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Gerald's Game

Stephen King has been a staple to the horror genre for well over 4 decades and there is no sign of him slowing down yet. While he continues to publish new work, his library of stories is currently growing a resurgence in cinema adaptations and along with many remakes (IT, PET SEMTERY), comes an appetite to adapt his more obscure works.

 

Cue GERALD’S GAME, a story of a woman who finds herself trapped alone on a bed and in the time she is alone, deals with a life of abuse and misdirection amidst a struggle to escape before her life is taken from her.

 

While movies like BURIED and LIFE OF PI have dealt with individually centred stories, GERALD’S GAME comes complete with a number of complex issues that have always deemed the story as unfilmable. For the most part, this is a feat challenged and betterd by one of horror’s standout icons of the decade, Mike Flanagan (OCULUS, HUSH, OUIJA: ORIGIN OF EVIL).

 

Taking the central role, Carla Gugino (WATCHMEN, WAYWOOD PINES) plays Jessie, the victim to an accidental case of isolation as her partner Gerald (Bruce Greenwood – I, ROBOT, THE RIVER) has a heart attack in the middle of a sex game that ends with Jessie being handcuffed to the bed. What follwos is an evolving timeline of Jessie’s life that shows that where we find her is not at an ideal state and lead by bad decisions and a bad upbringing lead to a conflict of her beliefs and her conscience.

 

Gugino is sensational in the lead role and her believable struggle holding together her sanity as well as will to survive is both emotional and intesifying. Added with support from Bruce Greenwood and every moment that involves the chemestry between these two is an explosive must see.

 

Throw in the mix a story of a serial killer and the central focus evolves into a murder mystery which somehow feels forced and rushed. While Jessie’s story is intriguing, and her cunning to survive gripping to watch (even if at times gut-wrenching – one scen in particular will have you squealing at it’s graphic nature), the story of the Moonlight Killer is not needed and badly forced in. Taking only the closing moments of the film and never being truly explored, the story seems abstract to the real events at play here and without this, GERALD’S GAME would have been a flawless character study/survival battle which has ended up being diluted by a need to include all of the contents of an unfilmable book and in doing so has proven that it could almost be achieved.

Director: Mike Flanagan

Released:  29th September 2017

Running Time: 103 minutes

Age Rating: 18

 

Reviewer: Martyn Wakefield

RATING


Plot: 3
Fear: 3
Gore: 5


R3/5​

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