The plot is centered on Gerald and his wife, Jessie, who plan a weekend in a remote lake house to spice up their sex lives. After having an epiphany care of a vision of her younger self, Jessie slits her wrists and uses the lubrication of the blood to escape her handcuffs. I always will. But being the fan I am, if I'm doing this, I'm going to do it faithfully. Gerald's Game Analysis - eNotes.com Gerald is an insidious manipulator who controls Jessie in ways so subtle she doesn't realize until it's too late to escape. taking horror seriously so you don't have to. Gerald's Game ties itself up with a cautiously happy endnote but does so with a pretty shocking twist and rather dark case of coming to terms with the past. They weren't scenes we wanted to hose down with coverage and force people to have to live in any longer than necessary. The terror of the story, like its protagonist, is confined. He was pretty scary, wasnt he? Jessie crashes and is knocked unconscious. Inspired by her memory of the eclipse, in which her father warned her not to cut herself on the smoked glass panes they used as eclipse viewers, Jessie breaks the water glass and uses a sharp shard to slice her wrist, giving herself a degloving injury to lubricate her skin enough to slide her right hand from the cuff. The book was adapted into a 2017 film directed by Mike Flanagan. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. [9], who digs up crypts, stealing bones and jewels, "How director Mike Flanagan made Stephen King's 'unfilmable' book into a film", "Cannes: Stephen King Novel 'Gerald's Game' To Be Adapted By 'Oculus' Helmer Mike Flanagan And Intrepid Pictures", "Mike Flanagan looks forward to doing justice to Stephen King", "Carla Gugino & Bruce Greenwood Star In Stephen King's 'Gerald's Game' For Netflix", "Producer confirms Stephen King film production in Mobile", "Netflix September 2017 Movie and TV Titles Announced", "Stephen King: Netflix's Gerald's Game Movie is 'Horrifying, Hypnotic', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gerald%27s_Game_(film)&oldid=1126437070, This page was last edited on 9 December 2022, at 09:30. Kimberly Battista. Certainly, this is a stark criticism when speaking of a Stephen King adaptation. This paper tag will be an actual lifesaver before long. The Walking Dead: Did the Carol/Morgan Scene Go Too Far? Even as an adult looking back the situations that occurred are baffling. The shock causes him to have a fatal heart attack. She apologizes for abandoning Ruth, acknowledging that Ruth had confronted her with a truth she could not then face, and hopes they can resume their friendship. For Jessie, the fear is spawned by being bound and alone, with only the repressed terror of her past. The dog becomes symbolically important here as it having a collar yet no owner, then later feasting on the dead sees it share traits of both characters - everybody hurts. Gerald's Game is a 1992 suspense novel by American writer Stephen King. It was really important for me to try to at least shine a subtle light in the direction of Delores in this, which I think fans will appreciate but won't knock anybody else out of it. I think there times we actually had to cover up the extent of the bruising on her wrists that was just natural from those horrible cuffs. "You're so much smaller than I remember," she tells him and walks away a different kind of free woman. Waking from an imaginary confrontation with all these characters to a dark bedroom, Jessie sees a tall, gaunt apparition, whom she initially mistakes for the spirit of her long-dead father and whom she nicknames "Space Cowboy" (after a 1969 Steve Miller song, used again later in "The Joker"). When little Jessie sees the house and says, "It's so much smaller than I remember." This is why he stopped Jessie from closing and locking the front door to the lake house. Jessie tries to scare it away, but it bites a chunk out of Gerald's arm and eats it. She'd been handcuffed to and by her father once he made her complicit in his abuse and what she would need to do the rest of her life to keep that horrible secret. Unsure if the figure is another hallucination, Jessie dismisses it, saying aloud it is "only made of moonlight," which seems to make it vanish. Jessie hadn't realized how much that event with her father had shifted the course of her life until she ended up handcuffed to a bed with police-grade cuffs, a hungry stray dog, and a serial killer watching her sleep at night. Gerald's Game, Stephen King's 1992 novel about a woman who finds herself in perilously restrained circumstances, has long been considered unfilmable. Watching Gerald's Game, the new Netflix movie and