Greta Hideg (Isabelle Huppert) is the titular main villainess from the 2019 film, Greta.
Introduction[]
Greta Hideg is introduced as the owner of a handbag found by Frances McCullen (the film's protagonist), who--upon returning the handbag--is invited inside her home by Greta. Within moments, Frances formed a friendship with Greta, bonding over each one suffering a loss; Frances' mother recently died of cancer, while Greta was a widow and stated that her daughter, Nicola, was away in Paris. Frances helps Greta acquire a pet dog for her, and after a while, Frances was elated with her newfound friendship with Greta.
However, while having dinner with Greta, Frances' search for the candles led her to the wrong closet, where Frances found a vast collection of handbags resembling the one she returned to Greta, with one of them labeled Samantha, while another had Frances' name. Afterwards, a nervous Frances made an excuse to leave the house, after which she informed her friend and roommate, Erica Penn, about the handbags, revealing that she places them purposely to lure guests in to her home. Frances' attempts to steer clear from Greta are hampered when Greta began stalking her; appearing outside the restaurant where Frances works as a waitress and watching her throughout the day and into the night.
After attempting to explain to Frances at the subway, Greta appeared to Frances at the front door of her apartment, and explained that her actions were due to her loneliness. However, Greta began reminding Frances of her comment that she "sticks around like chewing gum," doing so by spitting her own gum at Frances and accusing her of lying to her. The demented villainess also began terrorizing and stalking Erica while she was at a party, and later on, Greta appeared at the restaurant and placed an order, using her reservation to cause a scene and lash out at Frances by mentioning her deceased mother, referring to Frances as a child and that Greta herself is the mother she needs. Her deranged rant was witnessed by the many customers, leading to Greta being restrained and arrested, only to be released later.
Reveal[]
After seeing an envelope addressed to Nicola earlier in the film (which counteracted the claim that Nicola was in Paris), Frances received a call from who she believed was Nicola to meet her, only for Frances to arrive and see a woman named Alexa Hammond, a police officer. Alexa revealed some horrible truths, including the fact that Nicola was actually dead, having committed suicide. In addition, Alexa also revealed that Greta had been verbally and physically abusive to Nicola, even while giving Nicola piano lessons, with Nicola killing herself to get away from her evil mother. Greta was driven further insane following her daughter's death, which included posing as a French woman when she was actually Hungarian, and after the encounter at the restaurant, Frances and Erica decided to plan to trick Greta into leaving her alone.
As part of the plan, Frances informed Greta that she was going away on a vacation to work on her own issues, stating that she'd be back soon. However, while Greta appeared to be appeased, she saw through the ruse, and after killing her dog by poisoning his dish with an anesthetic, the evil Greta drugged Frances and abducted her, after which she locked Frances inside a toy box. When Frances begged to be released, Greta revealed that she knew about her lying about going on vacation, after which she began delivering the same treatment to her as she did to Nicola, while also sending texts to Erica and to Chris McCullen (the latter being Frances' father) claiming that Frances was on vacation. The pair also baked cookies together, but at that moment, Greta made her escape attempt, first by using the cookie cutter to sever one of Greta's fingers, and knocking out the villainess with a rolling pin. After running into various locked doors, Frances went to the basement, where she saw Samantha, barely clinging to life, after which Greta appeared and recaptured Frances, while Samantha later died due to Greta's torment.
Greta chained Frances to a bed inside a secret room that was barricaded by her piano, which she played to drown out the sounds of Frances banging on the wall. After Chris and Erica realized that something happened to Frances, the latter informed the former about Greta, leading to Chris informing Gary, a detective, about Greta abducting his daughter. Gary later visited Greta, but when he saw the metronome operating, he walked towards the piano, only for Greta to inject an immense amount of anesthetic into him. Gary fired his gun wildly at Greta while feeling the effects, missing Greta and (unknowingly) nearly hitting Frances. Afterwards, Greta picked up Gary's gun and shot him to death, and she covered the bullet holes while boasting about her ruse regarding the handbags, revealing that she had (possibly) killed her other victims..
Defeat[]
Greta later returned to the subway with another handbag to lure in another victim, and she does so when a young brunette appears and returns the bag to her. Just like with Frances, Greta struck up a friendly conversation with the young woman while having tea with her, but suddenly, Greta began feeling strange and started to keel over. It was as this point that the woman removed her wig and revealed herself as Erica, who tricked Greta into inviting her into her house so she could rescue Frances. Erica freed Frances from the secret room, but after hearing music play, Frances panics and believes that Greta was behind Erica. Erica arms herself with a candle holder, only to find that the music was a record playing, Frances leaves the room, only for Greta to make one last attempt to capture Frances before she falls out on the floor. Erica and Frances place the maniacal villainess inside the toy box, after which they decide to call the police. The film ends with Greta banging inside the box, and it can be assumed that she was arrested (off-screen) for her actions.