Misery (1990) Review

 

Misery (1990)

Misery is about writer Paul Sheldon, who after finishing his book, gets in an accident in the cold, Colorado wilderness, only to be saved by a young nurse named Annie. Annie however takes #1 fan to whole new heights, going to extreme lengths to make sure Paul never leaves.

The story, based on the novel by horror-writer Stephen King, is interesting in that it puts King in the shoes of Paul, and what it would be like if he was taken in by some crazed, super-fan (that turned out to be a murdering psychopath). I loved the idea of having a largely incapacitated Paul trapped in this house with a woman who takes care of him, but is also obsessed with him and his work and will go to dark lengths to ensure he can’t leave or be taken away from her. And him being a writer, using his wit from the books he writes to craft plan after plan to creatively try and escape was really neat. It’s the underlying horror of it all that makes this film so fascinating though, being excruciatingly brutal to watch at times (somehow toned down compared to King’s book) and using Annie’s bipolar like behavior to keep the audience on their toes on what she will do next. One second she’s nice, and the next she’s throwing chairs and attempting murder.

The two dominant (and really, only) performances in this movie are by Kathy Bates and James Caan. A relatively young Bates shines as the crazed fan of Paul’s work, jumping from a nice little nurse, to a genuine psychopath on a dime so, so well. The scenes where she turns are terrifying in their brutality & feels very Norman Bates-esque. Caan though, is just trying to survive, often terrified due to being incapacitated from his injuries, but playing it off cool as he always has a plan up his sleeve.

Misery is a classic horror, but more in the psychological sense that continually builds tensions until one big breaking point is reached, as with Paul managing to kill Annie and giving her one final fuck you in the form of burning the ending of the final Misery book she had been forcing him to write, in what was a thrilling, climactic end, that was surprisingly positive given it being based on King.

8.8/10