I will confess that I have never read the Stephen King novel on which this movie is based. Maybe the end is a bit clearer in the novel, but the ending of the movie really kind of left me a bit empty. I was really enjoying this movie up to that last ten minutes or so. I can't say that I had been particularly familiar with Carla Gugino, who played Jessie in this, but I thought her performance was fabulous. The story begins with Jessie and her husband Gerald (Bruce Greenwood) taking a vacation in a remote place in the hopes of resparking their marriage, which had gone dry romantically and sexually. To do that, Gerald had brought handcuffs and handcuffed Jessie to the bed. To that point this really had something of a "dark comedy" feel to it; it was humourous in a warped sort of way. But it doesn't stay that way for very long. Jessie wasn't enthusiastic about Gerald's handcuff game, or the rape scenario that he wanted to play out with them, and she eventually objected, leading to a fight between them - during which Gerald dropped dead of a heart attack with Jessie still chained to the bed. Alone, with no one to help her, no food, a hungry dog that had found its way into the house and was feeding on Gerald's body and only a single glass of water, she has to find a way to survive. The movie eventually becomes a journey of self-discovery for Jessie as she finds herself exploring the demons in her own past back to her childhood and her relationship with her father and how they connect with the present.

This is really well done, and it includes a few scenes that are absolutely cringe-worthy. I actually had to turn away from the screen a couple of times. But personally I just thought this fell apart a bit with the ending. I didn't like the "Moonlight Man." I didn't think the "Moonlight Man" was really necessary to the story. The dog and just the situation seemed quite sufficient to make this a thoroughly superb horror movie and, to me at least, the "Moonlight Man" took a horror movie and turned it into something silly - although that was only in the last ten minutes or so of the movie. I will say that this definitely has a Stephen King feel to it, and up to that last ten minutes I would have said this was superb. But when an ending leaves me dry I end up having to mark it down just a little bit. (7/10)

Having recently read "Gerald's Game" I still have a pretty good recollection of the book and found this screen adaptation to be very close to the original source. A couple minor points that don't jive would be Gerald's physical health; in the novel he's slightly overweight and not in very good shape, thereby making him a better candidate for a heart attack than a guy like Bruce Greenwood in the role. The other thing had to do with the location of the story. In the book, the house was more like a summer cabin secluded in the woods, whereas this looked like more of a neighborhood type setting. At least that's my recollection, probably more nit-picks than any problem with the screenplay.

The movie here is every bit as tense and riveting as the written word, as most of the fear and horror involves a wife, Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino),left for helpless after she's been chained to a bed right before her husband (Greenwood) keels over from a massive heart attack. What was intended as a sexual role play turns into a battle for survival and control of one's imagination over all the potential bad things that could happen if someone doesn't come by to offer aid real soon. Director Mike Flanagan takes the approach of allowing the captive Jessie interact with Gerald, her father (Henry Thomas),and her younger self (Chiara Aurelia) in various imaginary scenarios which ultimately resurrect the trauma of an early child abuse episode.

I have to admit, even though I've overcome a lot of squeamishness regarding physical injury over time, the scene of Jessie freeing herself from the bed had me squirming, to the point I had to get up and grab some apple juice to help the old blood sugar situation. That was just nasty. And lest I forget, that demonic looking German Shepherd looked like he could have gone berserk any minute. He looked more 'Cujo' than Cujo, if you know what I mean.

And then, just as with the Stephen King novel, I thought the ending with the history of The Moonlight Man (Carel Struycken) came across as superfluous and unnecessary to the story. It does make sense in the grand scheme of things, especially with Jessie's nightmarish visions, because you didn't know at the time when she was trapped whether he was real or not. It's just that his revelation seems awkward, like it belonged to a different story altogether.

But anyway, this is a very good adaptation of a Stephen King story, so if you're a fan, there's something here that won't make you dread an unfaithful treatment of the source material. I can't imagine Mr. King himself being displeased with the film at all.

I really fancied this having watches a trailer, but as is so often the case, the best bits were shown in the trailer, and the film itself was ultimately a disappointment. The writing is clever, the story is best, but as the story is literally handcuffed (no pun intended) it does limit the scope. It's well acted, it's certainly different, I just found it too hard to get into. 5/10