Gerald's Game
Movie, 2017, Directed, Set in A lake house in Alabama
Gerald's Game is #6 of 16 in release order and #6 of 16 in chronological order in the Mike Flanagan.
The story
When her husband's sex game goes wrong, Jessie (who is handcuffed to a bed in a remote lake house) faces warped visions, dark secrets and a dire choice.
Gerald's Game recap
Gerald's Game (2017) is Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's 1992 novel, long thought unfilmable, with Carla Gugino as Jessie Burlingame and Bruce Greenwood as her husband Gerald. At an isolated lake house, Gerald handcuffs Jessie to the bed for a game she quickly wants to stop; they argue, and he dies of a heart attack, leaving her chained without the key while a stray dog comes in through the open door. As hours pass, Jessie argues with hallucinations of Gerald and of a stronger version of herself, faces a buried memory of abuse by her father during a solar eclipse, and sees a deformed figure with a bag of bones she calls the Moonlight Man.
Gerald's Game ending explained
Jessie breaks a glass, cuts her wrist and uses her own blood to slide her hand out of the cuff, tearing the skin. Six months later she writes to her twelve-year-old self and uses Gerald's insurance to help other survivors of abuse. The Moonlight Man turns out to be real: a grave robber and killer who had mutilated Gerald's body. At his arraignment he mocks her, but Jessie sees her father and Gerald in him, tells him he is so much smaller than she remembered, and walks out.
Where to watch Gerald's Game
Gerald's Game is streaming on Netflix in the US.
Ratings
IMDb 6.5/10, Rotten Tomatoes 91%
Where it fits
- Release order: after Ouija: Origin of Evil, before The Haunting of Hill House.
- Chronological order: after Ouija: Origin of Evil, before The Haunting of Hill House.
Cast
- Carla Gugino as Jessie
- Bruce Greenwood as Gerald
- Carel Struycken as Moonlight Man
- Chiara Aurelia as Young Jessie
- Henry Thomas as Tom
- Kate Siegel as Sally
- Adalyn Jones as Maddie
- Bryce Harper as James
- Gwendolyn Mulamba as Judge
- Jamie Flanagan as Court Clerk
- Dori Lumpkin as Teenage Girl
- Natalie Roers as Reporter #1
Directed by Mike Flanagan.