Netflix Review: Gerald's Game (2017)

"A room, a dog, some handcuffs, and a haunted past make up the terror of Gerald's Game."

(aka Kink Gone Wrong.)
Release Date: September 29th.
Country: USA.
Rating: TV-MA.
Written by: Stephen King and Mike Flanagan.
Directed by: Mike Flanagan.
Starring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Henry Thomas, and Chiara Aurelia.

With a resume that boasts movies like Oculus (review HERE), Ouija: Origin of Evil (review HERE), and Hush (review HERE), our expectation for Mike Flanagan's adaptation of the Stephen King novel Gerald's Game were over the moon.

The guy knows how to craft an effective movie, and if anyone could make this quiet, isolated, disturbing story come to proper life on screen, it would be him.

And boy did he ever.

Jessie and Gerald are a married couple who need some spice in their life, or at least Gerald does. You see, Gerald is a BDSM freak (no judgment) who needs to take Viagra to be able to make sweet love, unless bondage or rape fantasies are involved, then he's all good on his own. Jessie is a sweet and loving wife who is trying to make her husband happy, but she had a rough childhood, and that tends to weigh heavily on her.

SO MUCH LOVE.

They decide to spend a quiet weekend together at their lake house, where they're hoping that kinky games like "Shut up and take it", "Who's Daddy's special little girl?", and "Bitch, obey!" will somehow save their faltering marriage. So Gerald cuffs her to the bed and begins to show her how to have some "real fun", when he has a heart attack and dies on top of her. Of course Jessie kicks him off of the bed, because that's gross.

THAT'S PRETTY MUCH A METAPHOR FOR THE MOVIE.

Jessie, cuffed to the bed with no food or water, starts to freak out and have hallucinations. Her dead husband is up and talking to her, and she's also walking around the room talking to the her that's cuffed to the bed. There's also a wild dog who is really hungry, and a ghostly specter called The Moonlight Man who shows up at night wanting to steal her soul.

They probably should have stayed at a Motel 6.

AND HE'S A FOOT FETISHIST.

For me, the best Stephen King adaptations tend to be his "Non-Horror" stories. Movies like Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, Dolores Claiborne, and The Green Mile are all phenomenal films, and while they all, including Gerald's Game, contain their own horrific elements, they ascend to that higher level of storytelling. Now don't get me wrong, I love his Horror flicks a ton (Salem's Lot, IT, Cujo, The Dead Zone, to name a few), but he has a genuine knack for telling human stories, and tapping into that human vulnerability that we all identify with. I think that he shines when he leans towards the dramatic.

Gerald's Game is a fantastic portrait of a woman who has dealt with abuse all of her life. Her father abused her, her husband was controlling and harbored dark secrets, and even the dog and The Moonlight Man all want things from her that are great for them, but horrible for her. It's all a way of illustrating that this woman has spent a lifetime of dealing with men who use her, abuse her, and do nothing positive for her, which makes for an interesting subtext to being chained to a bed and at the  mercy of them all... which is a terrifying premise in its own right.

It's a journey of strength and survival, and of a woman's fight to overcome not only her hopeless situation, but the ghosts of her past that have always haunted her.

Carla Gugino was one of the very first Horror Hotties that we featured on this site. Not because she has a prolific amount of Horror titles in her resume, but because she's gorgeous and extremely talented, and we just adore the shit out of her. Her work in Gerald's Game is top-notch, especially when she plays the part of her "free" self; there's just something self-assured and commanding about that part of her, and she balanced the vulnerable, terrified version of her perfectly.

Bruce Greenwood is a veteran character actor who knows his business too. Here, he plays skeevy and intimidating quite well, and was the perfect compliment to Gugino's weak and vulnerable portrayal. If you really want to see an excellent movie that shows the power of his acting, check out the 2014 film Wildlike. It's an absolute hidden gem of a movie.

And let's not forget about Henry Thomas, whose performance here made our fucking skin crawl, and was the most terrifying part of the movie... and that's saying something. I always wonder how actors can play that sort of role, and I give him credit for having the guts to do it at all, let alone doing it so well. Chiara Aurelia was no less brave and fantastic playing young Jessie.

I love the side-story of The Moonlight Man and how it unfolded too. It added a truly eerie vibe to the movie, and made things all the more harrowing.

EVER HEAR OF BACKGAMMON, GERALD?

What's with that dog, man? Someone gives you some Kobe beef, and then you turn around and try to eat them and their dead husband? You don't bite the toe that feeds you!

THIS SON OF A BITCH RIGHT HERE...

Those scenes with Henry Thomas were genuinely the most terrifying part of the movie. I'll never watch E.T. in the same way again!

TURN OFF YOUR FUCKING HEARTLIGHT, HENRY!

Not a ton of gore to be found here, but the bits with the dog and the part at the end made up for the lack of quantity with truly gruesome quality.

SWEET JESUS...

There's no nudity in this one but the movie contains plenty of sexual themes, some of them disturbing as hell.

WE'D PLAY CARLA'S GAME ANY TIME.

Mike Flanagan was born to make compelling, suspenseful movies. Period. The guy's impressive resume has gotten infinitely stronger with Gerald's Game, and given the way that he melded emotional drama with stark Horror in this one, we expect that we'll be hearing his name attached to bigger projects very soon.

This is a great movie that operated on different levels, all of which flow together to make for one harrowing, intense, and emotionally weighty watch.

Don't miss it.

A

Gerald's Game is streaming now on Netflix.

Oh, Carla.