Misery (EP16)

In our second Personal Pedestal episode, we’re your number one fan with the 1990 adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel MISERY.

 

Pops explains why this movie is on his own personal pedestal, and how he’s been a devout Stephen King superfan since childhood (2:56). We then begin the case for putting it on the pedestal with the tour de force performance of Kathy Bates (8:37). We talk about the iconic sledgehammer scene (15:33), the prescience this film had on the rise of toxic fandom (30:17), and Mike makes the argument that Annie Wilkes is just a very effective creative director (46:36). We move on to the case for keeping it off the pedestal with the general “TV Movie” quality of the film (51:36), the myriad problems we all had with the ending (1:03:51), and we fiercely debate whether or not Wilkes uses a racial slur (1:07:37). Finally Mike wonders if the movie tips too far into being just “suffer porn” (1:11:07).