She's gravely injured, but she's free. Seeing Gerald and her father in him, she tells him, "You're so much smaller than I remember", and leaves triumphantly. We worked on it throughout production. 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. 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. While the dog isn't a St. Bernard, it does have a taste for human flesh, just like another King creation,Cujo. But the final line - "you're so much smaller than I remember" - brings us right back to the true focus: Jessie is free. . [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. I just have nothing but intense admiration for her. Many victims of such abuse blame themselves, especially when the abuse is at the hands of a loved one. manipulated young Jessie into believing that she was complicit, a momentary psychic connection with an unknown woman, "Cannes: Stephen King Novel 'Gerald's Game' To Be Adapted By 'Oculus' Helmer Mike Flanagan And Intrepid Pictures", "Carla Gugino & Bruce Greenwood Star In Stephen King's 'Gerald's Game' For Netflix", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gerald%27s_Game&oldid=1145010815, Novels about post-traumatic stress disorder, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 19:52. She preferred to start her day as Jessie 2. He dies, leaving Jessie still handcuffed to the bed. A sleek apple-candy red Mercedes glides down a private and pleasantly shaded backroad and we meet Gerald and Jessie. We use cookies to optimize our website and our service. "We both know you've been sleepwalking since you were 12 years old," Jessie's alter says. And now, in the midst of Gerald's game, she wants to stop, but he won't. Throughout the novel, King makes a point of providing an insightful look into Jessies mind. : Talking Barbarian (2022), A Return to Nihilism: Talking Smile (2022), Talk About NiJah, Get Stung: Unpacking Swarm, a Sweet Take on Slashers, Before Norman Bates: Talking the Spiral Staircase (1946), Rewilding A Thoughtful, Beautiful Folk Horror Anthology, Troll and Ecological Folk Horror in the Sacrifice Zone, Representations of Women in The Wretched (2019), The Monstrosity of Aging: Talking X (2022), The Bloodcurdling Book Club: The Woods are Always Watching. Within this, there is a lurking suggestion there really is something physical here - the dog slowly feasting on Gerald is spooked by his presence and a bloodied footprint is left on the floor. Because of his coercive language and gaslighting, Jessie fully internalized the shame and horror of what her father did not just as a child, but for the rest of her life. While it might appear that Jessies throwing Gerald off the bed caused his skull to crack and bleed, it is not the reason for his death. She is then able to reach the key and unlock her other hand. Her version of the Moonlight man has red glowing eyes (much like the eclipse). Another King multiverse reference comes when Jessie says to her husband's ghost, "I'm gonna die." Based in London, he oversees a global news & features team based in NY, LA and beyond. 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. She describes how she had pretended to have amnesia over the ordeal of being trapped, avoiding painful questions. She bandages her wrist but passes out from blood loss and fatigue. Jessie mentions having gotten her period the month before her father molested her, and this event also caused major trauma in King's Carrie. Jessie also hallucinates a more self-assured version of herself, who explains things about her and Gerald that she never had the courage to acknowledge. I think we were overly cautious of how we dealt with her because at the end of the day, she had a complete grasp of it and got a little impatient with our squeamishness. When . student at Lehigh University who is interested in studying a 18th and 19th century fiction, including the gothic. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. It's gnarly stuff. But being the fan I am, if I'm doing this, I'm going to do it faithfully. His bag of bones is open and Jessie puts her wedding ring inside, saying once again, "You're not real. Raymond was actually in the house by the side of Jessie but didnt attack or kill her, perhaps because of Geralds dead body which draws his attention. Overnight while tied to the bed, Jessie is visited by a tall, disproportioned figure (played by Carel Struycken, best known as Twin Peaks' giant). Jessie confronted Joubert at his court hearing, where Joubert mocked her "made of moonlight" statement, confirming that the encounter really occurred and causing Jessie to spit in his face. You didn't get rejected . We actually filmed both of those scenes, we had almost no coverage in the bedroom except for the closeups. The book and the film are compelling, however, because the terror is not in the house or the ravenous dog feasting on Geralds decaying body. This paper tag will be an actual lifesaver before long. The memories cause Jessie to acknowledge how unhappy and controlling her marriage to Gerald was, leading her to suspect she gave up her independent and courageous spirit for the security of being Gerald's trophy wife. Then Carla would