Gerald's Game - B+

​Quick Hit: A faithful King adaptation that fumbles at the close (but then, so did the author). 

When I heard that Stephen King’s book Gerald’s Game was going to be adapted to a Netflix, I was extremely concerned. I didn’t love Gerald’s Game like I loved some of King’s other books, but the book essentially takes place mainly in a woman’s head. As usual – I heard something that made me cautiously optimistic, and that was that Mike Flanagan, of Hush and Oculus, was attached as a writer and the director. So I went into the film optimistically, and wasn’t really disappointed.

Gerald’s Game, which sets up a kinky game between Gerald and Jessie, husband and wife, may take a little bit of time to get going. The “meat” (haha, pun unintended) of the story takes place after Gerald dies of a heart attack – possibly brought on by his erectile dysfunction medication – and leaves Jessie handcuffed to a bed in the middle of nowhere… with the door to the house open. 

Flanagan solves the problem of a movie that could have been really, really dull by having Jessie discuss things with an iteration of herself, and an iteration of Gerald. It’s beautifully staged, and is very theatrical – there’s constant movement by the characters, moving around their limited room. This gives the illusion of a couple of things – space and action, to which there are very little. Flanagan also picks opportune times to flash to the past (more on this in a bit). It helps to break up Jessie’s plight, and also pass the time.

Make no mistake – this is a horror movie. There’s a mutt that’s extremely hungry. There’s a hidden man that somehow exists in the night – the Moonlight Man. And then there’s Jessie’s own nightmarish past – reflected back on the day of an eclipse when she was a young girl. It’s incredibly well-handled – as well as you can handle an extremely icky subject – but Flanagan knows that it’s tough to handle. By doing some – he parcels the true horrors with the imagined, and creates a much better movie that way.
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Jessie, who is played by Carla Gugino, KNOCKS IT OUT OF THE PARK. Playful and sexy to start the film, while still maintaining an air of disgust with her husband. She carries this through multiple stages of despair – from beginning disbelief to acceptance of her fate, all the way through to the steely-eyed determination. She manages this fantastically, and plays well against her co-star Bruce Greenwood, who plays Gerald. Greenwood is drippingly sleezy to start the film – and you can absolutely believe his fantasies lie where they do. 

I just have to discuss the most famous scene from the book – but I’m listing it as a spoiler now. I’ll also briefly discuss why the ending is so unsatisfactory. Pick things up after the spoiler section to get my final rating. I'll bracket this section with two gifs, but not the one I want, because it would spoil the spoilers section. 
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Holy crap – the freaking de-gloving scene! It’s epically disgusting and totally believable, and Gugino sells that pain completely. You’ll never look at your hand and wrist bones the same way ever again. This can only be done with a very good practical effects supervisor and I can’t rave about it enough.

Oh, and the ending, that ends with Jessie doing a voice over and talking about confronting the Moonlight Man in court – who, when seen in the light, isn’t anything worth being afraid of? What a lame ending. I can’t really fault Flanagan, because King fumbled this ending as well. It’s tough to make a film in one room that dabbles in supernatural without fumbling it as well.
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So Gerald’s Game is pretty good. Fans of King will like it. Fans of Flanagan’s style of filmmaking will like it. And I think overall, there’s enough there for horror fans and general cinema lovers too. I’m giving it a “B+”.
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For more on this film, check out IMDB.