Movie Review – Misery (1990)

Today we’re taking a look at Misery, a horror film based on Stephen King‘s hit novel of the same name.

Released in 1990, Misery is a horror film that tells the tale of author Paul Sheldon as he nearly dies in a car crash and he’s cared for by Annie Wilkes.  It turns out that Annie is Paul’s number-one fan when it comes to his famous set of books starring Misery Chastain.  Annie is a bit of a crazy woman though and she tortures Paul and makes him write her a brand new Misery book, just for herself.  Her methods drive Paul to the breaking point and set up a climatic conclusion in her isolated mountain home.

Directed by Rob Reiner, Misery stars James Caan as Paul Sheldon and Kathy Bates in the role of Annie Wilkes.  Supporting them are Richard Farnsworth as Buster, the local sheriff, Frances Sternhagen as his wife and deputy, Virginia, and Lauren Bacall as Marcia Sindell, Paul’s publicist.

Misery begins in the mountain town of Silver Creek, Colorado as novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is finishing his latest work.  He’s set the same pattern for a number of years now where he always goes to the same hotel in the small town to finish writing his latest manuscript.  This procedure is no different for the conclusion of his latest novel.  Paul has a celebratory smoke of his cigarette, a glass of champagne.  The next day he climbs into his Ford Mustang and begins the long drive back home to New York City.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

A snowstorm quickly develops as Paul drives through the mountains.  He misses a curve in the road and his car slides over the edge and rolls to a stop.  He’s badly injured and unconscious.  Without any help soon he’ll surely die out there in the wilderness.

While Paul Sheldon is unconscious he has a flashback to a recent meeting with Marcia Sindell (Lauren Bacall), his publisher.  We learn that Paul’s last book, Misery’s Child, is a smash hit with his audience.  Marcia questions Paul whether or not it was wise to kill the main character, Misery Chastain, at the end of the story.

The film then jumps back to the car crash and we see a woman use a crowbar to pry open Paul Sheldon’s car door.  She pulls him out of the car, administers CPR, and then drags him away from the crash.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Paul awakens a few days later in a strange house.  His rescuer is Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates), a woman who claims to be his number-one fan.  Annie has even named her pet pig after Misery.  She gives Paul a couple of Novril painkiller pills to help ease the pain in his condition.  We see that Paul is still pretty injured on his face.  Annie explains that his legs were broken and she had to use household items to make braces to keep them still.  He also had a dislocated shoulder which she had to set.  Annie tells Paul that she’ll take him to a hospital once the roads clear and it’s safe to drive again.

Marcia Sindell has noticed that Paul Sheldon hasn’t returned to New York City yet nor tried to make contact with her.  Whenever he has a new book coming out he always stays in touch.  She calls the sheriff in Silver Creek, a man named Buster (Richard Fransworth), and reports Paul as being missing.  Buster acknowledges the report and promises to being investigating it immediately.

When Annie is shaving Paul, she mentions that she’s actually been spying on him each time he comes to Silver Creek.  She’s seen his interviews and knows his procedure by heart.  It turns out that Annie was following Paul’s car when he drove into the snow storm and accidentally drove off the road.  Paul doesn’t really think anything of her stalking as without her craze, he’d be dead.  As a reward for her efforts, he allows Annie to read the untitled manuscript that he just finished writing a few days ago.  Annie is delighted and can’t wait to read his latest work.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

That evening Annie is feeding Paul soup for dinner when she discusses his latest book.  She admits that she only read the first forty or so pages, but the language and swearing is way too extreme for her taste.  We see the darker side of Annie as she explains how ridiculous it is for such harsh language as everyday talk.  She accidentally spills some soup on him while ranting, but Annie quickly apologizes.

The sheriff and his wife, Virginia (Frances Sternhagen), are out driving when Buster spots what looks to be an accident on the side of the road.  There’s so much snow that it’s hard to tell if there really was a car crash, and if the car is buried underneath any of the massive snow drifts.  While he’s investigating the area, Annie drives in the opposite direction and heads into town.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Annie returns home with Misery’s Child, the latest book in Paul Sheldon’s Misery series of novels.  She proudly shows it to him and is excited to begin reading it.  She leaves Paul to rest in his room while she quickly reads through the book.  That night, Annie suddenly appears in Paul’s room.  She’s beyond furious.  Annie is extremely upset that Misery Chastain is dead.  She yells at Paul, accusing him of murdering her favorite character.

Before she allows her darker side to do anything really drastic, Annie leaves the house for some time.  By this point Paul Sheldon knows that he’s trapped in Annie’s house as a prisoner, and nobody knows that he’s even alive.  He painfully climbs out of bed and crawls to the bedroom door, but it’s locked.  Unable to climb back into bed, Paul passes out on the floor.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Annie returns home the next day and helps Paul back into bed.  We see that she’s back to her calmer self and admits that she has an anger problem.  Before she does anything else, Annie wheels in a BBQ grill and wants Paul to burn the manuscript of his untitled book.  He tries to lie his way out of it, claiming that his publicist and other people have copies, and that burning the book is really meaningless, but Annie calls his bluff.  She states a TV interview where Paul Sheldon admitted that he only carried one manuscript after writing it.  It was his superstition to NOT make any copies.  He knows that he’s defeated and lights a match that burns his freshly written book.

