October Horror 2013: 7 - Misery

Closing out Shit We Missed week is the Rob Reiner directed Misery starring James Caan and Kathy Bates, based on a story by Stephen King.  Misery is considered by many to be a classic, and I think it deserves that distinction but I am never watching this movie again.

Author Paul Sheldon (Caan) has published a series of successful romance novels centering around a woman named Misery Chastain.  He wanted to focus on more serious work so he retired to his traditional writing cabin to put together a manuscript.  Upon finishing it, he began driving down the hill in the middle of a blizzard.  Unfortunately he can't hack the weather and drives off the road, where he's rescued from the wreck of his car by Anne Wilkes (Bates), a local nurse who takes him to her home.  When he wakes up she claims to be his #1 fan, however her devotion makes Paul pretty uncomfortable.  I'm going to leave it there because this actually a very good movie and although the elements aren't really twists and are pretty easy to see coming, it's worth it to let the movie reveal things at its own pace.  One thing I will say is that when I saw the movie I thought Paul's new manuscript was the final part of the Misery series that incites the conflict, and not the recently published Misery book.  In checking wikipedia's summary, I discovered I was wrong.

Anyway, the movie really succeeds on the strength of the performance.  Specifically the stark contrast between Caan's mostly passive smile-and-nod Paul and Bates' completely manic-depressive Anne.  Woman plays a good psycho.  Most of the camera work is very good and tension building but some of it when Anne flies off the handle is a little cheesy at first.  Though it plays a major part in producing that uncomfortable feeling you get when you're stuck in a room with someone who's taking something way too far and reacting way too strongly and you don't want to contribute to the situation, but you can't leave and don't know how to make it stop.  Uncomfortable is the word of the day here because it's very hard to watch this movie.  Very worth it, though.

One more important caveat is this, like Secret Window, is very difficult to play the Stephen King drinking game to.

Week 2 begins with the first of mega-ultimate-super-classics: The Mummy.

--PXA

October Horror 2013: 5 - The Shining

I really do enjoy Kubrick's The Shining.  I haven't read Stephen King's original story and I am aware of his dislike of this version.  I do have the King-approved version on my watch list but I haven't gotten around to it yet.  For now, I really like the unsettling atmosphere of this movie.  There's not a lot I can say about it since it is such a classic.  This was part of Stephen King week, as though I had watched it entirely my partner in crime hadn't watched the entire thing in one focused sitting.

The movie itself is legendary already, spawning other documentaries and countless homages and references.  Kubrick built sets using impossible geometry and drove his actors to their breaking points to create amazingly "off" performances.  Except Danny Lloyd.  I always thought his performance in the movie was strange, especially in the face of the often cited report that Kubrick made him think he was acting in a drama film and he didn't realize it was a horror movie until years later.  With the shots of him shaking in bed and frothing at the mouth, the various close up "horrified" faces he had to make, and all the Tony/"Redrum!!!" stuff, how could you hide the nature of the film?  Either way, maybe that's why his performance has always seemed not-entirely fitting.

Child actors tend to be a mixed bag and I feel like this one was a slight ding against the movie, and I really wish I knew what was up with the fursuit blowjob bit right near the end.  Freaky shit.

Anyway, it's up there as one of the few horror movies that is regarded as an amazing work of film in its own right and well worth checking out.  Also, the documentary "Room 237" is currently on Netflix, I haven't seen it yet but theories and observations for The Shining are generally pretty interesting.  There's a lot going on in most of Kubrick's movies, but this one seems especially dense.

October Horror 2013: 3 - Secret Window

Secret Window (2004), written and directed by David Koepp and starring pre-Burton/Disney Johnny Depp and always-great John Turturro is possibly the tightest adaptation of a Stephen King story I have ever seen.  Though it is a bit dry to play the Stephen King Drinking Game to.

The premise here is that a writer {DING!  Take a drink!}, Mort Rainey (Depp), catches his wife cheating {DING!} on him at a motel and has a mental break.  After initiating divorce and moving out, he retreats to a small lake town in Upstate New York {Aww} to work on a book.  However, he has horrible writer's block and can't think of anything so he spends his days napping and talking to his dog.  Until one day he's woken up by John Shooter (Turturro) at his door, claiming in a ridiculous southern drawl that Rainey had stolen, word for word, a story he had written several years ago but is mad that Rainey botched the ending.

Rainey spends the rest of the story attempting to prove he wrote the story first, by producing a magazine in which it was published which predates when Shooter claims he wrote his, while avoiding finalizing the divorce with his wife and being tormented by Shooter who continually asserts Rainey cannot prove he wrote the story.

As his life spirals out of control, Mort...really doesn't do much.  It's an entertaining movie with a solidly built twist reveal and well delivered climax but it's odd thinking about it that Mort barely deviates from his busy schedule of napping in a ratty robe and running out the door without a shower.  I suppose I can see how it would fit, but it's striking how not-proactive he is.  Also it's pretty refreshing for a Stephen King story that alcohol is only given a brief mention.

There are a lot of signature quirky Johnny Depp behaviors in his portrayal of Rainey, and while it was amusing in the beginning with cigarettes a lot of it seemed out of place later.  In fact, more of the movie seems to be occupied by Depp's mannerisms that King's signature tropes.  Except for the very end of the movie following the climax, which is pure Stephen King.  And really the falling action and resolution taking so long is a very literal thing, most movies ends much more abruptly after the climax without nearly as much epilogue.  It's definitely one of King's hallmarks to resolve things like that in a way that might feel awkward, but it makes sense since it's a horror story and wants to get under your skin and make you uncomfortable.

If we're making distinctions I'd say this is more of a thriller because the majority of the movie is a study of Rainey's unraveling mental stability.  It was really pretty good and there is a lot of the performance that Depp gives that shines wonderfully but almost as much is weird and awkward.  Turturro's take on John Shooter is incredibly entertaining to watch and the kind of giddy psychopath that is absolutely perfect in this sort of movie.
P.S. You're gonna want to watch through the credits for the stinger. It's freaking hilarious.

Moving on to The Others.

--PXA