It's the year of Stephen King adaptations: It (well on its way to becoming the highest-grossing horror film of all time) and The Dark Tower hit the big screen, while series The Mist and Mr. Mercedes were adapted for the small screen.
Netflix joined in the King mad rush with two adaptations: 1922 starring Thomas Jane and Gerald's Game, the latter released onto the streaming service last week (1922 premieres on October 20).
Based on the terrific 1992 novel, Gerald's Game was long said to be "unfilmable" - and understandably so. Jessie and her husband Gerald go to their secluded lake house for a romantic getaway, in an attempt to reignite a fire long lost between them.
He handcuffs her to the bedpost for a sex game, but Jessie loses her nerve quickly into it and demands Gerald uncuff her.
He ignores her pleas and then suffers a heart attack before hitting his head on the concrete floor and dying. This leaves Jessie trapped alone in a secluded house, handcuffed to a bed. Oh, and the couple left the front door open on their way into the house.
WATCH the trailer for Gerald's Game
While Jessie tries to figure out not only how to get out of the handcuffs (not cute, fluffy handcuffs but the ones used by police officers), she must also find a way to survive as the hours tick by and darkness falls.
Her biggest enemy is in her head: while she's handcuffed to the bed, she's kept company and taunted by a menacing Gerald, an unsympathetic version of herself, her father, a college friend and her psychiatrist. If dehydration or the ravenous stray dog chewing on Gerald's body won't kill her, the voices in her head certainly will.
It makes sense how this would be overwhelming to film. How do you show us Jessie in real time, as well as the different people she's seeing, the flashbacks to (and reveals of) her past and keep us on the edge of our seats at the same time? No wonder no one's attempted it before.
If dehydration or the ravenous stray dog chewing on Gerald's body won't kill Jessie, the voices in her head certainly will
The brave man to do it is horror director Mike Flanagan (Oculus) who edits the story by reducing the voices in Jessie's head to just three - the psychiatrist and college friend don't even get so much as a mention, and it's better that way.
The movie stars Carla Gugino (Spy Kids) and Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek) as Jessie and Gerald - and they both give fantastic performances.
Gugino dances effortlessly between coquettish wife eager to please her powerful husband, cynical voice determined to survive and a petrified woman trying to break her habit of burying her head in the sand when things get tough.
Greenwood is charismatic, mean and menacing. He's also in much better shape than Gerald was described in the book.
As night falls, it's clear that Jessie has another enemy to contend with - a mysterious, ghoulish figure Gerald calls The Moonlight Man, who might be Death. It's chilling how a grown woman can be afraid of the dark in the right circumstances, afraid of an unknown creature that lurks outside the safety of light.
"Women alone in the dark are like open doors, Jessie. And if they scream for help, who knows what might answer?" Gerald whispers to her, as she tries to convince herself that the Moonlight Man (who is called the Space Cowboy in the book) isn't real.
With all that time to think, and losing her mind slowly, a traumatic childhood memory resurfaces - either to save her or to suffocate her.
Gerald's Game is about more than a woman trapped in a horrible situation: it's about power dynamics, the way women fold themselves like origami to fit into the shapes the men in our lives want us to be. It's about finding the will to survive in our darkest moments. It's about breaking away from ourselves as an act of self-preservation.
But don't get it twisted: this is also a psychological horror. The way Caragan uses light and shadows to set the mood and represent unknown threats to Jessie's safety is masterful. Seeing a curtain blowing in the breeze might be an old-school horror technique but that doesn't make it any less chilling.
Gerald's Game will keep you at the edge of your seat, even if you have read the book and know how it ends.
The only problem with adapting an older work into a modern-day setting is this: if there's an iPhone sitting on the bedside table, why couldn't Jessie just say, "Hey Siri, I'm going to die - call for help"?
