Review of Misery (1990) by Tomtag — 05 May 2019

Misery (1990) is a psychological horror film based on another Stephen King’s 1987 novel with same name. I don’t really call this a horror movie because it’s not scary but it’s more like a thriller, there’s drama.

It was directed by Rob Reiner, who had also directed A Few Good Men (1992), Shock and Awe (2017), The Princess Bride (1987) and the screenplay was written by an author William Goldman, who had written novels like The Princess Bride in 1973, which was transferred into a movie in 1987 also directed by Rob Reiner, Which Lie Did I Tell?, … It’s about a psychotic fan who holds an author captive and forces him to write her stories.

There was James Caan as the author, Paul Sheldon, who wrote romance novels about a character called Misery Chastain, when he had an accident, he was carried to someone else’s house. It was revealed that the house belonged to his number 1 fan, Annie Wilkes played by Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for Best Actress in 1991.

She acted exactly how the number 1 fan in this film should be like: psychotic, crazy, insane and sometimes can be like an a-hole. I hate her but she’s well-acted and well-developed thanks to Bates. Caan did a well job too.

I was just disappointed that he wasn’t even nominated for Best Actor in 1991. Barry Sonnenfeld was really good with the cinematography. It was kinda old-school and also suitable for a 90s thriller.

I also like the story though I haven’t read the book yet. I was really surprised when Sheldon read the red book filled with newspapers and found out that Wilkes was a nurse murderer and killed many patients and the only jump scare I saw was when Buster, the local sheriff was shot by Wilkes with the rifle when he found out that Paul Sheldon was locked in a room or a cellar maybe? And also it’s just a story, why did Wilkes had to scream so bad about a character’s death? That’s just annoying! The original score was okay though, Marc Shaiman was okay as well.

I didn’t care about the score much in this film because I didn’t hear the music much, I just care about the screenplay and Goldman wrote it excellently. I like it even though I saw a few sentences were a bit too easy.

Misery isn’t really a horror movie, it’s just a drama and thriller which had blood in there. There wasn’t much scare but it was a really good movie. Stephen King wrote the plot really well, Reiner directed excellently, the score was played okay, the cinematography was also well-shot by Sonnenfeld and more… Caan and Bates were perfect for these roles making this movie one of the greatest Stephen King’s adaptation.

My Ratings: 9.