FromChristine’s John Carpenter toThe Dead Zone’s David Cronenberg toGerald’s Game’s Mike Flanagan, the works of Stephen King tend to be adapted by horror directors. But a filmmaker doesn’t necessarily need a background in horror to deliver a great King adaptation. Rob Reiner isn’t traditionally a horror filmmaker, but he was still the best choice to directMisery. Reiner has been able to create classics across many different genres – from romcom to fairy tale to legal drama to mock-rockumentary – because he always focuses on the characters and their relationships. This focus on the people at the core of each story made Reiner much better-suited to the tense, character-driven horror ofMiserythan a standard horror filmmaker whose style is driven more by spectacle. In Reiner’s masterful hands, the dynamic between famed writer Paul Sheldon and his biggest fan Annie Wilkes feels hauntingly real.
Often named the most underrated director of all time on Brett Goldstein’sFilms To Be Buried Withpodcast, Reiner first rose to prominence as a sitcom actor with his turn as Meathead onAll in the Family, but he found his true calling as a filmmaker. Before he took onMisery, Reiner had previously adapted one of King’s non-horror stories, “The Body,” intoStand by Me, the gold standard for coming-of-age movies. Throughout his career,Reiner has crossed over many different genres. His debut feature,This is Spinal Tap, pioneered a whole comedy subgenre with its mockumentary style, and it remains one of the finest and most influential mock-docs to this day.The Princess Brideis the ultimate fantasy adventure, both a timeless family favorite and a sharp deconstruction of fairy tales.When Harry Met Sallyis the ultimate romcom, using relatable everyday situations to tell a universal love story full of belly laughs and heartwarming feels, andA Few Good Menis a compelling legal drama brought to life by phenomenal actors chewing onAaron Sorkin’s snappy dialogue.
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Reiner is able to deliver classic movies in every genre he tackles because he’s never too preoccupied with ticking off all the tropes and conventions on a given genre’s checklist. He takes each story on its own individual terms and looks at the bigger picture: figuring out who the characters are, what drives them and makes them sympathetic, and how they relate to each other.This is Spinal Tapworks so wellbecause, alongside all the ridiculous concepts like the undersized Stonehenge stage decorations and the amps that go up to 11, the band feels like a real band with their own insecurities and interpersonal conflicts. Reiner approachedThe Princess Bride’s love story and Inigo Montoya’s quest for revenge with sincerity, and rounded out familiar folklore archetypes like the giant and the wizard with more depth than they’re usually afforded. When he set out toturnMiseryinto a movie, Reiner applied this same principle and focused on the character dynamic at the heart of the novel.
Even more so than his other novels,Miseryfeels like a very personal nightmare for King. Paul is a renowned author with a massive fan base, much like King himself, and after being saved from a car wreck by his most obsessive admirer, Annie, he goes from being nursed back to health to being held against his will. After reading the final installment in his most iconic book series, Annie traps Paul in her remote home and forces him to rewrite the ending. In an interview withRolling Stone, King explained that the inception ofMiserywasn’t his fear of his own fans, but rather the throes of cocaine addiction: “Miseryis a book about cocaine. Annie Wilkes is cocaine. She was my number-one fan.”
The cast’s performances are usually a secondary concern in horror filmmaking.The Evil Dead,Hellraiser, andA Nightmare on Elm Streetall became horror classics in spite of their subpar acting, because they succeeded in every other department (most importantly, the scare department). But believable acting wasthe key toMisery’s success. The story is a tension-filled two-hander about the disturbing friendship-turned-rivalry between an author and his most loyal reader. With its confined setting and its focus on the ever-evolving relationship between two characters,Miseryis set up like a stage play, with the spotlight squarely on the actors’ performances. As a former actor himself, guiding actors to do their best work is one of Reiner’s strengths as a filmmaker.
Just as Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins’ on-screen chemistry was crucial to makingThe Silence of the Lambssuch a resounding success, James Caan needed to develop a palpable propinquity with Kathy Bates throughoutMisery. Annie could’ve come off as a far-fetched archetype – she’s a mass-murdering nurse who has no qualms about taking human lives but uses harmless substitutes like “cockadoodie” in lieu of curse words – but she comes off as frighteningly real, because Bates finds the truth in every moment.Bates’ unnerving performance as Annieearned her a much-deserved Oscar for Best Actress, a year before Foster won the same award forThe Silence of the Lambs.
Today,Miseryreads likea prescient satire of toxic fandom. The character of Annie feels more realistic than ever in an age when dissatisfied fans have started petitions to get polarizing franchise installments likeThe Last Jediand the final season ofGame of Thronesremade from scratch. Reiner knew that the inherent horror of this story wasn’t ingruesome moments like the infamous “hobbling,”but in making Paul and Annie’s artist-superfan relationship ring true. If the audience could buy that Paul and Annie were real people, then the hobbling would be even more terrifying.
