Gerald’s Game, has for a long time, been ”the unfilmable Stephen King book”. Then back in 2014 Mike Flanagan got attached to it. The years came and went and no film appeared. Until now. Three years after it was first announced Mike Flanagan has filmed the unfilmable book. And how did he do? I’m happy to say that he did great!

My biggest concern about filming Gerald’s Game was the fact that Jessie is all alone with her thoughts 90% of the movie. How do you translate that to the screen without losing the logic in the story and without losing the feeling that Jessie is losing her mind and draws into herself? And I’m very happy to say that Mike solves this perfect. What he did was let the viewer see the characters that Jessie is talking to (when she’s really talking to herself) and we see them in a context that makes it impossible for anyone to not understand that they only exist in her head. He keeps the logic and lets Jessie talk to the persons visually but still in her head.

The cast of the movie is very limited. We have Jessie and we have Gerald. And then we also see Jessie’s dad in flashbacks from when Jessie was young. And that’s it. Three characters and four actors to play them (one young and one adult Jessie). I like the cast. Carla Gugino do a great job as Jessie and I really feel for and with her when she’s chained to that bed. Bruce Greenwood is a good Gerald. He looks a bit different from what he looks like in the book but that doesn’t affect the story one bit. He is very creepy and plays the part well. And then we have Henry Thomas as Jessie’s dad. And I don’t know if it’s because I remember Henry as the little kid in E.T. but he is creepy as hell here. Not scary scary but creepy. He plays the part perfectly!

The movie follows the book well and I think Mike has managed to transfer the feeling in the book to the screen. He has (for understandable reasons) given Jessie more clothes but other than that there’s no big changes. Oh, and I almost forgot. There are two more characters in the movie. One dog and Death…

I’m so happy that this unfilmable book now have been filmed and that the result turned out great. Thanks Mike for showing us that even the unfilmable books can be turned into great films. Oh and there’s at least 5 nods to other King stories. Did you find them all?