'Gerald's Game' Executes an Engrossing Character Study Amid a Suspenseful Psychological Horror-Thriller

According to some, the best Stephen King film this year is somehow Netflix’s Gerald’s Game – yep, to them, it’s even better than It.  Having recently seen the movie, I don’t agree with this view.  However, I understand where it’s coming from.

Gerald’s Game is based on the Stephen King novel of the same, and adapted for film by Mike Flanagan, performing the duties of director and editor as well as co-writing the screenplay with his constant collaborator Jeff Howard.  It tells the story of a middle-aged married couple, Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) and Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino), who goes away for the weekend to their remote lake house in an attempt to rekindle their marriage and sex life.  As part of their role play, Gerald handcuffs Jessie to the bedposts.  Though she is willing at first, she soon becomes uncomfortable of his aggressive behavior, and she panics.  However, Gerald is adamant to let her go, and before Jessie can convince him, he suffers a grave heart attack and dies.  Thus, she’s left handcuffed in an uncomfortable position, alone in a house in the backwoods, with nobody nearby to hear her cries for help.  As hours pass, while growing exhausted, thirsty, and desperate, she begins reflecting on her life while being haunted by hallucinations – or are they?

As a fan of Stephen King, I’ve read plenty of his works.  I haven’t read Gerald’s Game though.  However, I was able to read a condensation of its plot, and I can say that the film’s plot is essentially similar to it.  But I do think that the concept – considering its facets and twists – works more effectively in film.

It’s a smartly written and executed psychological horror-thriller.  It’s utterly suspenseful and chilling; in fact, I even think it has more genuinely unsettling moments than It (which, I think is closer to being exciting than actually scary).  But beyond the visceral effect, it’s also an engrossing character study, as Jessie – fantastic performance from Carla Gugino, by the way, who carries most of the film by herself – suffers the physical pain and, in a more severe extent, the mental torture brought by her bizarre ordeal, forcing her to reminisce and realize the fact that she has been abused and manipulated ever since she was a young girl, regret and evaluate her cowardice and wrong life choices, and set off on a satisfying journey towards achieving self-worth and redemption, as well as survival.