change over and finish the rest of the day handcuffed to the bed, which was exhausting for her and I'm sure incredibly difficult to track both of those arcs together. A little bit. A few hours pass. RELATED: Stephen King Teases New Salems Lot & The Stand Adaptations. It's clear that Jessie is uncomfortable, but trying to hide it. Stephen King Teases New Salems Lot & The Stand Adaptations. When Jessie is young and watching an eclipse, her dad asks her to sit on his lap because that arouses him. Yes. Jessie throws her wedding ring at his box of jewelry and bones, thinking that is what he wanted all along. Jessie and Gerald Burlingame arrive at an isolated lake house in Fairhope, Alabama for a romantic getaway. As if the viewer was not uncomfortable enough, we are exposed to the deceit and the lies that a father imposes on his daughter. Jessie also remembers an inexplicable event in the aftermath of the abuse, during which she experienced a momentary psychic connection with an unknown woman. Jessie has had multiple surgeries to repair her hand, and with it, she writes a letter to her younger self to make sense of everything that happened. Screen Rant's Managing Editor, Alex Leadbeater has been covering film online since 2012 and been a permanent fixture of SR since 2016. When Jessie is young and watching an eclipse, her dad asks her to sit on his lap because that arouses him. We acted against that. It was really hard to cast because it's a role that's very frightening to a lot of actors. taking horror seriously so you don't have to. Gerald's Game is a story about all-too-human monsters Gerald is an insidious manipulator who controls Jessie in ways so subtle she doesn't realize until it's too late to escape. I think that's the tradeoff you gain when you give up the theatrical component for projects like this. Jessie arrives at court as the moonlight man is being sentenced. An attorney at Gerald's law firm assists her in covering up the incident to protect her and the law firm from scandal, but Jessie feels this is another version of burying her trauma, just as she buried her childhood abuse years before. Struyken lives with it in real life, but in the film, his own unique physique was greatly exaggerated for extra horror movie effect. The ending is, of course, framed as Jessie's moral victory and there's no attempt at making Joubert sympathetic, yet them sharing the core line (one he may have picked up from her) makes clear that what we've discovered Jessie's experienced through her life is not an isolated incident. As outlined in her letter to her younger self, following all this, the expected happened - she was taken to a hospital and questioned by police but lied and said she didn't remember any of the horrors experienced in the house. 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. If there is a problem with Flanagans film, then, it is this ignorance of reality. We know the father is a villain and we know that the young Jessie is going to be the victim. Jessie crashes and is knocked unconscious. Related: Gerald's Game: What is Netflix's New Stephen King Movie? [Laughs] Well, a good amount of that, there was a lot of exhaustion emotionally and physically, pretty much in story order. When she awakens, it is nearly dark and the Space Cowboy, now undeniably real, has returned. I think the difference is, for all its description, the thing you never consider is the sound. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. [1] There's no Maine setting, no child with fantastical powers, no overly sadistic bullies - not even a struggling writer recovering from addiction trying to work through their block. With taut writing and stellar performances from the small cast that also includes Henry Thomas as Jessie's father and Carel Struyken as Raymond Andrew Joubert, Gerald's Game is a masterwork in the horror drama and survival horror sub-genres. I know for Henry as well, we were both really feeling it as we were getting closer to those scenes. [6], Gerald's Game received positive reviews. A horror novel by Stephen King. The mother of one of . People from a nearby house emerge to help. A WOMAN in nothing but a pair of flimsy underpants lies handcuffed to a bed alone in an isolated lakeside house. Its hands are almost claws, and they hold a bag filled with bones and trinkets. I knew what it was about but did not know about the details. Jessie also realizes she exchanged her father's handcuffs for those of her abusive older husband. Gerald's Game: Directed by Mike Flanagan. That was some of my favorite stuff, watching those two halves collide which is all Carla. Trevor Macy produced the film through Intrepid Pictures. It was a really bizarre way to work. Her hands are purple and bruised from lack of circulation, and her legs are cramping painfully. Six months later, Jessie is writing a letter to her 12-year-old self. Based on a novel by Stephen King, Gerald's Game is now streaming exclusively on Netflix. "He didn't rape me," Jessie says to herself about that fateful day with her dad during the eclipse. Years later, she marries a person much older than her because its the only dynamic shes ever known. That's when we had the idea that the last line of the movie, which is, "You're so much smaller than I remember" is actually the first line we hear young Jessie say about the lake house with her dad. Jessie doesnt accept her death lying down in denial. Of course, there's another side to the story. After that, he proceeds to touch himself fully aware that Jessie knows what hes doing. At first, Jessie is only horrified at her husband's death and fears the humiliation of being discovered semi-naked and handcuffed, but she quickly realizes the situation is far more dire: it is unlikely that she or Gerald will be missed for several days, no one will think to look for them at the lake house, and all the usual lake residents have gone for the season. the neighbor. