I’ve said it before here many times, and I’ll continue to say it: I LOVE where the horror genre is at in 2017. Blumhouse productions and other financial backers basically figured out that the genre makes consistent money for each film. So with a known budget in mind, the creators populate the films with lesser known but impressive acting talent, and push more money toward behind-the-scenes writing and directing talent. The results don’t lie: killer clowns and kids, ghost hunting married couples, interracial dating gone horribly wrong, blind Detroit army marksmen; basically, a really good formula has been created. Gerald’s Game is another fine product of this formula: lesser known but stellar acting (Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood), and one of the best horror auteurs working today (Mike Flanagan).
Jessie (Gugino) and Gerald (Greenwood) are a couple in a rut. They appear to love each other, and are trying to spice things up with a retreat to their summer house in the middle of nowhere. Gerald wants to push the fantasy, and binds Jessie to the bed in hopes she will like the role play. Before things get started, however, Gerald dies and collapses on top of Jessie, while she is still bound. Jessie then has to overcome her insecurities, and dig deep to get herself out of this situation she has found herself in.
I find Mike Flanagan’s interest in isolated homes disconcerting: either someone’s handcuffed or hunted by a psychopath. There’s clearly a reason he does this though. Flanagan shows real interest in digging into a person’s psyche when awful things are happening around him or her, and a cabin in the woods strips away any possible escape route with calling for people. The director is as good as any out there realizing someone’s inner monologue and making it as cinematic as possible. Gerald’s Game uses a book device of having dead Gerald and younger Jessie appear to talk to current day Jessie, becoming parts of her past she has to shed herself of. An amateur director would go crazy with the gimmick and have the costumes and acting from the manifestations go over the top: not so with Flanagan. This is Jessie’s story, and Flanagan’s conversations center on contemporary Jesse, so as the gimmick threatens to go off the rails, Flanagan will remove everyone in the room and bring it back to what is real: Jessie, her demons, and her situation.
Which brings us to Carla Gugino. If you peruse her IMDB, she plays lots of small roles in many things that are beloved, and when you watch her in things that are watchable (Sin City) and things that are not (Sucker Punch), she usually stands out. Gerald’s Game puts Gugino front and center and asks her to carry a movie where she’s on screen mostly by herself or with just one other person. Unsurprisingly, she is fantastic. The real Jessie goes through levels of her personal hell to see if she can get out the other side. Gugino has to play at various points scared, depressed, angry, broken, and content. Through it all though, Gugino filters these emotions through Jessie and her progression, so you see the arc she goes through subtly but very satisfyingly. Helping Gugino out are Bruce Greenwood, who was purposefully cackly at the beginning because the talented “that guy” actor gets to play a version of Gerald that Jessie sees, which means he can play each scene differently based on what Jessie is projecting, and Greenwood could have gone over the top, but instead makes himself a nice complimentary piece to boost Gugino even higher. Henry Thomas is also very good in an important flashback to Jessie’s childhood.
Supposedly Netflix has struck a deal with Mike Flanagan for a multiple movie arc. Gerald’s Game, the first, only reinforces how good of a decision this is. I will bring this up for every movie this guy does, but this guy made a movie ABOUT A KILLER MIRROR….and not only does someone in it say “It wasn’t me, it was the mirror” by the end, you actually BELIEVE HIM because of how much Flanagan has won you over. I just can’t wait for Netflix to greenlight the sequel to this film. I’m giddy just thinking about it.