Review #202: Misery (1990)


This review was originally written in 2022.

Gabe's 100 Bucket List Horror Films Review #57: Misery (1990)

Can I just point out that the same people who brought us The Princess Bride (Director/Producer Rob Reiner and Screenplay Writer William Goldman) made THIS? Blew my mind.

Misery is a film based on a book by Stephen King, where a writer of a famous book series crashes his car during a snowstorm and is nursed back to health by a woman who claims to be his biggest fan. But as he recuperates, she starts becoming more and more unhinged, and soon the writer will be fighting (writing?) for his life.

While I'd never seen this movie before, I definitely picked up on the majority of it through cultural osmosis (particularly a Family Guy sketch that pretty closely parodied it). Considering how just the other day I watched Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, which also featured a famous person stuck in an abusive relationship with a caregiver who refuses to let them leave, a lot of this movie felt like it was treading familiar ground, but overall this was a very entertaining experience. (It also seemed to have put a lot more work into the logistics of how a person could realistically try to escape this kind of predicament, and has specifically made allowances for why most of those methods wouldn't work. Simply put, they did their homework.) The writing was great, and the performances were better- James Caan and Kathy Bates did fantastic jobs, but I'd be lying if I said the sheriff and his wife didn't steal the show every time they were on screen!

I don't really have a ton to critique; I think that the plot was solid, the tension ramped up consistently and appropriately (making sure to jab the viewer with a little freak-out from Annie every time they might have started to be lulled into a sense of normalcy), and the climax was satisfying and exciting. I don't know how I went this long without watching this film, but I'm glad I finally did!

Overall Rating: 9/10 Ceramic Penguins

Other Media: Apparently this story got adapted into a Broadway play, starring Bruce Willis!

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