Gerald’s Game

Released: 2017

Director: Mike Flanagan

Cast: Bruce Greenwood, Carla Gugino

Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King

Jessie (Gugino) and her husband Gerald (Greenwood) travel to an isolated house to try to work on their marriage. Gerald has a BDSM kink. Trying to make it work, Jessie gives her husband what he wants and decides to do a scene with him. But at his age, Gerald takes a little blue pill to help him along.

Everything is fine until he has a heart attack while Jessie is handcuffed to the bed frame.

Jessie begins to hallucinate with dehydration and starvation, reliving some old memories and seeing things making her wonder what’s real and what’s still in her head. There’s a man stalking her with a bag of bones. (Reference to Bag of Bones, another novel by Stephen King.)

That is a petrifying thought to be in the middle of nowhere with no one around and stuck. You definitely need a firm stomach to watch this film. It’s very graphic and gruesome. Being a King lover I’m not sure whether I liked this or not. It was beautifully crafted and I think Mike Flanagan captured the essence of fear in isolation and Jessie’s past.

Isolation, hallucination, desperation, fear. And definitely anxiety. This is not for the faint-hearted. But it’s a great film for those who want their skin to crawl or goosebumps. Even to have their anxiety spike at the very thought of being alone with no one around.

8/10

The Shawshank Redemption

Released: 1994

Director: Frank Darabont

Cast: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, Clancey Brown, Bob Gunton.

Based off of the Stephen King short story ‘Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption’.

This is one movie I have been wanting to see for a long time but never got around to it for one reason or another. But I’m glad I finally did. Even though my father put some doubts in it, I found this to be amazing. The beautiful narration is done by Morgan Freeman’s character Red about his time at the Shawshank State Penitentiary and how another man changed his life.

After being wrongly convicted of murdering his wife and her lover, Andy Dufresne (Robbins) is sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. During his time he makes a few friends. One being Red (Freeman) who he clicks so well with. Over the years, Andy learns the ins and outs of the prison. The good and the bad. And while he does he dreams of a better life outside of the prison. He makes friends and learns how to work the system. But he also leaves his mark on the others and shows them that they can still feel like free men even on the inside if they’re smart. If you dream hard enough and are persistent, someone’s bound to cave.

The warden is a pure bastard. Manipulative, crooked, slimy.

There are several key things in this film like the message to never lose yourself in a time where you think all is lost. And also never lose hope because to lose hope is to lose it all. Hope is a very strong feeling and the more you hope, the better the chance. Frank Darabont adapted a few of Stephen King’s written works, The Mist, and The Green Mile. And this had the same feel and captivation as The Green Mile without the supernatural. In this, the supernatural aspect is simply just hope and perseverance. And smarts. If you’re smart, you can achieve many things.

Still the same message that someone can come along and change your life around in the best way possible.

10/10

Christine

John Carpenter’s Christine.

Released 1983

Starring: Kieth Gordon, John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, and Harry Dean Stanton.

Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King.

The movie starts out with something strange going on at the Chrysler Assembly plant in late 1957 around a 1958 Plymouth Fury. (Beautiful car). Something strange about this car though, someone gets injured. When that person leaves another worker takes it upon himself to sit in the car smoking where ash from his cigar drops onto the seat. Simple enough. But after everyone leaves for the night, the manager comes looking around and finds the man in the car, dead.

Time jump to 1978 where Arnie, a sort of dorky looking kid in high school decides he wants to take shop in school against his parent’s wishes. His parents are overbearing in my opinion. He and his friend Dennis stumble upon a red and white Plymouth Fury named Christine in need of desperate repair. He pays cash for it from an Old man who seems a bit cuckoo and not for cocoa puffs. Sells the car to the kid for cash.

His parents are furious with him for it and refuse to let him keep the car at the house so he keeps it in an auto shop.

Arnie starts acting strange now that he’s got this seemly strange car. This car, as Dennis finds out, had someone die in it from asphyxiation. Tried to kill Arnie’s so-called girlfriend who wants Arnie to get rid of Christine. Christine is clearly not happy with this and almost refuses to start up for him.

Bullies from their high school sneak into the shop and beat the shit out of the car.

BUT THE CAR COMES BACK.

Possessed hunk of junk that really makes you wonder if cars could hear you, what would they do?

I’d say, all in all, it was a decent film for its time. It has a scare factor that sends shivers up your spine at the very thought of buying an old car. Christine is a beauty though and she’d probably run over my grandma if I asked her to.

Not a terrible film. Not amazing but for a film adapted from a Stephen King novel it was really good.

3/5 stars.