“This is gonna be good for us, Jess. Really good.” - Gerald
Gerald’s Game is a 2017 Netflix original film based on the classic Stephen King book of the same name. The film was directed by Mike Flanagan, and stars Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood as Jessie and Gerald, a married couple who decide to go to a remote lake house to spice up their romantic relationship. They begin a sexual adventure involving handcuffs, when suddenly, Gerald has a heart attack and dies, leaving Jessie chained to the bed with seemingly no escape in sight. From there, a hungry dog finds its way into the house, and after a while, her mind starts playing tricks on her, causing her to hallucinate.
This film is incredibly tense, and rarely gives you any moments to catch your breath. It’s one of those very few films that really managed to get under my skin. To put it bluntly, this movie scared the daylights out of me, which is something that barely ever happens to me when I watch a movie. I think one of the reasons it scared me so much is because this is a situation that could actually happen. It knows that the real horror in movies is the result of having characters and situations that feel realistic, and cause you to ask the question ‘What if this happened to me?’
In terms of things going for it, this movie has it all. There was only one thing in this film that I had an issue with, but that issue is incredibly tiny when compared to all of the great stuff in the rest of the movie. The score is amazing, and dramatic. The cinematography is wonderful, and beautifully showcases the landscapes and settings in which the film takes place. The color pallette is made up of numerous shades of gray, which worked very well with the many uses of natural lighting, however the film also utilizes the color red to great effect. The makeup and prosthetics are truly creepy, and very realistic. I am usually not by any means squeamish when it comes to gore in movies. It is incredibly rare that something will happen in a movie that makes me look away from the screen. But there is one scene in Gerald’s Game - you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about when you watch it - that had me squinting, only just barely looking at what was happening on screen. The visual effects in this scene are second to none, which makes it all the more hard to look at.
The acting is truly Oscar-worthy, and it frustrates me that Carla Gugino wasn’t even nominated for Best Leading Actress that year. It almost seems like a crime that horror movies get overlooked by the Academy, because those are often where you’ll find some of the best performances, (especially female performances.) Henry Thomas is really creepy as Jessie’s dad, Bruce Greenwood is great as the manipulative Gerald, and Carel Struycken is terrifying in a role that would probably be in my best interest not to talk about in this review, so as to avoid spoilers. It will be so much better for those of you who decide to watch Gerald’s Game to be as unexpectedly creeped out by his presence as I was.
The direction here by Mike Flanagan is spot on, and he manages to create a tense, riveting, and claustrophobic atmosphere that fits perfectly with the dark tones of the film. It is worth noting that this movie is an hour and forty-three minutes long. One might expect, just as I did, that the film will get boring after a while. After all, if the woman is handcuffed to a bed for almost the entire runtime, not a lot can happen, right? There’s not much that a movie can do with that, right? Wrong. There was not a single moment in this film where I felt bored. I thoroughly enjoyed each and every frame, and was totally riveted by every scene.
This is where my favorite aspect of the film comes in. When Jessie becomes dehydrated, hungry, tired, and scared, she starts to lose her mind a little bit. She starts seeing and hearing things that aren’t there. Her hallucinations were the best and most interesting part of the film for me. On one side, a version of herself starts talking to her, telling her that she can make it out of this horrible situation, while on the other side, a hallucinatory image of her dead husband tells her that there is no way in hell that she’s ever going to get out of those cuffs alive. It’s a brilliant psychological battle between the two sides of her own mind, that kept me entertained throughout the entire film.
I mentioned earlier that there is only one tiny issue I have with this movie, and that is the ending. It wasn’t a bad ending by any means, it just wrapped everything up a bit too quickly. I thought all of the things that happened at the end of the film were really cool, but I thought that those things could’ve been gone over in just a tiny bit more detail.
I really loved Gerald’s Game, and I definitely suggest checking it out. It’s a great horror thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat, and had me biting my fingernails for the entirety of the film. While this movie might not be for everyone, I would recommend giving it a chance. This is a movie that is totally worth your time.
Rating: TV-MA
Grade: A
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