Paul slowly recovers and Annie is able to transition him into a wheelchair.  She wants him semi mobile so that he can wheel himself to a desk by the window and begin writing her a brand new Misery book.  She wants it to continue after the events in Misery’s Child, and Misery herself must still be alive.  Paul is tasked with finding a way to somehow bring the woman back from the grave without cheating.

Before he begins writing, Paul tells Annie that the paper she bought him isn’t any good.  While it’s expensive, the paper is prone to smudging, and that’ll easily ruin Annie’s book.  She’s upset with having to make another trip to town, so she slams a package of paper on Paul’s injured knees before leaving.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

While she’s gone, Paul picks up one of Annie’s bobby pins from the floor, wheels himself to the door, and successfully picks the lock.  He wheels himself into the living room and tries to use the phone, but the phone itself is a decoy.  It was never meant to work.  He then finds the downstairs bathroom and steals more Novril painkiller pills.  Paul then makes his way to the kitchen and crawls on the floor to the door, but it’s locked tight.  Just then he hears Annie’s jeep approaching.  Paul uses all of his strength to crawl into his wheelchair and get back into the bedroom before Annie finds him.  Otherwise . . .

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Meanwhile, the police department finds Paul Sheldon’s wrecked car.  A police officer makes a small press conference and claims that while Paul Sheldon is still missing, if he’s out in the wilderness, then he’s probably dead.  They may not even find a body if the animals have found him first.  But when Buster and his wife take a closer look at the wrecked Mustang, he notices that somebody pried open the car’s door.  In other words, somebody out there is hiding the famous author.

Paul’s first attempt at writing Annie’s new Misery novel is unsuccessful.  Annie has already read the first chapter and is upset that Paul changed the events that happened at the end of Misery’s Child.  She then goes on a rant telling him about how she used to watch shows in the theater when she was a child, and how each episode ended with a thrilling cliffhanger.  One day the following episode changed the events from the ending of the previous one, and Annie became infuriated.  This is the same case.  Paul Sheldon changed history by not keeping the two stories in synch, and she demands that he re-writes this new book so that it follows the events from the previous one and still makes sense.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Paul tries again, and this time he succeeds.  Annie loves his idea about how Misery never actually died at the end of Misery’s Child, and she encourages him to continue writing.  In fact, Annie is so thrilled that Misery is “alive” again that she cooks Paul a fancy dinner.  Paul tries to poison Annie by using an overdose of the Novril pills in her glass of wine, but Annie accidentally spills her glass and unknowingly foils Paul’s plan.

Days pass as Paul works hard on writing Annie’s new Misery book.  While he’s writing the new book, Sheriff Buster takes a keen interest in Paul’s older books.  He wants to learn more about the author’s popular books so he can hopefully learn the obsession and help catch whomever kidnapped him.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

One night it’s raining and we see that Annie is really depressed.  She claims that her mood always goes sour whenever it rains.  She leaves the house before her anger can do anything bad to Paul.  Once she’s gone, Paul once again escapes from his bedroom and goes through the house.  He snatches a large knife from the kitchen and intends to use it to kill Annie.  When wheeling back through the living room, he notices that Annie’s scrapbook is open.  Paul goes through the pages and learns about Annie’s sinister past as a nurse who killed her patients.  She was tried for killing a bunch of infants from her ward, but the jury didn’t convict her of the crime.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Later that night Annie returns home and surprises Paul in the bedroom.  She quickly jabs a needle into his arm and injects him with some sort of medication.  When Paul later awakens he discovers that he’s strapped to his bed.  Annie claims that she knows that he has escaped from the bedroom.  To stop him from further escapes she intends on severely disabling him.  She places a piece of wood between Paul’s lower legs.  Annie then takes a sledgehammer and brutally breaks both of Paul’s ankles.

Back in town, Buster recognizes a quote by Annie Wilkes during her trial as the same from one of Paul Sheldon’s novels.  He then goes to the town’s store and learns that Annie is always the first to purchase the latest of Paul’s books.  Recently she was seen purchasing a large supply of typing paper.  That’s enough of a connection for Buster.  He heads off to Annie’s farm to further investigate her possible connection to the disappearance and presumed kidnapping of Paul Sheldon.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

When Annie spots the approaching sheriff, she quickly drugs Paul and takes him down to the cellar.  She then greets the sheriff and invites him into her home.  He’s allowed to look around though nothing is out of place.  When he spots the typewriter and stack of paper, Annie admits that she was trying to write her own novel, though it’s harder than it looks.  Paul starts regaining consciousness just as Buster is leaving the house.  He manages to knock over Annie’s BBQ grill and call for help.  Buster hears him and sees Paul at the bottom of the stairs.  Before he can help, Annie uses her shotgun to shoot and kill Buster.

