Misery (1990) Film Response

Misery, a film based on a Stephen King novel, a film with a murderous undertone and a film with a considerable amount of jump scares too! In short, I loved it!

After hearing about Misery from my parents, and many various Stephen King fans, Today was my first time of actually watching it and I loved it. The character of Annie was definitely the most extreme and varied, but I thought it was clever how the relationship between Annie and Paul was a classic abusive relationship, It wasn't just a murderous obsession, there was an element of love there... Although an unnatural love, but still, a love nonetheless, as the character of Annie could have quite easily been completely one-sided; some tremendous acting by Kathy Bates.

For a film that has a heavy complexity, in the sense of mise-en-scene and setting, the film has very few actors, only nine cast members in the entire 107 minute running time. But i felt by having so little cast, it gives the viewer an opportunity to focus on the protagonist's Paul and Annie, as after all, that's what the film is all about.

Over all, i thought the film brilliantly described the relationship of Paul and Annie, and how Annie's character changed from a good, well behaved religious girl, into a psychotic, murderous and lonely killer. How the character of Paul was pushed onto the brink of madness, but still kept fairly calm despite the horrific circumstance, displaying him as an extremely determined and brave character.  I would of preferred some more information about Paul, only because those are the only clearly indentifyable trates, others you have to guess at, such as if he was lonely or not or weather he was clearly pretending to please Annie. However, on the other hand, but keeping Paul's character so underwraps, it's displaying how little Annie actually knew of him as a person, or how little anyone knew of him as a person.

Rating: 4/5. Brilliant acting, Fantastic use of sound and would highly recommend.