILM. Valedictorian candidate Leigh Ann (Katie Holmes) has one shot at a scholarship that gets her out of a dead-end town. It disappears overnight when history teacher Mrs. Tingle accuses her of cheating on a project.

Helen Mirren plays Tingle with a precision that keeps the character from becoming a caricature — she's calculating, not cartoonish, which makes her genuinely hard to outmaneuver. Leigh Ann and her friends Luke and Jo Lynn improvise a plan to reason with her, and the improvisation predictably spirals. Williamson shifts between nervous laughs and real menace without losing either. Molly Ringwald and Vivica A. Fox round out the cast.

Stream Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999) on iFILM — the film where Helen Mirren takes a role nobody expected and makes it the most dangerous person in the building.