It’s just a matter of time before more police officers investigate the disappearance of Buster.  Annie intends on using a pistol to kill Paul and herself, but Paul convinces her not to do that yet.  He’s almost finished writing his novel.  Annie desperately wants to know how it ends, so she delays his execution.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Paul finally finishes writing his book.  Annie is overwhelmed with joy when hearing that news.  When she enters the bedroom she’s horrified when seeing that Paul has set the novel on the floor and doused it with lighter fluid.  Before she can stop him, Paul uses a match to light a piece of paper on fire, and then ignite his latest book.  Annie is horrified and tries to put of the flames.  While she’s bent over, Paul lifts the heavy typewriter and smashes it on her head.  This only stuns the woman and soon her and Paul are fighting on the floor.  Paul ultimately kills Annie by smashing a heavy steel pig against her face multiple times.  She falls dead and lands on Paul’s body.

Fast forward eighteen months.

Misery (1990) – (c) Columbia Pictures

Paul Sheldon is back in New York City and has already written his next book.  He’s at a lunch meeting with Marcia when she presents him with the first printing of his newest book, a non-Misery story called The Higher Education of J. Philip Stone.  The early reviews are claiming that the book is going to be a smash hit with the critics.  Marcia then asks Paul if he would consider writing the story of his ordeal with Annie Wilkes, but he refuses.

Misery ends as a waitress approaches Paul Sheldon and informs him that she’s his number-one fan.  Paul briefly hallucinates that the waitress looks like Annie Wilkes.

So is Misery a good movie?

As a whole, 1990’s Misery is a pretty good psychological horror film.  It lacks the punch of Stephen King’s novel, but the film is an enjoyable experience and tells a good story.

I believe that I enjoyed this film a little bit less as I finished reading the book a couple of days ago.  The film stays true to most of the events in the book, but the version on the screen is a watered down rendering of the true horror found in Stephen King’s book.  The ending sequence felt rushed as the last twenty minutes of the film packed together and also eliminated so much material from the book.  It worked in the movie as it still told a good story, but it felt somewhat cheated as there was so much more that could have been added to the film.

One of the biggest differences between the book and the film are during the last few sequences.  In the book we know that Paul burns a copy of Misery’s Return and later takes the real copy to his publisher, and the book is a smash hit, breaking all kinds of previous sales records.  In the film that doesn’t happen.  Instead, Paul allegedly burns the real copy of the book and then decides to write a completely different book for his publisher, a book with no relation to Misery or the events with Annie Wilkes.  Paul admits that his time with Annie made him a better writer, but it’s still odd that he didn’t at least re-write Misery Returns, especially knowing that it was such a fantastic story.

The film also leaves viewers wondering how Paul Sheldon actually escaped from Annie Wilkes house.  The sheriff was dead and there wasn’t any sign of his patrol car.  We know that the phone didn’t work.  Did Paul just crawl out of the house and continue crawling along the road, hoping that A) He wouldn’t be hit by a car, or B) A passing car would actually spot him?  In the book, two state police officers are there with a search warrant when Paul kills Annie, and they break open the door and rescue him.  The film leaves us hanging about how exactly Paul survived as earlier in the film Annie told him that if she dies, then he’ll also die.  So how in the world did Paul get rescued from Annie’s house after she was finally killed?

By today’s standards Misery is a fairly tame horror film.  You really have to focus on the story (and basically everything relating to Annie Wilkes) to feel any terror or experience any sensations of dread or anxiety.  The language is fairly tame, the blood and gore is kept to a minimum, and obviously we don’t see any brutal and bloody amputations by Annie Wilkes.  She breaks Paul’s ankles, but it’s not the same as chopping it off with an axe and then using a blowtorch to cauterize the wound.  Nor does Paul have his left thumb removed by an electric knife.

Look for some really great performances by James Caan and Kathy Bates.  Kathy Bates really shines in her role as Annie Wilkes, and she won an Academy Award as a result of it.  One moment she’s a sweet and caring person, and the next she lets loose her inner rage and becomes a diabolical killing machine.  It’s really a treat to see her transform on screen and pull off the role that chilled us all in Stephen King’s book.

Misery (1990) – movie trailer

I would have liked it if Misery was a little bit longer of a film and covered more of Annie Wilkes’s evil past.  It could have also gone into more detail with Misery’s Return (it doesn’t have a title in the film) and Annie’s fascination with the characters.  Let’s not forget that it was the completion of Misery’s Return that prolonged the final events.  It should have received some more screen time and focus in the film.

Annie Wilkes – “I am your number one fan. There is nothing to worry about. You are going to be just fine. I am your number one fan.”