HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2019: Misery (1990)

Our Sponsor

Today I’m proud to say that our sponsor is an absolute 80‘s Slasher Icon, namely Felissa Rose!  It always impressed me that Rose’s performance as Angela in Sleepaway Camp was assayed when she was only thirteen.  In addition to acting, she is one of the hosts for Fangoria’s Casualty Friday podcast.  She will be appearing in a number of new films, including Killer Rose and Camp Twilight. Please go to her website to see a list of her upcoming personal appearances, fan merchandise and more information!

Felissa chose a landmark film that I’ve not managed to see, the Rob Reiner directed, William Goldman scripted Misery. Earlier in 1990, I had been burned by Graveyard Shift, so I was reluctant to throw any more money at Stephen King adaptations. I thank Ms. Rose for allowing me to cross this off my ‘never seen’ list.

(Seriously, if you knew some of the films I’ve never seen, you’d probably faint dead away.  It did physically stagger my therapist Melissa...)

I will admit that I spent a lot of time watching this thinking about King.  After all, there are elements narratively and thematically in this film that he has used before and would use later...hell, there’s a strong heaping helping of ‘kill your darlings’ in both this and The Dark Half.  I almost looked upon James Caan’s Paul Sheldon as this idealized version of what King aspired to be, and it was through that lens that William Goldman saw him in writing this script....

Of course, this film is structured around the performances of Caan and Kathy Bates (who won an Oscar), but I do believe that Goldman’s adaptation is key here.  Goldman had a reputation for being one of the greatest screenwriters of all time, and it’s his dialogue that I think guides those performances and allows the two of them to find realistic touchstones that resonate with the viewer.  Some of the most striking scenes derive not from the hysterics that unfortunately take up the climax, but the subtle choices Caan and Bates make during the second act.  The reason the Hobbling Moment works isn’t because of the extremity of the act, but because Bates plays it warmly sympathetic and rational.

I suppose I should mention the way this film treats Annie’s mental illness.  For stretches of time, you really get the feeling that Annie’s isolation has fed into her delusions to the point where doesn’t know quite how to interface with the real world.  I think its telling that it is Annie having a dark moment of clarity that prompts Paul to speed up his plans, a moment where she has stepped outside this bubble she has constructed for herself.  When Bates is quiet or conversational, she gets what I have learned about my own mental illness.  When she gets all ranty or, even worse, her illness is played for laughs (the Misery-The-Pig scenes filled me with inertia), she loses me.

Not enough is made of Caan’s portrayal, and I understand why; he’s playing the straight man to Bates, especially when she’s going broad.  Caan does bring his A Game here, to a point where his placating Bates doesn’t sound condescending, and his distress never goes over the top.  His best work, I think, is in the earliest parts of the second act after Annie burns his manuscript...I’ve felt that numbness when I’ve lost my handiwork, and Caan’s stunned reaction felt real.

I do want to mention the other major actors in this film--the late Richard Farnsworth and Frances Sternhagen as Sheriff Buster and his wife/deputy Virginia.  I loved these two characters.  I loved the rapport the two have, I love the way that Buster is portrayed as being intelligent and--more importantly--observant while also being his ol’ folksy self.  I gather that their presence was to emphasize the element of random fate that complicates things for Paul, but they have a life that other, lesser films would not have given them.  On several occasions, I was wishing we could see a film featuring Buster and Virginia when they were younger, just solving an ordinary case, and I detest the tendency to spin every likable character into their own franchise-that-never-will-take-off.

This is what happens when a pro handles an adaptation.  It flows well, it takes its time until the last half hour yet doesn’t feel padded, and it knows when to trust the actors you’ve got to carry the film forward.  While I don’t think I am as on board with it as many people were, I do recommend it.

Tomorrow, our sponsor is my Canadian podcast brother and mastermind of the Dread Media Podcast Empire, Desmond Reddick!  Des has chosen 1972‘s Horror Express, a Spanish film that feels like a British one that features sci-fi-ish zombie-like things, Christopher Lee and Telly Savalas as a cossack.  It’s another film you would think I’d have seen but I haven’t, so it should be an interesting watch.

If you want to join Felissa Rose, Brian Trenchard-Smith and other great Horror Luminaries in geting me to watch a movie of your own choice during the Halloween Horrorfest, please consider joining the Domicile of Dread Patreon at the $3 Tier or greater.  Each new patron gets a free slot in this Gauntlet of Ghoulishness!  There are still twelve open slots, so act fast!