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. In Gerald's Game, Jessie Burlingame becomes our window into a world that has been darkened by broken trust and a darkened sun. I think they actually used Elmer's glue on her lips. Gerald wants to play a sex game and handcuffs Jessie to the bed, but has a heart attack and dies, leaving Jessie stranded. [4][5], The film was released on September 29, 2017, by Netflix. 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. "Those can break if you go too hard," Gerald says, smirking even though she's visibly pained as he fastens her to the bed, one hand to each post. Flanagans Geralds Game works as an pathway towards providing viewers with the realities of sexual misconduct. We watch the guilt he casts onto her sink into her skin and, for the first time in this film, we see the deep-seated complications of familial sexual assault. The film tells the story of Gerald (played by Bruce Greenwood). Along with other plot-points, heres Geralds Game ending explained. The dog is real and is actually in the room with Jessie the whole time. Gerald's Game, Stephen King's 1992 novel about a woman who finds herself in perilously restrained circumstances, has long been considered unfilmable. Consider the following facts: 1.) As she smashes Gerald's water glass and begins slicing through the skin on her wrist and up into her palm in order to remove skin and slide out of the handcuff, Jessie later comments on the realization she made while doing so: She's been living a metaphor ever since that summer of the eclipse. But it wasn't long before Tom started saying inappropriate things, escalating to an appalling act of sexual assault as the sky turned red from the eclipse. I remember once I had that image of Gerald getting back up off the floor and sticking with us for the rest of the movie, that really blew it wide open. 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. 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"). Netflix's Gerald's Game is a faithful take on Stephen King's dark novel - right down to its horrifying ending. she put his hand over the fire and his hand got burnt. She kicks him off, but before. 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. Writers: Jeff Howard, Mike Flanagan. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Physical horrors aside, Jessie's journey is one of rediscovery and acceptance. Hes a chilled-out dude who most definitely is not a necrophiliac, however, does suffer from acromegaly. Kimberly Battista. But these banal actions quickly take a menacing turn with the addition of two police-grade sets of handcuffs that Gerald lovingly places into his satchel. When she was 12, he had her sit on his lap while he masturbated to her during a solar eclipse. When Stephen King conceived of Gerald's Game, he saw it as a two-part novel that included what went on to becomeDolores Claiborne, as both stories share the horrible theme of a father abusing his daughter. As Gerald starts to crawl on top of her, knowing her protests are real but ignoring them anyway, she kicks him in the stomach and in the groin. Is this a very hard scene to watch? My name is Jessica. I felt that without all of that at the end, it's going to divide people about whether or not they felt liked the movie required it or not, I think without that coda, everything in the movie just means a little less. 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. Gerald's sex game starts consensually sort of. Acromegaly is the name of the disease which Raymond Andrew Joubert suffers from a progressive enlargement of the hands, feet, and face that happens when the pituitary gland goes into warp drive. As soon as Jessie gets to their cabin, she cuts up a steak to feed the starving pup. ), Mother! She refuses to believe the figure is real but Gerald says the figure is Death waiting to take her. Who would rescue Gerald when he was alone? Being able to directly confront the man who once terrified her allowed her to face the other manipulative men in her life, including her father and Gerald, freeing her of fear and allowing her to deal more honestly with her past. