Written by Mike Flanagan and Jeff Howard
Based on the novel by Stephen King
Directed by Mike Flanagan
Starring Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Carel Struycken, Henry Thomas and Kate Siegel
USA, 2017
It wouldn’t be Horrorfest without Stephen King, so let’s check out GERALD’S GAME, another flick I’ve been meaning to watch for years and only just now finally got around to.
I was intrigued by the premise – the whole thing taking place in the space of time a person is left chained to their bed. I like seemingly limited stories like this, stories that have to find unique and creative ways to open up the narrative.
In this case, a little went a long way. The story concerns a husband (Bruce Greenwood, one of my faves) and wife (Carla Gugino) who go to a remote cabin to rekindle their love. Things go quickly sideways when handcuffs and a heart attack enter the picture, leaving Greenwood dead on the floor and Gugino chained to the bed. How’s she gonna get out of this one?
That predicament actually sort of takes a backseat to the psychological drama that then proceeds to play out, represented by Bruce Greenwood and Carla Gugino playing mental projections of the husband and wife, aided along by flashbacks to the wife’s childhood. There are frequent reminders, however, how she’s going to need water, food, etc. Seemingly overly alarming reminders, to my mind, since, while it sucks to be thirsty, it’d take you a long time to actually be mentally or physically enfeebled by lack of water, which had me wondering how long of a period is this taking place over? It seems like within a few hours she’s about to thirst to death.
There’s also a fairly convoluted bit tacked on at the end which brings a coincidental, tangential serial killer into things, and had me scratching my head a little, but I guess that’s Stephen King for you.
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