10 horror hidden gems on Netflix

2. Gerald’s Game

If ever there was a movie to advocate not using real handcuffs in the bedroom, Gerald’s Game is it. Though some of the main promotional images for this movie made it appear that the focus of the movie involved some kind of sadistic sexual torture, the reality is a clever bait-and-switch. On a romantic vacation to an isolated cottage, the titular Gerald convinces his wife Jessie to let him handcuff her to the bed—using real handcuffs. Shortly afterward, Gerald suffers a massive heart attack and ends up dead on the floor, leaving Jessie manacled to the bed with seemingly no chance of escape or help.

All at once Jessie goes straight from disturbing revelations about her husband’s sexual fantasies to a fight for her literal survival, as she contends with panic, exhaustion, dehydration, and the hungry stray dog which let itself in through the open front door.

The psychological element is what really takes this movie over the top. In the midst of sheer terror, Jessie starts hallucinating versions of herself and her husband, who coax and cajole her through the steps she needs to take to survive. With nowhere to go but deeper into her own mind, Jessie soon finds herself reliving traumatic memories from her childhood that she hasn’t spoken of since.

The horror in Gerald’s Game operates on a number of levels, from surviving thirst and terror and a hungry canine to the tightening vise of Jessie’s repressed memories. It wields claustrophobia deftly, building the horror of being trapped and helpless until it’s as unbearable for the audience as it is for Jessie. All in all, it’s a tense and visceral adaptation of Stephen King’s story.