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes. I Am the Pretty Thing that Lives, Dies, and Haunts in the House, Where are all the bodies? Her excuse for never admitting the details of that day are that it would have broken up her family and that her mother would have blamed her. Flanagan has sacrificed the complexity of the incident and provided the viewer with a scene that feels flat and fictional. In Gerald's Game, Jessie talks about a dream with a woman looking into a well and thinks it's herself. . "[7] At Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film has a score of 77 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews. But, that is the beauty of the psychological horror genre. PTSD affects the lives of 8 million people worldwide, including children! We'd intended for her to be able to have a stand-in who could try to recreate at least the tone of the choices so that she could react to herself appropriately, even given that we'd be shooting different sides of the same conversation hours apart. He begins to enact a stranger rape fantasy; she half-heartedly plays along but soon becomes uncomfortable, telling him to stop and uncuff her. "I'm pretty sure you just lost your mind," Gerald's ghost laughs, and calls Jessie out for always disassociating whenever conflict appears. Stephen King's novel Gerald's Game, which was published in May of 1992, was quickly followed by Dolores Claiborne in November of the same year. Shes haunted by his presence every night. It had reminded her of her father's smile when he told his family amusing things about his day as he sipped a before-dinner . Young Jessie (Chiara Aurelia) was just 12 years old and had gotten her first period the month before. I can handle it. So this is Gerald (Bruce Greenwood), the man with a "Game". It has not been announced for a physical DVD or Bluray release. Not that it mattered much - it was determined Gerald died of a heart attack, not her pushing him off the bed - and afterward, his company covered up the sexual elements of the case; essentially, the truth was repressed. Jessie spends her time handcuffed to the bed lost in . To avoid too many questions from the press, she lies saying she had amnesia and couldnt recollect anything. As a result, she is in an unhappy marriage as a trophy wife. Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. Gerald and Jessie number 2 taunt that she never recovered from the assault, and that she married a man just like her father. I think we did two takes on each and called it a day. We are exalted when she comes to face the truth and we feel liberated, with her, when she finally accepts her fathers role. She used some of Gerald's life insurance to start a foundation for victims of sexual abuse. Gerald's Game is not the typical horror story. But as her eyes adjust to the dark, she sees a figure in the corner of the room. You're only made of moonlight." Even when I would look away while we were shooting it and when we were editing, you can't get away from the sound. On review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 79 reviews, with an average rating of 7.60/10. They get into a horrible fight about their 11-year marriage and their recent problems, all while Gerald is still trying to have sex with his unwilling and vulnerable wife chained to the bedposts. In the context of the movie Geralds Game, the Moonlight Man represents the monster under the bed for Jessie. Kim Pegula recently told her parents, "I'm fighting and I will continue to fight.". The blurred lines and harsh truths of Kings book portray such a real situation. Geralds Game (book and film) is not perfect. Netflix. Growing up in the English countryside on a mixture of Star Wars, The Simpsons and Aardman, Alex is a lifelong movie obsessive. She was pretty much toast by the time it got there anyway. Jessie falls asleep, wakes up in the dark, and sees a deformed obscured figure who reveals a bag of bones and trinkets. 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. Flanagan does, however, provide a near line-by-line, moment-to-moment representation of what happens in Jessies bedroom following the assault, which is offered up by both book and film to be perhaps the worst crime. 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. Was the other Jessie an even bigger development, representing a different side of Jessie than we see in the real world? Geralds Game is streaming on Netflix and you can find Kings novel at Amazon #ad: This website will focus on horror in all its forms (fiction, film, TV). That's kind of what makes it so intense. Based on King's 1992 novel of the same name, on the surface it's a bit different to what you expect from the writer. You can sustain it throughout the run time which is something that's so exciting. cincinnati. 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. "You're so much smaller than I remember," she tells him and walks away a different kind of free woman. Everything else, however, appears to be real. Let's do the scene." So it required us to come from a place of being as true as possible to Shirley's style and intentions, but allowing the story to expand so we can make a really long, detailed arc. There are scenes in Gerald's Game that do strike fear into the physical senses; the mangy dog eating Gerald's corpse, the all-too-real man who watches Jessie at night, the gut-wrenching visual of the skin of her hand sliding off to come through the handcuff. He then informs her that she is beginning to suffer from dehydration and fatigue. Jessie is able to use pockets of her memories, to eventually cut her hands and slip it out of the handcuffs in an excruciating manner. Sexual assault has never before been so keenly tied to the forefront of the social consciousness. 