Misery!

Movie Details:

Release Date: 1990
“Run”time: 1 hour and 47 minutes
Where to watch it: Streaming
Directed by: Rob Reiner
Written by: William Goldman (based on a novel by Stephen King)
Starring:
- James Caan
- Kathy Bates

Synopsis: A woman takes too much care of a famous author after a car accident… and you thought the Star Wars fandom was bad.

Open Stab Wounds (out of 10): 10

Review: After two days, as much as I like the newer films, it’s good to go back to ones I haven’t seen in a while. Misery (1990) is one of those films that I know I saw back in the day… maybe when it was on TNT or TBS in the middle of the night during a graveyard shift. Or maybe when my parents watched it on home video when I was only eight years old. It’s a film that you know you’ve seen because there are bits and pieces of it stuck in your memory–you can feel it.

A summary for anyone who isn’t in the loop: Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a successful author, known for his one famous character, Misery. Feeling trapped by the success of being pigeon-holed, he decides to change directions, writing a brand-new Untitled story out of his favorite writing hole in Colorado. Unfortunately, he finds himself on the bad end of a winter storm and crashes his beautiful mustang (RIP). FORTUNATELY, he’s saved by a nice young woman, Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), that just happens to be his number one fan.

So how is the movie? Let’s start by saying just how painful it is to watch. Every scene in which Paul moves around on his broken legs and broken arm… every wince he makes, every groan and grunt, the audience can feel it. It really is a credit to James Caan’s ability as an actor to sell just how much pain Paul experiences throughout the film.

Meanwhile, Kathy Bates (who won an Oscar for her role) is fantastically crazy, slipping in and out of faux-pleasantness and straight to unhinged. It’s zero wonder why I always, to this day, think she’s going to be crazy in a movie… she’s just so good.

There’s a lot to explore about this movie (it deserves far more than this half-assed attempt will provide), but the main thing I want to mention is just how prescient this film is about toxic fandom. It’s hard not to view this film through a lens of how awful fandoms have been (example: Star Wars fans) over the years. There seems to be this sense of rabid entitlement for fans and their beloved properties that goes beyond changing what came before. Annie Wilkes briefly talks to Paul about watching short films as a kid, the others in the theater excited that a character that died returns next week… and how that “plot hole” angered her. At the same time, SHE is infuriated that Paul killed off the character of Misery in his novel; her fandom is so strong that it is part of her identity.

I am a Rick and Morty fan, obviously, and there are definite parallels to some of the backlash in Season 4 from the writers. The episode Never Ricking Morty seems to be the best case of this: the writers having a low-key episode to say to the fans, “we love you but please let us write the stories. Quit making us write what you want to write… trust us that you’ll like what we do”. The same goes for Rian Johnson and John Favreau and our Star Wars writers…

They just need to do a Paul Sheldon, give in for a little bit to the fandom and then burn it all down to start over. That might be the only way to escape the misery of fandom (which was basically King’s point when writing the novel, haha).

Thanks for reading and watching along with us! Be sure to keep up with all 31 days of our Halloween Horror Film coverage!
Oh, and make sure to follow Brandon on Twitter @BarnyardCruz and Kevin @Solucid!

31 Days of Horror – Day Three – Misery (1990)

Misery!