I was watching television recently when I saw an advertisement for the show Matlock. Not the Andy Griffith version, but the new Kathy Bates version. She is a favorite actress of mine. While I haven’t seen her new show (I am trying to wean myself from tv dependency), I adored her in Fried Green Tomatoes and Titanic. Her best role. however, had to be in the 1990’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery. She won a deserved Oscar for her portrayal of Annie Wilkes. She was able to take a character that could have been trite and contrived and gave her a persona of a perhaps socially awkward human trying to reach out to a beloved hero. The cracks in her demeanor slowly widen, allowing us to see the evil and treachery underneath.
This is a review I actually did about four years ago, but I hope you indulge me in reposting it. The story needs even more accolades than it has already received. King has woven a tight-knit tale that takes place mostly in the claustrophobic confines of Annie’s remote mountain home. There are a few extra characters throughout the story, but it focuses mainly on Annie Wilkes and her favorite author, Paul Sheldon. Most of Paul’s POV is from the confines of a bed! What could be a mundane, slow-paced story is instead a nail-biting tale of the helplessness of being at another person’s mercy.
(I just realized the movie came out 35 years ago. And the book came out 38 years ago. I feel so old.)
“She was crazy but he needed her”
That one quote sums up the novel Misery by Stephen King better than any synopsis truly could. A gruesome, psychological thriller, Misery is the story of a successful author named Paul Sheldon. Riding high with the success of his latest novel, he crashes his car in the remote Rocky Mountains. He is knocked unconscious and awakens in the home of Annie Wilkes, a former nurse who is a huge fan of Paul’s. His number one fan, she claims, particularly of his successful romance series about a character named Misery Chastain.
Paul is completely at Annie’s mercy. A blizzard rages so she cannot go for help. His legs are mangled and he is bedridden. Annie takes care of him, but she doesn’t set his legs. If he gives her an answer she doesn’t like or is flippant, she withholds pain medication. She has severe mood swings, from maniacal glee to morose depression. But without her, he would have died after the car crash. He needs her for food, warmth, shelter… but she was crazy.
What you have with this story, is a tale focused on two people in a farmhouse in the middle of a blizzard with only one of them able to move.
Sounds boring. But it is so creepy! When Annie realizes Paul’s latest Misery novel actually ends with Misery’s death, she… Well, she is not happy. And when Paul tries to escape and she puts him back into his bed? I cringed. Even as I am writing this and I’m remembering, I cringe. Ouch!
Stephen King is known for formidable villains – Pennywise the Clown from IT, Leland Gaunt from Needful Things, Randall Flagg from any book in which he appears. But the protagonist from Misery is perhaps the scariest. Annie Wilkes is a normal human. There are no supernatural powers, no otherworldly beings. This is a tortuous story of what one human being can do to another.
I recommend this book even if you aren’t a Stephen King fan. He is the master of unworldly horror, but his books that focus on mankind’s weaknesses and fears are his truly scary works. Misery will entertain you and it will scare you.
This story still scares me. I still stand by my statement above. King’s books about killer clowns or telekinetic teenagers or vampires in Maine are terrifying, stories you read when you want to be creeped out. But his stories about everyday people or events are the most nerve wrecking. We will never face Pennywise, but we could encounter a rabid dog, a serial killer, or a psychotic nurse with a human facade. This is the scary stuff in life.