latest Stephen King property to be adapted for film, is an emotionally draining experience.It's a psychological horror story that plays out . The book is dedicated to King's wife Tabitha and her five sisters. I was kind of hoping against hope there would be a secret Delores Claiborne adaptation that would come out sometime in the next six months that could really just link it all together officially for the cinematic world. Gerald's Game. Behind the Eclipse: Complicating Sexual Assault in Gerald's Game It was a hard search to find Carla and I'm just so glad we did because if it had gone another way, I think the whole enterprise would've collapsed. We all know that the night is always scarier than the day naturally because the unknown, unseen elements are more significant. How is old is Gerald when the story begins? Writers: Jeff Howard, Mike Flanagan. Gerald's Game Ending Explained - Screen Rant Jessie has her chance to confront her final tormentor, and does so on Joubert's first day in court. Jessie also realizes she exchanged her father's handcuffs for those of her abusive older husband. Gerald's Game is a 2017 American psychological horror thriller film directed and edited by Mike Flanagan, and screenplay written by Flanagan with Jeff Howard. Jessie acknowledges that she had been allowing her fears to manifest into something that was far larger than what she could handle. Overnight while tied to the bed, Jessie is visited by a tall, disproportioned figure (played by Carel Struycken, best known as Twin Peaks' giant). 'Gerald's Game': A Twisted Rape Fantasy Gives Way to a Complex Study of Chiara understood the material really, really well and went into it with the kind of bravery I think even the older actors and older crew members involved didn't have that level of bravery that she had. The Shirley Jackson novel, of which I'm a devoted follower, the material that's in the novel can comfortably fit in a feature film, but expanding it for a season of television is pretty difficult. Jessie and her husband Gerald have gotten away to their summer house in Maine to relax and engage in . Where does Gerald live? The prosaic beauty of his text lies in his often understated, intense character-studies offering deep insights . Her relationship with her pregnant mother Sally (Kate Seigel) was strained, and Sally made no secret of how much she disliked her daughter. Jessie blames herself for her fathers actions: she feels she tempted him, and she believes that she is at fault. I just have nothing but intense admiration for her. After a few blissful sips of water, a dehydratedJessie, overloaded with adrenaline and cortisol still listening to the stray dog chomping on her husband passes out. I know what the part is. The "Space Cowboy" had turned out to be a serial killer and necrophile named Raymond Andrew Joubert who had been living in and robbing lake houses in the area. ), Mother! Delirious, she removes her wedding ring and gives it to him for his trinket bag before leaving. 391K views 5 years ago "Breaking free will require more than keeping her sanity. "We walk out of this room and it never happened." Conclusion. She is then able to escape the bed, reach the keys, and free her other hand, only to faint from blood loss. Pair that with horror maestro Mike Flanagan as director and a far-reaching central performance by Caral Gugino and you've got one of his best movie adaptations. Cujo is an obvious callout when there's a dog in a Stephen King story. Jessie's alter reminds herself that the real Gerald left a glass of water on the shelf over her head, and when she can't reach it to her mouth, Jessie's alter points out the tag she pulled from her slip that she can make into a straw. Director: Mike Flanagan. Jessie did not want join her mother and her siblings on the day of eclipse and wanted to stay with her father. It was really amazing to watch. After mailing the letter, Jessie is able to sleep without nightmares for the first time since her ordeal at the lake house. In my imagination they are. With Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Chiara Aurelia, Carel Struycken. Jessie thinks about her father and the stain he left on her life. Just hearing them all lose their sh*t is one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had, but I think there's an intimacy to home viewing that's going to make Gerald's Game, and certainly worked very well for Hush. The metaphorical walls that her father forced her to construct around herself to protect him from accountability stayed up until the moment she slid her hand free of Gerald's actual handcuffs. Jessie took those acts of (often sexual) violence quietly and kept them to