Oculus was one of the surprises of 2014 so far, a horror movie by WWE Studios that was actually better than anyone ever expected it to be. Honestly, it was a very scary and smart movie that D-Rock compared favorably to A Nightmare on Elm Street in his Oculus review. Well, director Mike Flanagan has his sites set on his next project, and it looks like that will be an adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game.
Gerald’s Game by Stephen King
Released in 1992, Gerald’s Game is a very strange and unique work. It tells the story of a woman named Jessie, who is engaged in a sexually deviant game with her husband Gerald at their secluded cabin in the woods. Unfortunately, while Jessie is handcuffed to the bed, she decides she isn’t in the mood. When Gerald decides he won’t take no for an answer, she kicks him in the balls, he falls from the bed, cracks his head, has a heart attack and dies. The other 90 percent of the book involves Jessie handcuffed to the bed, with no way to escape or call for help. Her only company is a stray dog that starts to eat Gerald and a possible ghost.
Honestly, I had a lot of trouble getting through this novel. It is similar in ways to Misery, when it comes to someone injured and trapped without anyone knowing where they are, desperately trying to escape while something terrorized them. The problem here is that Annie Wilkes is replaced with the “Space Cowboy” and the entire internal monologue of Jessie is a bit hard to get into.
However, this could make an amazing movie, especially if they find an actress who can captivate the audience’s attention. 1408 was just about one man, trapped in a room while a malevolent ghost tries to kill him, and John Cusack did a great job of pulling that off. With the superb work he did on Oculus, I an very interested to see what Mike Flanagan can do with Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game.
