‘Gerald’s Game’ Trailer Finds Terror Between the Bedposts ~ Cinenus

Thursday, 7 September 2017

The year of Stephen King adaptations continues with the first trailer for ‘Gerald’s Game.’

It’s been a good year for Stephen King fans as we’ve already had a pair of television series (The Mist, Mr. Mercedes), a mediocre YA movie (The Dark Tower), and a fantastic horror film (IT, hitting theaters this weekend). Another feature, 1922, is hitting festivals this fall, and next year sees a new Netflix series called Castle Rock that promises to explore King’s world with familiar faces and new tales.

Before then though Netflix will be debuting a different King adaptation with their latest in-house feature, Gerald’s Game. The film is based on King’s 1992 novel about a woman who heads to a remote cabin with her husband and finds herself trapped there when their weekend getaway goes horribly awry.

Check out the first trailer for Mike Flanagan‘s Gerald’s Game.

I wasn’t the biggest fan of King’s novel, but it’s on my list of books in need of a second read as I’m not sure I was mature enough at the time to appreciate its themes and narrative structure. It shared some of the former with King’s Dolores Claiborne — along with an eclipse that ties the two novels together — and that’s another novel that I didn’t fully grasp on first read. Coincidentally, it was Taylor Hackford’s adaptation of the novel that finally made me a fan, so I’m hoping for a similar reappraisal with this one. Flanagan is a filmmaker who’s steadily proven himself to be a reliable craftsman with films as varied as Oculus (haunted mirror!), Hush (serial killer!), and Ouija: Origin of Evil (kick-ass prequel that runs circles around its predecessor!). It’d be easy to say Gerald’s Game is a tough nut to crack cinematically — single location, single character, flashbacks and hallucinations — but I’ve learned not to doubt Flanagan. Aiding in my faith is the presence of the always terrific Carla Gugino in the lead role with support from Bruce Greenwood as her ill-fated husband. Both are masters at their chosen art form and never less than highly watchable. Gerald’s Game premieres later this month at Fantastic Fest before making its worldwide debut on Netflix on September 29th.