"Misery is one of my favorite horror books, but does the movie hold up to the original source?"--Bryson Saunders-Beckles, 10th grade
Quarantine was a controversial action, but one in the short term that served everyone because of the threat posed by Covid-19. And when I say short term, I mean that. Because staying inside for several months can’t be good for anybody’s health, even within proximity to family. The thing about quarantine is that, when it first started, I was actually pretty excited, not knowing how things would eventually get. I was like “Whoa! I don’t have to get up early! I can stay home all the time, and eat my food! This is awesome!” I was doing good with my work, and at the start, it was pretty cool. My family was there, and everything was good—for a while.
***
Over time, however, everything became more irritating. Sometimes. My energy levels seemed to go down, but sometimes I just feel tired for no real reason, even after I sleep. My appetite seemed to shrink, and everyday felt like the last one before. Monotony came upon me, and it was dreadful. I played video games, and that was nice for a while. But now, I’m at the point where I feel like a spectator in my daily activities.
But I am not alone. Many people within quarantine are feeling the same way if not worse. Many people are struggling with feelings of depression or isolation, but you can get the help you need in a few different ways. First, try to socialize with people a bit more, and if you do, get deeper into the conversation and figure out what is bothering you, and why you feel this way. Try to create a routine of some kind, some kind of schedule. And if you can see a therapist, do try. All of this and more will help you in the long run. That, and a movie, whose original book has a very special place in my heart—and isn’t too unlike quarantine itself, metaphorically speaking
Misery was a novel published by Stephen King in 1987, and adapted into a movie in 1990, and I enjoyed both very, very much. The premise is that bestselling author Paul Sheldon has gotten into a car accident, and is nursed back to health by his obsessed “Number One Fan”, Annie Wilkes. She is a very crazy lady who loves his Misery novel series, but is very pissed that Misery has died in his newest book. So she wants him to write a new one. Oh, and no one knows they’re there. You really feel that sense of isolation, that Paul (and we at the moment) cannot leave, and he’s locked in with someone who is just as dangerous to him as she is to herself.
The book was spectacular at building suspense around Annie Wilkes and the danger she poses. Using her behavior and descriptions of her, she starts to feel more like a force than an actual person. For example, she is described as (paraphrasing) looking almost solid. Like there’s nothing on the inside of her at all. We see what happens when Paul does something that she does not like. Hitting Paul’s broken leg, setting his only copy of his new book on fire (which he was really proud of), and eventually cutting off his foot with an axe, and cutting off his thumb with an electric knife.
Annie has killed many people in her lifetime, and is able to justify it all with a disturbing amount of ease. Paul puts it best when he thinks: “That was it. In Annie’s view all the people in the world were divided into three groups: brats, poor poor things... and Annie.”
The movie felt a little bit lacking in comparison to the book, though I was expecting it and it was to be expected. When you adapt a book or a comic into a movie, it will most likely be a little worse, or significantly so (but at least Scott Pilgrim admitted it, I have mixed views. Both are good, but that’s an article for another day.) The movie moved along a lot faster than the book, and that does not work in its favor. The book's pace was more of a slow burn that took place over a period of weeks (it feels a little more like hours in the movie), and that allowed it to really flesh out Paul and Annie and their dynamic throughout the book. Paul has to walk nails around Annie, as her mood has a tendency to completely change in seconds if the wrong thing was said, or so much as implied. She could be depressed to the point of contemplating suicide, thus presenting a danger to herself and Paul.
In the movie, she looks normal on the outside, and I actually like Annie. While more tame in appearance and actions, the former works in her favor. She looks more presentable and normal, as opposed to the book where based on her description, you could already tell that something was wrong. She was like a perfect Annie Wilkes on screen. She’s nice on the surface, unless you did something to provoke her. She was extremely expressive. And really able to show that she was capable of extreme harm by breaking Paul’s feet with a sledgehammer. Paul, however, felt more like a downplayed version of his novel counterpart, but that was mostly because you couldn’t get a look in his head and hear his thoughts. It just felt like he had less personality, but he still had spunk.
Loved the book, liked the movie. Book: 9/10, Movie: 7/10
***
Over time, however, everything became more irritating. Sometimes. My energy levels seemed to go down, but sometimes I just feel tired for no real reason, even after I sleep. My appetite seemed to shrink, and everyday felt like the last one before. Monotony came upon me, and it was dreadful. I played video games, and that was nice for a while. But now, I’m at the point where I feel like a spectator in my daily activities.
But I am not alone. Many people within quarantine are feeling the same way if not worse. Many people are struggling with feelings of depression or isolation, but you can get the help you need in a few different ways. First, try to socialize with people a bit more, and if you do, get deeper into the conversation and figure out what is bothering you, and why you feel this way. Try to create a routine of some kind, some kind of schedule. And if you can see a therapist, do try. All of this and more will help you in the long run. That, and a movie, whose original book has a very special place in my heart—and isn’t too unlike quarantine itself, metaphorically speaking
Misery was a novel published by Stephen King in 1987, and adapted into a movie in 1990, and I enjoyed both very, very much. The premise is that bestselling author Paul Sheldon has gotten into a car accident, and is nursed back to health by his obsessed “Number One Fan”, Annie Wilkes. She is a very crazy lady who loves his Misery novel series, but is very pissed that Misery has died in his newest book. So she wants him to write a new one. Oh, and no one knows they’re there. You really feel that sense of isolation, that Paul (and we at the moment) cannot leave, and he’s locked in with someone who is just as dangerous to him as she is to herself.
The book was spectacular at building suspense around Annie Wilkes and the danger she poses. Using her behavior and descriptions of her, she starts to feel more like a force than an actual person. For example, she is described as (paraphrasing) looking almost solid. Like there’s nothing on the inside of her at all. We see what happens when Paul does something that she does not like. Hitting Paul’s broken leg, setting his only copy of his new book on fire (which he was really proud of), and eventually cutting off his foot with an axe, and cutting off his thumb with an electric knife.
Annie has killed many people in her lifetime, and is able to justify it all with a disturbing amount of ease. Paul puts it best when he thinks: “That was it. In Annie’s view all the people in the world were divided into three groups: brats, poor poor things... and Annie.”
The movie felt a little bit lacking in comparison to the book, though I was expecting it and it was to be expected. When you adapt a book or a comic into a movie, it will most likely be a little worse, or significantly so (but at least Scott Pilgrim admitted it, I have mixed views. Both are good, but that’s an article for another day.) The movie moved along a lot faster than the book, and that does not work in its favor. The book's pace was more of a slow burn that took place over a period of weeks (it feels a little more like hours in the movie), and that allowed it to really flesh out Paul and Annie and their dynamic throughout the book. Paul has to walk nails around Annie, as her mood has a tendency to completely change in seconds if the wrong thing was said, or so much as implied. She could be depressed to the point of contemplating suicide, thus presenting a danger to herself and Paul.
In the movie, she looks normal on the outside, and I actually like Annie. While more tame in appearance and actions, the former works in her favor. She looks more presentable and normal, as opposed to the book where based on her description, you could already tell that something was wrong. She was like a perfect Annie Wilkes on screen. She’s nice on the surface, unless you did something to provoke her. She was extremely expressive. And really able to show that she was capable of extreme harm by breaking Paul’s feet with a sledgehammer. Paul, however, felt more like a downplayed version of his novel counterpart, but that was mostly because you couldn’t get a look in his head and hear his thoughts. It just felt like he had less personality, but he still had spunk.
Loved the book, liked the movie. Book: 9/10, Movie: 7/10