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. In Geralds Game, Stephen King crafts one of his most feminist novels. Gerald wants to play a sex game and handcuffs Jessie to the bed, but has a heart attack and dies, leaving Jessie stranded. Jessie acknowledges that she had been allowing her fears to manifest into something that was far larger than what she could handle. Gerald's Game is a 1992 suspense novel by American writer Stephen King. Gerald pops another Viagra and Jessie starts to look properly frightened. Pegula's fight to heal and rehabilitate from a brain injury suffered last June has been one that is long . "Jessie,. While trying to survive the weekend and escape, Jessie also recalls. Geralds Game is a film directed by Mike Flanagan (also the director of Oculus). Jessie's recollection of the eclipse day is allowing her to sexualize herself, and therefore giving her father reprieve for being the one to actually do so. At one point, when Henry's talking to Chiara and recommending they tell her mother what happened, he says, "I think we should just take our medicine" which is what Jack Torrance would call after Danny Torrance as he chased him through the halls of The Overlook Hotel. However, in the case of Geralds Game the reality of the situation is the most important portion of the story. Eventually, one day, she sees a picture of Raymond Andrew Joubert in the newspaper, as a man whos been arrested for vandalizing graves. Jessie pulls her mangled hand out of the right handcuff, wraps her bleeding hand with pads, and grabs the car keys. That was kind of the thing that turned it all around for me. It is extremely tall, and as it walks out of the shadows she sees its skeletal face and widemouthed grimace. The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. Her path out of the house is blocked by the Moonlight Man, who she still thinks is a hallucination. She's bought a sexy new nighty, and realizes she forgot to pull the tag. In Geralds Game, Jessie Burlingame becomes our window into a world that has been darkened by broken trust and a darkened sun. That's so interesting. But in spite of its straightforward-sounding story, there is a lot more to unpack in Gerald's Game than there seems to be on the surface. [citation needed]. "[8] Stephen King called the film "hypnotic, horrifying and terrific" after watching the rough cut. In Gerald's Game, we follow Jessie (Gugino), who is stuck handcuffed to a bed in a remote house after her husband (Bruce Greenwood) has a heart attack mid-way through a bid to spice up their sex life. 13 Amazing Movies Filmed In A Single Location, 10 Best Sci-fi Horror Movies (A Must-Watch List), Mind Bending Movies Explained: Browse In Alphabetic Order, Velvet Buzzsaw Explained (2019 Movie Ending and Analysis), Emily The Criminal Ending Explained In Short, Barbarian Movie Explained (Every Question Answered), The Black Phone Explained (Every Question Answered), The Pale Blue Eye: Ending Explained (Who Is The Killer? 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. The titular "game" involves handcuffing Jessie to the bed for lovemaking, a recent addition to their marriage that Jessie only pretends to enjoy, though Gerald finds it exciting. Gerald calls the deformed man "the man made of moonlight", and points out a bloody footprint on the floor, making Jessie realize the figure may have been real. But in reality, its Raymond getting another piece of jewelry for his collection. However, the audience is presented with a highly conventional situation one that they have seen before. They're both suffering. Outside, a starving dog prowls, and in the. The jamb always swelled in the fall and you really had to give the door a yank to shut it. Jessie got several skin-grafts for her mangled hand and used the life insurance payout to start a foundation to help victims of child abuse, channeling her self-imagined torture while tied to the bed into something practical and helpful. It needed to be in someone's mouth. The remainder of the movie shows Jessie having conversations with herself which are presented in the form of Gerald and another Jessie. I had the privilege of seeing Gerald's Game with the Fantastic Fest audience. Gerald's Game premiered on Netflix over the weekend, so now wecan talk about spoilers. Gerald is annoyed that his wife gave a mutt a $200 piece of beef, but he lets it go, guiding Jessie into their house and leaving their front door wide open. Summary: While trying to spice up their marriage in their remote lake house, Jessie must fight to survive when her husband dies unexpectedly, leaving her handcuffed to their bed frame. Gerald begins to call Jessie "Mouse", which triggers a memory of her father Tom, who affectionately referred to her as "Mouse." Ethan Robles is a M.A. All things serve the Beam."