Misery (1990)

May 22, 2020 2:23 PM

Novelist Paul Sheldon crashes his car on a snowy Colorado road. He is found by Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of Paul's heroine Misery Chastaine. Annie is also somewhat unstable, and Paul finds himself crippled, drugged and at her mercy.
posted by growabrain (4 comments total)

Prompted by this, I re-watched it tonight, for the first time since the early nineties.
I'm too old to watch horror films, as my nerves can't handle the tension, but this film really holds very well. It's very well crafted, well paced and well acted - a Hitchcockian movie.
posted by growabrain at 3:33 PM on May 22, 2020 [2 favorites]

You should watch the second season of Castle Rock to see Lizzy Caplan play a younger Annie Wilkes where you learn her origin story and find yourself rooting for the crazy woman because other people are worse and you can't help but admire her gumption.

I haven't seen the film since it was released. I remember enjoying it. Didn't Bates get an Oscar for this role?

Despite that, Caplan's "Annie Wilkes" is my canonical "Annie Wilkes" now.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 4:23 AM on May 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

The hobbling scene remains with me to this day.
posted by porpoise at 1:26 PM on May 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Didn't Bates get an Oscar for this role?

Best Actress.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:01 PM on May 29, 2020 [1 favorite]