GERALD’S GAME

released OUT NOW! 2017 | sVOd Director Mike Flanagan Cast Carla Gugino, Bruce Greenwood, Carel struycken, Henry Thomas

What with IT, The Dark Tower and now this, 2017 has been ripe with Stephen King adaptations. Gerald’s Game is one of King’s lesser-known works: a short single-location novel about a couple who go away to reconnect in a secluded retreat. Except the husband soon dies from a heart attack during a sex game, leaving his wife helpless and handcuffed to the bed.

Director Mike Flanagan takes a similar approach to his earlier film Hush, also about a woman trying to survive the night inside a house. The result is a glossy, psychological horror, though it often feels too polished for any feelings of dread to kick in. Carla Gugino is amazing as Jessie, though, who goes from faintly uncomfortable to terrified in the space of minutes, and the film tackles brave issues, from abuse to spousal neglect.

A few sequences have the potential to turn this into a super-stylish horror, such as a sky that seeps red during an eclipse and Gugino staggering down a hallway in a blooddrenched nightdress. Then there is the spine-tingling appearance of a skeletal man who appears in the corner of her room every night, coming close to rattle bones and stolen trinkets under her nose. But the epilogue feels disjointed, and the film is too mawkish for any real menace to permeate. Kimberley Ballard