Jessie

Awful don't watch. 127 hours meets the Adams family and fight club. Handcuffed to a bed with nothing but crazy thoughts of uncle Peter giving you a tickle from 1970, regular visits from lurch (jewellery thief) and nothing but a shot glass to drink from. Absolutely marvellous movie.... 2/10

This was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. It started off a little interesting and then the husband died and then it just got ridiculous. The husband was dead, but then a second version of him gets up and starts taking to her! And then a second version of herself starts talking to her! Then they were all talking to each other and it just keep getting more and more confusing after that. Then out of nowhere a slender man type of person appears and takes her ring! What the heck? And then she ends up actually meeting with herself as a child and went to court to see the slender man for some reason even though he barely had anything to do with the story at all. Just a bizarre mess of a movie. Zero stars.

I checked three times to see if this was a Lifetime movie. If you like that sort of thing, you will probably like this movie. If you think this will be a normal horror/thriller movie, like it is listed, you will be disappointed. Yes, there is a Stephen-King-esque twist in the last 3 or 4 minutes that might, possibly, be creepy enough to qualify as horror, but 98% of this movie is about a woman coming to terms with her childhood sexual abuse. You have been warned.

I am going to address the elephant in the room. The movie sucks mostly because the plot sucks. It is a sick combination of goriness, perversion and moronic fantasies. I guess when a writer reaches to the status that King has, all he needs to do is apparently to puke some nonsense and be praised for it.

Gerald's Game was surprisingly more introspective and less gruesome than I imagined (except one particularly cringe-worthy scene). From a viewer who didn't read the Stephen King novel the film was based upon, I went into the Netflix original prepared to be disturbed. The film doesn't waste time getting you to the meat of the story. From the start Carla Gugino gives an emotionally powerful performance as Jessie – a mentally abused victim struggling to repair a failing marriage - that sets the tone for the rest of the film. The reluctance she shows toward her husband Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) forces you to never sit comfortably as the plot begins to be painted. One of the great strengths of this movie was answering the questions you were going to ask before you asked them. Understanding from the beginning that Jessie was to end up handcuffed to a bed throughout the entirety of the film already had me questioning her inability to escape. As soon as you see her situation play out and begin to think of her options, the writers provided answers as to why that isn't possible in a unique and believable fashion. With the multitude of challenges she has to overcome she is forced to relive her disturbing past, which in-turn must help her overcome her shackled state if she is to even have a chance of surviving. The use of symbolism in this film is constant, but so much so that at times it seems to spell it out for you, or literally tell you. I felt the comparisons between her current situation and her past was a bit too blunt. I would've called for a little less hand-holding and a bit more mystery surrounding the connections that were made between the men in her life. Yet one of the most obvious symbols - the blood- red eclipse – was one that surprised me the most as its representation transforms into a powerful message of strength. The anchor for this film was Carla Gugino and her amazingly powerful performance with a great showing from co-star Bruce Greenwood. The dialogue and thought process that unfolded from the two kept me emotionally entwined in the story and eager to find out what would happen next. Along with fantastic performers, Gerald's Game was made better with the subtlety of the soundtrack and cinematography. I was more impressed at the times where there was no music playing at all, which seemed often and was appropriate. It built suspense and kept focus on the current scene when all the viewers were left with was the disturbing sounds of her struggle. The eclipse as mentioned was a favorite of mine. The deep red ring emphasized the horror of events unfolding, yet transformed with the character and began something greater. Even after the movie was finished I found myself thinking over the message that was left for the viewers to contemplate. It was one that I didn't expect and was glad to see at the same time. Gerald's Game was a fantastic physiological thriller that never had me shaking my head in un-believability. I enjoyed the restraint of music in key moments, and was enthralled by the situation presented. This makes two Stephen King adaptations that have nailed the difficult process of transforming a story from a book to film. JordanRoss gives Gerald's Game: 8.1/10

I don't care if this was originally written by Stephen King and how faithful the film really is to the book. The film is garbage. That's how it is. Its script is so dumb and doesn't know what it wants to be. It starts as a drama and then turns into a thriller and adventure. The husband handcuffs his wife to the bed to have hardcore sex with her. They get in argument and he dies. Now it's up to the woman to survive while she is tied to the bed while the dog eats his husband's corpse on the floor. After this point the movie is full of fillers. Pacing issues, pointless background stories, hilarious hallucinations and boring dialogues are everywhere. The film has some good moments which prevented me from giving it 1/10 but other than that it's a complete mess. And don't even get me started on dumb ending. As I stated earlier. The film begins as drama then turns into a thriller and adventure. In the end it becomes a horror film. Turns out she was not hallucinating and Ghoul was real all along. Then once she gets out of the bed, as a narrator she explains ghoul's character for several minutes as it the film was all about ghoul. And in the end it turns out that the ghoul was actually a human with some disease that made him look like a ghoul. What is the point of this film? 3/10.

One of the best Stephen king adaptations I've watched.Carla Gugino plays a really remarkable performance. I am so impressed while watching the film. The movie is as attractive as the book. I hope Netflix will make more Stephen King adaptations. I loved it very much. And the form of handling child abuse was also very sensitive and subtle.

Before we get into the fact that 99% of the movie occurred in her mind, we have to point out that she barely tried to escape. It was laughable! She pulled on the cuffs right away at the beginning, but then barely tried again. "Reinforced" wood or not, those bed posts were NOT thick and sturdy. They were skinny and very very breakable. Also, why not roll her feet/legs up over her head and kick at the bed posts? Why not try to grasp the bed post with a leg and yank? Why not try violent up-and-down bouncing to hopefully loosen something up? I mean, why to try escape when you can just imagine people talking to you instead?

I'm sitting in bed (how fitting) relaxing on a Saturday, and I just finished watching Gerald's Game, wishing I could get those 2 hours back. Let me just say that this film was diabolical, actually painful to sit through so much so that I should have turned it off. If you decide to watch it and think maybe it will get better don't. It gets worse. Also this may come as a surprise, because the first 10 minutes of the film are actually quite promising, I was thinking it was going to be great. But it is after the first 10 minutes (not long) where you will understand why this story has been deemed one that would be impossible to translate to film. No spoilers but a concept is introduced which just does not work for film and is actually very tedious. Anyway I'm just glad its over, I hope to never think about it again, and neither should you!