Misery Review

Written by: Ash's missing hand   

Stephen King is a genius when it comes to finding horror in everyday situations. I can only imagine what some of his fan mail must sound like. Misery is the story of a writer who finds himself the prisoner of his self-proclaimed "No. 1 fan".

Paul Sheldon (James Caan), is a writer, who has been selling out for years with a series of romantic novels about a character named Misery. After great triumphs and travails Misery has finally been killed off. After killing the character he had come to hate, he hides out in a Colorado lodge to write a "real" novel. When he finishes it he packs it in his car, heads down a mountain road in a blizzard, loses control and ends up in a snowbank, badly injured.

He might have died, but is rescued by a woman named Annie Wilkes, who digs him out, takes him home, nurses him back to health, and is really pissed to learn that he has killed off Misery. This is unacceptable, so she keeps him invalid and imprisoned until he writes a sequel bringing Misery back to life.

Everyone believes that Sheldon is dead. There is a search for his body, which involves his agent (Lauren Bacall), the backwoods sheriff (Richard Farnsworth), and his wife (Frances Sternhagen). They are pretty much the only other characters in the movie, as this is mano-a-mano between Caan and Bates.

This movie has a good story and works well. It has very good performances from the whole cast, but Kathy Bates stands out with an award-worthy performance.  The hobbling scene will go down as one of the greatest, and most uncomfortable, horror scenes ever.