Gerald's Game - Movie Review

A rape fantasy holiday in the middle of nowhere gone wrong with the sudden death of the husband forces a 40 years old woman to struggle physically and mentally to break free from the handcuffs before her time run out. 

THE GOOD

I hate horror movies with cheap jump scares, dumb protagonists and problems that can only be solved by Jesus Christ himself. A good horror movies, in my book, has to be hauntingly realistic and scarily relatable. As scary as a supernatural Nun is, how often do you encounter them on a daily basis? This is why Gerald's Game is a great horror movie for me. Everything that happens to Jesse could very well happens to me or to you. All it takes are a kinky night, a remote location and a timely heart attack, all of which are pretty realistic and common. Internally, not everyone had to gone through a fuck up childhood like Jesse but an isolated night can dig up a lot of dirt in our past, which I also have quite a lot. There were no cheap jump-scare throughout the movie either. All the horrors and suspense were generated organically by the situation and the internal struggles to overcome a personal fear.

If you have ever written or attempted to write a movie, you know how hard it is when you put a lot of limitation to yourself. With most of the movie taking place in 1 bedroom with 2 characters, Gerald's Game is the ultimate challenge that Stephen King has knocked it out of the park. He utilized and maximized every corner of the room and the mind of Jesse to beautifully ping pong the suspense. Because everything is so limited, there's no chance to ex-machina your character out of the problem either so there's no point in time that I wasn't on the edge of my seat. 

That moment when even simple task like drinking water becomes suspenseful af.

Lastly, the acting is phenomenal. Low budget movie tends to put a lot of stress on the actors and damn they delivered. Carla Gugino should get paid twice because she plays 2 polar opposite versions of the same character: the mentally broken one and the confidence logical one. The husband was also excellent. It's usually so easy to hate an overly confident, rich and rapey asshole but Bruce Greenwood has that complexity in his gaze that makes the character way more sympathetic. The dad is also way too creepy with just a few lines which really show how good acting can make or break a movie. 

THE BAD

The pacing of the movie is probably my biggest issue. Simple story has simple details hence there isn't a lot to make it a fast pace movie. The director and editor did try with a lot of nice transition and jump cut between dialog. Gerald's Game isn't a yawn fest, it's just slower than what I prefer. 

Another thing that annoys me just a little bit is the backstory. Without going into the spoilery territory, the disturbing backstory of Jesse plus her current situation create a feminist narrative that's empowering and encouraging. The original novel was published in 1992, an era where feminist is truly needed, unlike 2017 when it's just another cheap marketing tactic that everyone does. There are brief moments in the movie, a quick pause, a slight change in camera angle, a sort of wink to the camera to highlight the feminist just make me cringe a little inside.  

The thing that surprises me is that this movie was released during the Me Too movement and yet didn't get enough attention.

Also, the ending is kinda wacky. There were foreshadowing details for the ending but the twist is quite unnecessary in my opinion. It's one of those "How I met your mother" ending while the twist itself isn't bad on its own, the lack of characters needing to adapt to the supposingly shocking change make it the viewers feel unsatisfied.   

THE EXTRA

- The Kobe beef was actually food porn. I had dream about that thing before my nightmare with this movie. 

- The dog is such a good actor. You can almost hear his dialog whenever the camera pans to him. And a good boy is always a plus. 

- If you are studying psychology, this movie has a tons of great by-the-book examples that you can learn from (mostly defense or coping mechanism)

- There's 1 particular use of an object in this movie that blew the fuck out of my mind. It's such a brilliant detail that even in my best of best time, with all the weeds I want, I can't think of anything like that. 

- That scene when Jesse escape is the most realistic pratical effect in movies I have seen in years. If you don't grunt a little bit during the scene, we can't be friends... 

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In the last 5 years or so, low budget horror movies have become more popular, which is a good thing. It shouldn't take a bank load of cash to scare people. A few notable examples that I enjoy are 10 Cloverfield Lane, Saw and now: Gerald's Game.

So the movie get a "You should watch" rating. 

Quanny Nguyen