Misery: Difference between revisions

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In 1990, a film based on the book was created starring [[James Caan]] as Paul and [[Kathy Bates]] as Annie with [[Lauren Bacall]] in a minor role. A few details aside, it's very faithful to the book and was critically acclaimed. Bates' role is considered to be one of her best, and she took home the Oscar for her psychotic [[Bitch in Sheep's Clothing]]. Was good enough to be included in Bravo's [[One Hundred Scariest Movie Moments]].

 

 

* [[Abhorrent Admirer]]

* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The movie forgoes any of the new novel nor the analogies to writing. Paul's ankles are also crushed, instead of his foot cut off; his thumb remains happily on his hand, and Paul's addiction to his pain medication is left out.

** [[Ax Crazy]]: ...what she actually is...

* [[Auto Cannibalism]]: Annie cuts off Paul's thumb, uses it as a candle on a birthday cake, and threatens to make him eat it.

* [[Bad Samaritan]]

* [[Battleaxe Nurse]]: Annie is a registered nurse, and a violent and psychotic one. Also, she's wielded hammers, so her having an actual battleaxe may not be too far off.

** In the novel, it was an axe instead of a hammer. And a blowtorch to cauterize the wound.

* [[Berserk Button]]: By the end of the story, Paul knows better than to correct Annie. Also, swearing also makes Annie really mad.

* [[Big Eater]]: A rare, non-comic version of this. When Annie gets into her 'moods', she basically binges like crazy.

* [[Show Within a Show|Book Within A Book]]: ''Misery's Return'', of course. The reader gets to see bits of it, particularly passages that mirror Paul's situation.

* [[The Caretaker]]: The whole reason for this plot is because Annie Wilkes decided to take it upon herself to be this for Paul rather than calling 911 or taking him to the hospital herself. It does not go well.

* [[Cat Scare]]: {{spoiler|Paul [[Kindhearted Cat Lover|adopts a cat]] at the end of the book and it startles him by popping out from behind the couch. He thinks it's Annie at first and that she's invincible. }}

* [[Cliffhanger Copout]]: Annie accuses Paul of this, when he first attemts to revive Misery by simply rewriting the end of the last book so that she never died. She brings up an example of her favorite childhood serial ''Rocket Man''. In one episode, the Rocket Man was locked into his car, which then fell off a cliff and exploded. The next episode showed the Rocket Man jumping out of his car in the last minute, which made Annie extremely angry, because "that wasn't what happened last week!"

* [[Creator Backlash]]: Paul really hates Misery, and quite happily kills her off.

* [[Deus Ex Machina]]: Discussed. Paul realizes that Annie knows it in all but name.

* [[Dies Wide Open]]: {{spoiler|Annie, in the movie.}}

** In On Writing, King notes that Annie Wilkes is a metaphor for his drug addiction. "Annie was (drugs and booze) and I was tired of being Annie's pet writer." With, of course, the dependence and isolation and exhaustion that go with addiction.

* [[Death by Childbirth]]: Paul had to pay big for making Misery have this fate.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]

* [[Enfante Terrible]]: Annie. See [[Serial Killer]] below.

* [[I Was Quite a Looker]]: When Paul reads Annie's collection of newspaper clippings (called 'Memory Lane') he sees that she was "startlingly pretty" when she was young.

* [[Karmic Death]]: {{spoiler|Annie is killed by Paul's typewriter after being choked by paper.}}

* [[Large Ham]]: There's a reason why Kathy Bates is nowaday best known as Annie Wilkes in the movie.

* [[Loony Fan]]: Guess.

* [[Love Makes You Dumb]]

* [[Mad Doctor]]: Annie, killer nurse.

* [[Mary Sue]]: Misery is an in-universe example. There's a reason Paul hates her.

* [[Mercy Kill]]: Paul theorizes that Annie sees most of her murders as examples of this. She mostly kills old and sick people - that's why she gets away with it - whom she sees as "poor, poor things", and thinks she's doing them a favor. Later, when she gets more psychotic, she starts to see babies like that, and it turns into a murderous [[Munchausen Syndrome]].