herself, just as she did with her father. Her version of the Moonlight man has red glowing eyes (much like the eclipse). He taunts her about the truths of their strained marriage and his erectile dysfunction. It needed to be in someone's mouth. [4], Principal photography on the film began on October 17, 2016, in Mobile, Alabama. He quotes what she said before leaving the house, indicating that he was in fact there at the time. Later, when Jessie bandages her hand she even uses pads to stop the bleeding. The other case where it's an imaginary killer is when Jessie talks with Gerald about him being under the bed - the hand reaching up has to be in her mind. In May 2014, Deadline Hollywood reported that Mike Flanagan had been set to direct a film adaptation. The song on the radio was Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" the same song Jessie turns off at the beginning of Gerald's Game. Flanagans Geralds Game works as an pathway towards providing viewers with the realities of sexual misconduct. He doesnt stop there, he emotionally manipulates her to keep it a secret from everyone. The event took place during a solar eclipse the summer of 1962 in the original novel, but with the movie being set in present day, the same connection can't directly be drawn. Raymond also has Necrophilia, which means he has sex with dead bodies, but specifically male in his case. Trevor Macy produced the film through Intrepid Pictures. Geralds Games cast includes Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, and Carel Struycken. I know for Henry as well, we were both really feeling it as we were getting closer to those scenes. His original intention was to pair the story with Dolores Claiborne (1992) as they both take place at (the fictional) Dark Score Lake during a full solar eclipse. Forcing children to keep terrible secrets is a metaphorical imprisonment that can affect them for the rest of their lives, and Gerald's Game details in stark relief just how dangerous and damaging this dynamic can be, both physically and psychologically. When she returns to the present, she realizes she's going to have to cut that same hand again in order to escape. The dog enters through the open door of the house. Ethan Robles is a M.A. It's gnarly stuff. King's novels have seen numerous adaptations on screen. There's a really critical nod to The Dark Tower that happens toward the end of the movie in a line that Bruce Greenwood says to Carla, which is "All things serve the beam." When . However, it is far from the final destination. But each night the "man made of moonlight" still appears before her as she falls asleep. Gerald's Game is a 2017 American psychological horror thriller film directed and edited by Mike Flanagan, and screenplay written by Flanagan with Jeff Howard. Is this uncomfortable? Oh, absolutely. Only on Netflix." [Full. "Jessie, you married into the only dynamic you understand," her alter ego tells her while she's shackled to the bed. Somewhat amazingly, a (very faithful . Hunter Biden will appear at a court hearing in Arkansas on Monday for his child support case. He has a daughter that's about Chiara's age and I know that was some of the more difficult work he's ever had to do. The ending of Geralds Game has Jessie realizing that facing off with her monster is the ultimate thing she needs to do to be free of her past. "You're not real, you're only made of moonlight," Joubert parrots to a now-defiant Jessie. Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game was once considered a completely unfilmable book. I think the biggest difference for me between the book Gerald's Game and the movie is I'm 25 years older, but it's also that I watched the movie in a straight shot. What are some other Easter eggs fans may have missed? Of course, Cujo was right there to be had. King's other isolation horror masterpiece The Shining also pops up in Gerald's Game when Jessie's dad says, "We have to take our medicine," paraphrasing something Jack Torrance was heard to say in the throes of his violent rages. Sexual assault has never before been so keenly tied to the forefront of the social consciousness. This isn't just about escaping metal confines - it's about escaping the mind as well. The mother of one of . [1] A lot of horrible stuff happens in this movie but those were the two scariest, most upsetting scenes for me. Carla and I talk a lot about how different they were at the start but that the movie was about Jessie in the bed turning into this other version, so that that would be the version of her that walks out of the courtroom in the end. But she's also been fighting to avoid addressing the problems with her marriage; the much