Happy 31 days of Halloween!
This year, we’re celebrating with a different movie pick each day that made us audibly gasp, “WHAT THE FUCK?!“
Our 29th movie is Misery (1990). This film was so unsettling to me that I’ve only watched it once. Kathy Bates is the queen of scares. Her portrayal of Annie Wilkes in this Stephen King book adaptation is one of the most memorable and superb performances I’ve ever seen. How does she do it?!
Annie Wilkes is Paul Sheldon’s #1 fan. Paul (James Caan) is the author of her favorite series of books, and after a terrible car accident, Paul finds himself under the care of Annie, a nurse. What a coincidence! Insert sarcasm font here.
His legs are messed up, and he’s in rough shape. Add another element of misery here (see what I did there?), and we also have Paul and Annie stranded thanks to the snow. Things are not quite right with Annie, and Paul doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. What a perfect recipe for horror.
Paul starts snooping and digging around because let’s be real, what else is there to do. This leads to some twisted behavior from Annie and some genuinely frightening outbursts. The tension and anxiety are off the charts in Misery. Paul actually manages to sneak out of his room and procure a weapon in a knife but is immediately discovered. Argh, rooting for this guy leads to so much disappointment.
Annie drugs him (because nurse and all, right) and ties him to his bed. Or her bed, his prison. Here is the WTF moment of all WTF moments. Enter now, the sledgehammer. The buildup, her speech, the board between the feet… it’s all too real! By the time we finally get to her swinging that sledgehammer back, it’s too much. My stomach has flipped, and I’m screaming; I can’t breathe. What the actual fuck?!
