Misery

Rob Reiner took good care of Stephen King's young characters in the coming-of-age drama Stand By Me in 1986. And so it was probably a deciding factor for King to finally allow his novel "Misery" to be adapted to the big screen that Reiner signed on as director. The lacking success of King's previous screenwriting efforts led the producers to William Golding for the adaptation. And although Golding delivered an effective script which kept in line with the plot of the book, he arguably missed the most vital part: getting under Paul Sheldon's skin, making us feel his pain, his suffering and his fear. In that respect, Reiner's film only grazes the surface, and a somewhat offhand James Caan doesn't help this cause. That being said, the perversity and intensity of the novel is retained and made aptly cinematic by Reiner, who utilizes and gets the best out of Kathy Bates in the lead. Her constant shifts between feelings of adoration and disgust for Paul, between wanting to control him and wanting to be swept off her feet by him like an unfledged teenager, make her performance as Annie Wilkes intriguing, chilling and hilarious at the same time. She deserves her canonical status as one of the great movie villains. There are also delightful performances by the wonderful Richard Farnsworth and King favourite Frances Sternhagen as the town's ageing sheriff and his wife.

So after a lot of years of watching horror movies and loving horror movie adaptations of Stephen king books, i realised i had never watched Misery, after watching it i realised i should have took the time to watch it many years ago.

The story is about a writer who having finished a book decides to return home, but on his return he has a accident and is rescued by his number one fan after that things take a dark twist while he is trying to recover from the accident, the story in this film is brilliant and gripping, you are always on edge of your seat wanting the main character to succeed its very believable which makes you fully emerged in the film.

The acting in this is brilliant and makes this film stand out, James Caan and Kathy bates are so believable, you genuinely hate but want to understand Kathy Bates's character and you are constantly behind James Caans character wanting him to succeed.

A great movies for horror and Thriller fans, Worth a watch to anyone who's interested in either genre.

This movie is truly one of the greatest horror movies out there. Simply because its so streightforward and kathy bates performance in it was truly incredible. The story follows a writer who is driving home (james caan) in a blizard and his car is overturned in the snow and he is taken into care by his number one fan as she says (kathy bates) but she is abit more sinister than she first appears. I enjoyed this so much have seen it a few times. James caan was good but kathy bates really gets my vote fantastic horror

The movie was pretty good, it didn't go by very fast, it was patient with things, there are a lot of details missed in the movie which is understandable but the actors make the movie worth watching. Annie Wilkes and Paul Sheldon are portrayed greatly by both the actress/actor.

A good watch.

Misery has to be the best adaptation of a Stephen King novel. A close runner up is Stand By Me, but for suspense and tension that just gets tighter and tighter, watch Misery. Kathy Bates can go from nice and cheerful to downright crazy like someone turning on a light switch. While watching James Caan suffer through the torture that Bates puts him through, you can't help but sympathize with the guy. Rob Reiner presents us with the problem, and he slowly escalates the tension and the dread that creeps over the movie. Even though the book was different in the "hobbling" process, Annie Wilkes' method of hobbling still gives me the chills whenever I watch it.