older lawyer Gerald is quite evidently a father substitute, and on a more base level she's been hiding the true nature of their fractured relationship from herself for years. Over time he moves on to killing people and chopping off their body parts. Everybody involved in the movie was incredibly reluctant to complain about anything after about week two, just watching what poor Carla had to endure. His bag of bones is open and Jessie puts her wedding ring inside, saying once again, "You're not real. That was the tough part. He begins to enact a stranger rape fantasy; she half-heartedly plays along but soon becomes uncomfortable, telling him to stop and uncuff her. He's last seen in the body of the film in the back of the car, causing her to crash. This disorder can be influenced by life occurrences such as being in a war, abuse, assault, natural and unnatural disasters, military combat, and even accidents. Geralds Game is a film directed by Mike Flanagan (also the director of Oculus). I don't think it actually is. Bleeding profusely, Jessie manages to drive her car to the nearest neighbors, crashing it before passing out. As soon as Jessie gets to their cabin, she cuts up a steak to feed the starving pup. He started as a graveyard vandal in Alabama, stealing jewelry from recently buried corpses, then escalated, desecrating bodies and eventually stealing various parts of the anatomy - and at one point went full Ed Gein and "preserved" his family. He's covered a wide range of movies and TV shows - from digging out obscure MCU Easter eggs to diving deep into deeper meanings of arthouse fare - and has covered a litany of set visits, junkets and film festivals. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. While the twist obviously shows that Joubert was real, there's evidently moments where it all was in Jessie's head; he didn't sneak into her apartment every night. They're both suffering. I knew what it was about but did not know about the details. That was really the heart of it. I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives, Dies, and Haunts in the House, Where are all the bodies? They had to say it. Starting as a simple sex-gone-wrong thriller, it turns into supernatural chiller, repressed-memory drama, torture porn horror - and that's before we even get to the jaw-dropping ending. He suddenly has a heart attack, and dies on top of her. [3] In October 2016, Deadline reported that Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood would star in the film as Jessie and Gerald Burlingame. Its hands are almost claws, and they hold a bag filled with bones and trinkets. When Gerald calls himself "Daddy," Jessie has a panic attack and bites Gerald in self-defense. Months later she writes a letter to her younger self as a lady who has finally been able to break away from her past. Mike Flanagans Geralds Game (2017) is, shot for shot, one of the most loyal Stephen King adaptations to hit the screen. Jessie flashes back to the summer of the full solar eclipse at their family lake house. After the husband dies unexpectedly, the wife is left handcuffed to their bed frame and must fight to survive and break free. One Of The Creepiest Horror Movie Characters Was Based On A - LADbible But because the cops never recover her wedding ring, she begins to think that the Moonlight Man was real. In the context of the movie Geralds Game, the Moonlight Man represents the monster under the bed for Jessie. Gerald's Game was a real page turner and renewed my appreciation for King's novels, as his more recent ones haven't . This is a reference to The Dark Tower series and its Beam holding the universe together, as well as a double entendre pointing to the beam of wood over Jessie's head that supports the lifesaving glass of water. Jessie arrives at court as the moonlight man is being sentenced. I just couldn't figure out any damn way for that to be in the movie. Does that mean creating new characters to be this family? He was the sexually abusive father of Jessie Burlingame, and the father-in-law of Gerald Burlingame. Its based on Stephen Kings book by the same name. King blurs the moral lines of the incident and, effectively, allows the reader to feel the conflicted, competing emotions that a victim of sexual assault may well end up continually juggling. Related: Gerald's Game: What is Netflix's New Stephen King Movie? PTSD affects the lives of 8 million people worldwide, including children! She preferred to start her day as Jessie 2. But nothing has been easy for Jessie, ever. You're only made of moonlight." . It's not long after Jessie is cuffed to the bed that the scenario turns ugly: Gerald's actual game is a violent