Gerald’s Game
The Plot
After on-the-rocks couple Jessie and Gerard attempt to spice things up in the bedroom of their isolated retreat and things go badly wrong, Jessie ends up handcuffed to the reinforced bed frame with Gerald dead on the floor. With no neighbors for miles and no one who will notice they’re missing until it’s far too late, Jessie contends with panic and dehydration as she struggles to find a way out of her seemingly inescapable bonds. The clincher—she and her husband forgot to shut the door when they made a beeline to the bedroom. And the pathetic starving dog they drove past on the side of the road soon smells fresh meat inside.
As time goes on and her mental state frays, Jessie begins to experience powerful hallucinations; of herself and her husband, cajoling her into taking the steps to try to stay alive. When not trapped in the reality of the handcuffs, Jessie quickly becomes trapped in her own mind—and the twisted memories she’s spent a lifetime repressing.
The Breakdown
Watching this movie is sort of like watching a Rube-Goldberg machine. A few small events set things in motion, and as the movie ticks on those slight nudges snowball into terrifying consequences. It feels so perfectly planned and delicately balanced; tight, multifaceted, and utterly unrelenting. Though much of the movie takes place in a single room, it never once feels boring or repetitive.
The Scare Factor
This movie is a slower burn, but by the end it’s a bonfire. Disturbing, psychological, and at times viscerally horrific, this movie is practically guaranteed to get under your skin.