You're not real. You're made of moonlight. - Gerald's Game (2017)

 You're not real. You're made of moonlight. - Gerald's Game (2017)

PLOT - Jesse a middle aged married woman decides to make one last ditch effort in saving her crumpling marriage by agreeing to head up to her lake house with her husband Gerald for a weekend of pushing boundaries in the bedroom to spice things up. Unfortunately things go a little too far when Gerald handcuffs Jesse to the wooden bedposts, and begins to make her uncomfortable with his sexual advances. Begging him to unlock the cuffs, Gerald suddenly grabs his chest and suffers a fatal heart attack. Trapped, unable to move, or get the cuffs off...Jesse suddenly sees how much trouble she's in. She can't reach the phone, she can barley move, and nobody is around for miles. With the front door blowing open and a wild dog coming in, Jesse is forced to face her inner demons, by reaching deep into her mind and trying to figure out how to survive. 

LOWDOWN - This truly has been the autumn of King. Earlier this month audiences were treated to the film version of one of Stephen King's most terrifying novels IT. For the first time ever it was made into a feature length film, 27 years after the original miniseries aired. For the most part fans loved it, and this film has broken box office records. I myself enjoyed it being a huge fan of the novel and original miniseries. These past few weeks I've been re-watching as many King films as possible. In fact earlier this month I even posted things I would love to see if Pet Sematary ever got remade. So as soon as I heard that Gerald's Game was FINALLY getting a film version made I was sparked. As I've mentioned many times before, King was a huge part of my childhood. My mother was a massive fan and belonged to his fan club where she would receive hard cover copies of all his work, and immediately tell me and my sister all about them as soon as she finished. In fact, I had vivid memories of her finishing this movie remarking that it was dirty, a book she would rather me read when I was a little bit older (Mind you my mother rarely set limits to me when it came to what I could read or watch) Still with the adult themes, she said it was a little mature for my age, but told me basically what the story was about. I still remember even at that age wondering "Holy shit, what would you do?" I LOVE stories/movies like this. Saw, Frozen, where you could actually see something like this happening. It truly makes you think outside the box, on what would you do? Die...or survive? This movie was one of King's many amazing novels he released in the 90's shortly after he got sober and wrote very strong female characters (Misery, Rose Madder, Dolores Claiborne, ect) This was one of the few novels I have yet to read by him, but constantly referenced telling people about. When I saw that director Mike Flanagan was going to be the man behind this, I instantly got excited. I LOVED both Oculus (or as I like to call it, the lost Amityville sequel) and of course Hush. His style for some simple stories really captures the mood, becoming a character of it's own. After I saw the stunning Carla Gugino was playing the lead, I counted down the days until it was released. Now I'm still on the fence for original Netflix movies, but I found this was honestly the best way to release such a film. (I keep saying if they ever remake Needful Things, Netflix is perfect for this.) 

Last night after not feeling so hot, I went to a friend's house where we drank coffee, and dove straight into this visually stunning world. I really have to hand it to King, the man knows how to write women. Now I do plan on reading the novel after highly enjoying this film so much. I loved how it took a middle aged couple, and began to show what exactly was going on in her mind after she's pushed to the edge. I loved seeing all these skeletons in the closet get revealed, as well as the painful history the Jesse character hid and coped with dealing with her father. Which Henry Thomas, holy shit! The acting is top notch, and I love how they showed both sides of Jesse's mind working. Herself, the positive survivor side, and then her husband Gerald who is her weaknesses, as well as everything that's been pent up over the years. This film made me sit on the edge of my seat, it made me emotional, uncomfortable, and watch in awe over how beautiful everything was.

 At first the ending I felt seemed a little tacked on until I went straight home and re-watched it again (I've watched it 3 times all ready in the space of a few hours, so that goes to show you how much this movie moved it.) I know I'll get a better understanding once I read/finish the book, but I think the whole "bag of bones" storyline is very terrifying. In fact the ending scene left me floored. As a massive Twin Peaks fan I loved seeing that actor. This is a moving, emotional, beautiful story that shows the dirty dark side of a marriage as well as the inside of a woman's soul and brain. This is King's work at it's finest and I think this director should be brought on to direct more. I can't rave about this enough, and am very much looking forward to starting this book.

So if you have Netflix, check out this wonderful film!

4 1/2 stars!!!