intruder rape fantasy, one Jessie never agreed to. Kings success lies in the details of the misconduct. Yes, and its also mentioned in the original book. And now, in the midst of Gerald's game, she wants to stop, but he won't. Geralds Game (book and film) is not perfect. The film tells the story of Gerald (played by Bruce Greenwood). It was revealed that she was sexually abused by her father and the father manipulated/ gaslighted her into not speaking up and keep it as a secret. GERALD'S GAME By Stephen King. You're not listening to the other people in the theater around you. How does his mother teach him a lesson about fire? It's clear in Gerald's Game that Jessie's mother suspected something happened during the eclipse, but she does nothing to stand up for or protect her daughter. But by this point, Jessie is preoccupied with the stray dog, and Gerald is getting ready for his big event by popping Viagra. As she is about to leave, Jessie sees Raymond again. All the while, on the radio a report has been fading in and out about break-ins around the area, and gruesome scenes of desecrated corpses at the local cemetery. After that, he proceeds to touch himself fully aware that Jessie knows what hes doing. Oh absolutely. [Laughs] Well, a good amount of that, there was a lot of exhaustion emotionally and physically, pretty much in story order. Played by cinema legend Carel Struyken, Raymond Andrew Joubert is a serial killer, necrophiliac, and cannibal who's been working the area. Anybody other than Carla might've had a really hard time making it all come together as organically as she did. This is she facing her fears. Enter Mike Flanagan, whose prior . The indecision of the protagonist and the mental games she must traverse help the audience to understand the deep repression of a terrible memory, thus providing insight to non-victims and, hopefully, a call to self-advocacy for those still alone in their suffering. Physical horrors aside, Jessie's journey is one of rediscovery and acceptance. I can't imagine anyone else playing the part. Starring: Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Henry Thomas Watch all you want. Gerald wants to play a sex game and handcuffs Jessie to the bed, but has a heart attack and dies, leaving Jessie stranded. The Moonlight Man is a cannibal who only eats men, yet we never see him eating any of Gerald's flesh. In the novel I think she spits in his face when she finally gets face to face with him. It has not been announced for a physical DVD or Bluray release. I couldn't imagine anything more graphic than the way Stephen King described the hand scene. You may have also seen/heard him on the Total Geekall podcast, unaffiliated YouTube channels, BBC Radio and CBC News. With the insurance money, Jessie starts a foundation to help young boys and girls like her. While the dog isn't a St. Bernard, it does have a taste for human flesh, just like another King creation,Cujo. It's also impossible to ignore the way Jessie's mom openly despised her and was verbally abusive, creating an environment that put her in competition with Jessie, leaving Jessie with no other parental figure to turn to. Months later, Jessie is still recuperating from her ordeal. Based on the most pressing question that Ive received from people about Geralds Game, it seems the element that has gripped peoples heart is the Moonlight Man and the actor who has played it. Oh, to be honest, it's one of the things about working with young actors which I've done quite a bit at this point, we were all so incredibly uncomfortable with the content of the scene. How did you direct Chiara Aurelia about what was happening in the eclipse scene? While trying to survive the weekend and escape, Jessie also recalls. When Jessie is young and watching an eclipse, her dad asks her to sit on his lap because that arouses him. Literature /. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images. Watch Gerald's Game | Netflix Official Site "My mom suffered from cancer and one night while she was on strong medication for pain, she grabbed my arm and told me: 'I know the truth about your college letters. While the concept of the Moonlight Man is inside Jessies head, the person she sees by the side of her bed is Raymond. In her attempt to wake him, Gerald falls from the bed onto the tile floor and cracks his head. [1] The story is about a woman whose husband dies of a heart attack while she is handcuffed to a bed, and, following the subsequent realization that she is trapped with little hope of rescue, begins to let the voices inside her head take over. Another King multiverse reference comes when Jessie says to her husband's ghost, "I'm gonna die."