The Movie Adaptation Even Stephen King Deemed Too Scary
We love a book that gives us all the feels. A cornucopia of emotions running the gamut from frightening to funny. There’s one person who seems to hit each and every one like the King Midas of literature, and he is a king: Stephen King.
King, perhaps best known for the plethora of horror novels he's penned and the movies and miniseries they inspired doesn't mind speaking openly about adaptations of his work. Most notably, King has expressed his disappointment with Stanley Kubrick's big-screen version of The Shining. Recently, King was interviewed by Eli Roth for the AMC series History of Horror.
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When asked by Roth which movie adaptation King felt was most true to his vision, the author named 1990's Misery, describing it as "really, really scary and just, unrelenting."
King cited the importance of balancing humor and horror. Directed by Rob Reiner, a man who knows comedy, Misery is equal parts humorous and terrifying.
In a touch of casting genius, Misery introduced Kathy Bates to the world and James Caan to horror. Caan plays Paul Sheldon, a writer who crashes during a snowstorm and is rescued by Bates' character Annie Wilkes. Not only is Annie a good Samaritan, bringing the injured Paul into her home to patch him up, she also happens to be his "number one fan." And that's kinda where shit starts to hit the fan.
"[...] a lot of times in a horror movie something really terrible will happen and the audience will go 'Ahhh' and then they'll laugh, you know, because they're trying to play it off a little bit. And Misery has a lot of funny things in it," said King.
King noted in Kubrick's film, the character played by Jack Nicholson isn't really allowed to develop as he did in the book. In the book, we see him sliding with increasing speed and velocity down the slippery slope of sanity. We didn't get to see that progression with Kubrick's version.
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Misery gets it right as we see Annie's sweet, nurturing facade drop away. Sure, she fluffs Paul's pillows and feeds him pain meds, but he might not need that if she hadn't broken both his ankles with a sledgehammer. Just sayin'.
That's what we fear, right? Something unforeseen happens and we find ourselves in a very vulnerable spot. Who can we trust? What's hiding behind that smile? Maybe it's our "number one fan."