"Misery" accomplishes something which Hitchcock achieved in "Psycho" but which very few modern horror films achieve: it entertains without seeming exploitative. Even the movie's most gruesome scene, which ranks up there as one of the more memorably horrifying moments in all of cinema, ends with a laugh that somehow doesn't cheapen the material--maybe because it arises so naturally from the basic situation which the movie takes very seriously. We're not being urged to find the violence itself entertaining, as is the case for so many horror films these days. Rather, the humor is a way of breaking the tension of a desperate, nightmarish scenario. It is, we suspect, what helps the protagonist survive the ordeal.

Like many of the greatest thrillers, "Misery" begins with a bizarre set of coincidences. A bestselling romance novelist named Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is on his way to the countryside to work on his next book when a blizzard causes his car to crash, leaving him severely injured and unable to walk. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates),a retired nurse and obsessive fan who was following him, takes care of him in her house without letting him leave or contact anyone. She is upset that he has recently killed off a central character in his series, and she forces him to write the new book more to her liking, though in total isolation from the outside world. His family and friends fear him dead, but the local sheriff (Richard Farnsworth) is investigating a little more closely.

"Misery" belongs to a unique genre in which a single character is trapped in a small area and spends the entire story attempting to escape. I've been fascinated by this type of story ever since I first read Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum." With his fine attention to detail, Stephen King has made two notable contributions to the genre: "Misery," and the unfilmable "Gerald's Game" (where a woman spends the entire novel handcuffed to a bed in the middle of nowhere). Everything is topsy-turvy in a story like this. The protagonist must adapt to a weird new set of rules that put a diabolical twist on normal routines. To most people, a house is a mundane setting where you wake up every day and leave without blinking an eye. For a house to become a prison seems almost unthinkable. Stories like "Misery" have the urgency of a nightmare, where the thing you fear most is always on the verge of happening.

In particular, this movie has much in common with the 1962 suspense drama "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?" (which I recommend). The basic structure of the story is the same, involving a disabled person in the house of an insane woman, who subjects her captive to physical and psychological tortures while almost everyone on the outside doesn't even know the victim exists. But in the older film, the motives were simpler, rooted in sibling jealousy and old wounds. "Misery" brings the conceit to a new level by making the captive a famous writer and the kidnapper a crazed fan. The movie makes much of the irony that she's a pretty good editor. She's not really sadistic or vengeful, as was the case with the Bette Davis character in "Baby Jane." The tortures she inflicts on Paul are the natural result of her trying to fit him into her bizarre little world.

Kathy Bates won an Oscar for her performance, one of only three horror performances ever to receive that award. (The other two are Fredric March for "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and Anthony Hopkins for "Silence of the Lambs.") One of the best actresses working today, she's fortunate not to have been typecast in this sort of role. She later proved herself quite adept at playing vulnerable women, like the battered wife in "Dolores Claiborne." She brings to the role of Annie a certain earthiness that you don't expect in this kind of role. She plays the character as a woman who doesn't perceive herself as insane, who acts bubbly and cheerful most of the time and seems to view her sudden mood shifts as merely a personal weakness. At times, the movie almost comes off as a demented parody of a normal relationship between a man and woman living together.

The very best of the Stephen King horror movies, "Misery" is a film which I count among my favorites even though it is so intense I sometimes have trouble sitting through the whole thing. With a screenplay by William Goldman, who has a knack for developing bizarre torture scenes (the Nazi dentist torture in "Marathon Man," the Machine in "The Princess Bride"),the movie manages to be scary and classy at the same time--a rare feat for a modern horror picture. Kathy Bates is in my nightmares!

Along with The Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me, Misery is one of the best adaptations of Stephen King's work. On its own terms too, it is a brilliant film with a wonderful atmosphere especially. The film looks very good, with the sets, costumes, locations and cinematography striking and suitably atmospheric. The screenplay is very fine, exploring themes such as fanatical devotion, artistic dilemmas and worthiness of commercial fiction without a psychological suspense context, while the story is always well paced and compelling.

Also outstanding is the direction of Rob Reiner. He adeptly exercises in chilling claustrophobia and allows a numerous numbers of genuine jolts. The acting is great, James Caan, Richard Farnsworth and Lauren Bacall are all great but the film belongs to Kathy Bates who is monstrously scary and deservedly won an Oscar for her brilliant performance.

Overall, Misery is a superb film and one of the best Stephen King adaptations. 10/10 Bethany Cox

I remember last year finally actually meeting my personal celebrity crush and it was great. But after autographs and pictures he went his way and I went mine. There's a line between being a fan and being a freak.

Which is a line that Kathy Bates erased with her Oscar winning performance in Misery. In her disturbed mind the chance of a lifetime came when author James Caan who writes Stephen King like novels comes to her town and she follows him out one winter night when he drove his car into a ditch.

I'm not sure that rescue is quite the word for what Bates does to Caan. She frees him from the wreck and brings him home and gives him needed medical aid as she is a trained nurse. But with two broken legs and a broken arm, Caan's pretty much at her mercy.

And then woe betide poor Caan when Bates discovers a draft of his latest work where he is killing off a favorite character. It's like Arthur Conan Doyle trying to kill off Sherlock Holmes and in fact he did try, but was forced by public outcry to bring him back.

But Caan's facing a most demanding public of one. He gets under her tutelage to rewrite his work. In the mean time the fact he's missing is of national news. It's like if John LeCarre or Nelson DeMille went missing. The car is found and sheriff Richard Farnsworth has his suspicions.

Which brings me to the only weakness of the story. I can't believe that he did not bring those suspicions with the evidence he had to the state police and eventually not have backup when he decides to act on his suspicions. He only confides in wife Frances Sternhagen and she's not much help.

Stephen King has written any number of novels with monsters and other worldly creatures, but this story is pretty horrific all by itself, especially when the only monster here is a human one.

Bates and Caan are great pair of antagonists. Misery is a great story about obsessed fans and what they can do.