* [[Mythology Gag]]: When Annie is talking to Paul about her "good news and bad news," she mentions a hitchhiker who was sketching pictures of an old hotel whose caretaker had gone crazy and burned it down. "[[The Shining|Famous old hotel called the Overlook]]."

** When he was a kid, Paul lived across the street from [[IT|the Kaspbraks]]

* [[No Kill Like Overkill]]: When it looks as if Paul is saved when a state trooper shows up, {{spoiler|Annie stabs the guy with a gravemarker in the chest, in the [[Groin Attack|groin]], and in the ''butt'' among other places....and when it turns out he's ''still alive'', '''she runs him over with a riding lawnmower.'''}}

** Kathy Bates [[Nightmare Fetishist|was gleefully looking forward to filming that last part and was disappointed when it was cut.]] Kathy Bates is ''awesome''.

** [[Word of God]] says that scene was cut because the director worried it would be [[Narm]] rather than scary.

* [[Oh Crap]]: Every time Paul realizes that Annie is in a mood switch. Especially when she swears.

* [[Pet Peeve Trope]]: [[In-Universe]]-Annie's are [[Cliffhanger Copout]] and [[Cluster F-Bomb]].

* [[Police Are Useless]]: Subverted and zigzagged, at first the sheriff Buster (he only appears in the movie) seems to be just a rustic old man warming a chair, but he turns out to be quite competent and thorough despite a bickering [[Clueless Deputy|deputy]] who doubles as his wife. In the end he is however {{spoiler|taken by surprise and killed, but not in vain.}}

* [[Retcon]]: Annie isn't happy that Paul killed off Misery and forces him to write a book that brings her back to life.

** And Annie isn't happy when Paul's first attempt at ''Misery's Return'' retcons the ending of the previous book, considering it "cheating".

* [[Sadistic Choice]]: {{spoiler|Burn the book you worked really hard on to break away from your style, or go without food and water until you do}}.

** {{spoiler|In the movie, it's burn the book you worked really hard on to break away from your style, or ''burn yourself''}}.

* [[Serial Killer]]: Annie Wilkes

** {{spoiler|Made even more creepier when the reader learns that Annie committed her first murders when she was all of 11 years old}}

* [[Slipping a Mickey]]: Paul tries it, but Annie accidentally knocks the glass over.

* [[The Sociopath]]: Annie in spades.

** Also, those {{spoiler|patients?}} She thought she was {{spoiler|putting them out of their MISERY}}.

* [[Stylistic Suck]]: Paul's first attempt at ''Misery's Return'' is this. Later, as he becomes more attached to the story, it's not quite ''sucky'', per say, but it's quite distinguishable from King's usual style.

* [[Tears of Joy]]: {{spoiler|When Paul finds himself starting to write a new novel at the end, after everything he's been through, he starts to weep with joy.}}

* [[Trust Me, I'm an X]]: In the novel when Annie {{spoiler|is about to cut off Paul's leg to punish him, she}} says: "Don't worry. I'm a trained nurse." She is, but that doesn't make it much better.

* [[Unbuilt Trope]]: Both the book and the film were made well before the darker side of the [[Fan Dumb]] was exposed via the internet.

* [[Unusual Euphemism]]: Annie uses many bizarre and childish words to compensate for profanity.

* [[What Could Have Been]]: Paul wonders what [[Ax Crazy|Annie]] would've been like if all the chemicals would've formed right in her brain.

* [[Who's Laughing Now?]]: {{spoiler|After realising escape is impossible, Paul finally snaps and delivers a rather brutal last laugh to Annie.}}

{{spoiler|'''Paul:''': I can. [[He Who Fights Monsters|I learnt that from you.]]}} }}

* [[Would Hurt a Child]]: {{spoiler|Annie's first victims were kids she babysat. Later she began killing newborns at the hospital where she worked.}}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Horror Films]]

[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]

[[Category:Horror Literature]]