Gerald's Game - Carla gugino - Movie review

hey guys sorry I missed last week I've been really busy but I'm looking forward to talking to you today about Gerald's Game so the film just came out on Netflix last night and it's directed by Mike Flanagan who's known for his horror and thriller films like his original Oculus his most recent Ouija: Origin of Evil and my personal favorite that's also available on Netflix Hush so I first heard about this film from the YouTube trailer and was intrigued because of Mike Flanagan directing as well as knowing it is based off Stephen King's novel now I haven't read the novel myself and if you think I should please let me know because when I saw this film I was kind of hoping to just go into it blind as best I can and unlike what I did with IT that you know I ended up reading the novel and watching the miniseries before seeing the new film so really the only picture I had in mind was from the trailer which did give away quite a bit that I knew a little bit had an idea of going in here's my recommendation for you if you're gonna watch this film try to go into it blind don't watch too much don't read too much if you're a fan of horror thriller sort of maybe survival or just Stephen King novels in general I think you'll dig this just keep in mind you know if you see the poster you're like what is this some kind of like Fifty Shades of Grey thing no it's not like that it has some elements of things maybe in there but very little and yeah I'm just gonna stop talking and comparing it to that right now okay yeah now I'll admit when I watch this film last night I was pretty tired so at some point I did feel like I wanted it to wrap up even though it is not that long of a movie there are parts where I was just getting tired and maybe I wasn't really in the completely right mindset to watch it but I did enjoy it overall and now that I've slept on it I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts so the film stars Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood a couple who are on a little kind of vacation to sort of spice things up in their love life and they end up kind of going to this place where they can just have complete privacy and you know see where things go and just try to rekindle what they've had in their relationship we're introduced to a stray dog but other than that there aren't that many other characters I won't spoil too much on that and because I really want to keep as much of this a secret as I can to you guys if you're planning on watching it but Flanagan wastes no time getting to the heart of the matter here which is Jessie and Gerald Burlingame's relationship and how things have kind of you know not worked out for a while there's a lot of tension and there's a lot of things that these two are trying to hash out and figure out now if you've seen the trailers you know something is gonna happen to them I'm not gonna say exactly what it was but that leads to pretty much the major plot here of which becomes a big sort of survival story particularly for Jessie essentially she ends up being handcuffed to a bed and she has to try to figure out how she got out of this situation alive one thing I was excited to see which I really didn't know was going to happen was some of the more psychological elements Jessie becomes kind of hallucinogenic about a lot of different things she starts seeing herself she starts seeing her husband and she even starts to see some really mysterious looking figure which I won't really get into too much because that's one of the more really intriguing things about this film let's just say if that wasn't there I would call it mostly a thriller but because of this it does lead into more horror elements oh and Carla Gugino is really really good in this film I've enjoyed her throughout the years there aren't a whole lot of movies I can pinpoint and say like oh yeah she was really good in that or I remember her from this film but she is excellent really brings her all in this film Bruce Greenwood is good as well however I just didn't feel as connected to his character there are a lot of things hinted early on and pretty much everything you see has a really significant symbolism to it that you'll see there's some flashbacks there's a lot of different parts that you're just gonna have to absorb and you might even enjoy this film even more the second time around if you see it I haven't seen it twice yet but I just have a feeling I'll like it more if I do now to get into the things that I might have just had a small issue with and again this could just be because I was tired it does feel like maybe throughout the second act that it kind of drags a bit with some of the more the communication that goes on you know the hallucinating you know Jessie talking to herself talking to her husband all these sort of things happen and at one point I'm just like alright you know when is this going to move along here but again I was getting pretty sleepy at first I wasn't really sure if I wanted to review the film but after sleeping on it and now that I've really absorbed it and I've heard a lot of people have really enjoyed it so far too I think it is quite a really interesting film that I hope most of you will go ahead and check out there's a lot of really cool shots and scenes reflecting on an eclipse which is something you don't hear about too much you know we hardly ever see eclipses as it is so to see it portrayed in the film was really awesome and I loved how they sort of contrasted the shots of how you would see an eclipse with that deep dark red orange yellow kind of color now this may just be me but I wouldn't say this is really like a film that's really really gonna scare you I have heard people that have already said that this might give them nightmares there are some pretty creepy things I ended up watching it alone but maybe it's because I'm such a horror buff it didn't hit me as hard as it could have however there is some really really intense moments that I had to kind of almost look away or you know close my eyes real briefly just so I didn't have to see some of that most of those are kind of near the end so if you're you know if you're feeling the movie you'll see it come in maybe but it's one of those things where you're always wondering whether it's actually gonna happen and then okay yeah okay maybe it actually will and then yeah this film also does a great job of kind of subverting some of the horror tropes you see you know there's parts where I was kind of concerned that like oh no I've seen this coming before I know exactly what's gonna happen there and then I'm like oh okay that didn't happen that's good I'm glad they decided to go in that route there's also a lot of moments where you think something is what it is and then it might end up just being a hallucination or there's a moment where you're gonna be like what is that is that what I think it is and then you're not really sure for a long time until it's finally revealed whether it is or it isn't so this film is really kind of for the careful eye it's really for those of us that are gonna watch it and keep looking for little instances and keeps thinking about it until it gets answered later which I believe this film does answer the questions that it brings up from what I've heard it stayed very true to the novel there are some liberties and you know it's a Stephen King adaptation so there are definitely some things that had to be changed I'm sure guess I'm gonna have to look up some of that later especially after figuring out some of those changes that they did IT because you know that yeah yeah I don't know we'll see this is a film where you really start to get invested in the title character and follow her journey here you can see her every day here every moment every hour just getting more and more stressed dehydrated hungry tired all that stuff and you really start to feel the pain that she's going through so I appreciated that character investment because that's something in horror movies that we really need more of nowadays and we're starting to get it you know we have a lot of these up-and-coming filmmakers who are starting to make a name for themselves and I just think this really needs to be the case character driven films especially in horror is what makes something like this really stand out so again Gerald's Game is a really interesting film I hope many of you will give it a try and let me know if you think I should give the book a chance because if it is pretty good I might read it someday and hey I have a free audiobook credit so that might be something Gerald's Game is a powerfully adapted survival tale that will shock and surprise fans of Stephen King stories and that's why this film is a Dyligent Pick so guys what are your thoughts on Gerald's Game are you looking forward to checking it out soon have you read the book do you think I should give it a chance let me know what are some of your other favorite Stephen King stories that are worth checking out in the future also what other novels from King do you think should be made into a film someday my name is Dylan and if you love entertainment subscribe to my channel well this video ends and send me a thumbs up before you go thanks for watching and stay diligent