Phil Hobbins-White
Rob Reiner’s big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s novel (1987) was released in 1990, blending conventions from the psychological thriller and horror genre, as well as utilising other elements which became common in horror films later in the decade. What follows here will be an exploration of the landscape of cinema in the years surrounding the film’s release, and the extent to which Misery reflects the most prevalent conventions and tropes of nineties horror films.
The 1980s saw the release of many financially lucrative sequels, such as A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984 et al). ‘Sequelitis’ – the seemingly contagious tendency for film franchises to churn out sequels – showed not only that horror fans were willing to consume further instalments of these horror sagas but also that there was a lack of originality and creativity in the genre. Occasionally, the repetition of plots and tropes caused these films to descend into pastiche. Another common trait of the eighties horror film was the emergence of the body horror subgenre (such as Videodrome, 1983) and the often gory and controversial straight-to-video horror films – dubbed ‘video nasties’ in the U.K. – able to be watched in the privacy of the viewer’s own home.
The film landscape in the nineties
In the 1990s, the overall film landscape – horror and otherwise – started to change, with studios and producers realising the need to appeal to teen audiences again. This is shown by the hugely popular teen films such as Clueless (1995) and Romeo + Juliet (1996), and the creation of an army of teen superstars such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Johnny Depp and Alicia Silverstone. The production of teen-centered films featuring teen stars in order to appeal to teen audiences also extended to the horror genre. Whilst some franchises which originated in the eighties such as Child’s Play (1988 et al.) and Puppet Master (1989 et al.) continued to release sequels, films such as Scream (1996) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) encouraged greater audience alignment with protagonists, rather than simply killing them, as had often happened in many horror films previously.
In addition to teen characters and stars, nineties horror films also distinguished themselves from their eighties counterparts by regularly utilising conventions from the thriller genre, most commonly the psychological thriller. One of the most famous psychological thrillers of the nineties, The Silence of the Lambs (1991), features multiple dialogue-heavy scenes in which FBI trainee Clarice Starling gets drawn into a psychological game with the incarcerated serial killer Hannibal Lecter. These scenes allow the antagonist’s character to develop, providing the audience with their backstory and motivations, and potentially causing some viewers to sympathise to some extent at least with the psychopath, creating a disturbing feeling. Seven (1995), another psychological thriller that contains horrifyingly morbid scenes, also explains the motivations of its serial killer. Whilst ‘John Doe’ has considerably less screen time than Hannibal Lecter, the audience is fully exposed to the psychology behind the killer’s potential motives as detectives discover slayings and clues according to the seven deadly sins, one-by-one. Both films’ killers are well-developed, charismatic and become believable to the audience, in complete juxtaposition with many of the two-dimensional killers from previous decades.
Continuing the trend of fully developing its killer(s) was the slasher film Scream. The film continued the trend of featuring a number of established young stars such as Drew Barrymore and Courtney Cox, as well as emerging stars Neve Campbell, Rose McGowan and Jamie Kennedy. Scream can be considered a quintessential nineties horror film owing to its self-referential and postmodern qualities. The extent to which Scream demonstrates reflexivity and self-consciousness led theorist Valerie Wee to identify the emergence of “hyperpostmodernism,” which she defined as an increased degree of intertextual references (which serves as the actual text), as well as actively referencing, borrowing from and influencing other media forms.[1] During a number of scenes, characters in Scream discuss horror tropes and their favourite scenes, and the director, Wes Craven, often toys with his audience’s expectations. Of the relationship between self-consciousness and the horror genre, theorist Andrew Tudor said that “some degree of awareness has always been a key element” in the horror film’s appeal to audiences, and that genre conventions are “routinely textually played upon.”[2] Whilst Scream certainly wasn’t the first horror film to utilise postmodernism, it was implemented so successfully that it helped shape the genre in the nineties and beyond.[3]
Postmodern slashers such as Scream and Scream 2 (1997), and the psychological horror The Silence of the Lambs, weren’t the only films to dominate the horror box office in the nineties, of course. The era can also be characterised by the successes of star-driven, high-budget period films such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Sleepy Hollow (1999), demonstrating that horror films with long-established characters and narratives were just as popular as ever. Whilst this is true, another defining trait of horror films in the nineties is also innovation, reflected in the decade’s two most commercially successful films: The Sixth Sense (1999) which deployed an unpredictable plot twist in its ghost story, and The Blair Witch Project (1999), perhaps the first horror film to convincingly implement the ‘found footage’ technique.
Reflecting nineties horror conventions
Scream can perhaps be considered the defining horror film of the 1990s, with its teenage characters, future stars, exploration of the killer’s motivations, self-reflexivity and playful tone. Misery, conversely, might not spring to mind quite so quickly as a definitive nineties horror; however, it does share some of the typical conventions. One such comparison is the tendency of horror films in the nineties to develop the villain’s character, providing their backstory and allowing the audience to discover their motivations, possibly creating some sympathy with the villain.
This is certainly true of Annie Wilkes in Misery. Annie’s motivations are born from her love of popular writer Paul Sheldon’s romance novels featuring the character Misery Chastain. Annie is in love with these stories, and with Paul too – she is his “number one fan” – as the Misery novels provide her life with meaning, escape, and fantasy. Annie ‘lives’ the world of Misery, demonstrating how essential it is to her existence: she has a shrine dedicated to Misery and Paul, has named her pet pig after her heroine, and can recall the most meaningless of facts about both Paul or Misery on a whim. Upon hearing Annie’s story of how she began reading the Misery novels, it is possible for the audience to start feeling sympathy for her: “When my husband left me I wasn’t prepared, it wasn’t an easy time. For a while I thought I might go crazy,” Annie tells Paul. The exposition of Annie’s backstory continues by informing the audience that the Misery books gave Annie pleasure during lonely night shifts working as a nurse – an honourable and often underappreciated profession, which again, might start to convince the audience to develop compassion for her. Yet it is when the pair hold a candle-lit dinner together to celebrate Misery’s return, that the audience’s sympathies for Annie peak, and we are tempted to forget her violent outbursts completely. Receiving Paul’s sudden suggestion of dinner, Annie is completely smitten, her face filled with ecstasy. This is surely Annie’s first ‘date’ in a long time, and knowing that Paul intends to kill her using the painkillers he has been stockpiling, the audience potentially feel complicit in the murder of a devoted fan.
As viewers learn of Annie’s history, get to know her personality, and discover her motivations, it is possible to see how these conventions are used to develop other nineties horror villains, whose motives are also made clear to the audience. Scream’s Billy and Stu are developed throughout the film as they are at first presumed to be innocent characters–the love interest and friend of protagonist Sidney. Later, their motives are explained as revenge and peer pressure, respectively. This convention is also used in The Silence of the Lambs, in which Hannibal Lecter is portrayed as charismatic and often likeable, despite being a serial killing cannibal. Furthermore, his motives are explained (in the source novel) as being as a result of childhood trauma caused by witnessing the murder and cannibalism of his beloved sister, which again, might cause feelings of sympathy in the audience.
Another convention that Misery shares with a number of successful nineties horror films is its blending with the psychological thriller. Just as films such as The Silence of the Lambs and Seven featured detectives investigating crimes, questions surrounding identity, suspenseful sequences and low-key lighting, Misery also successfully utilises these conventions. Nightmarish and dimly-lit scenes occur twice in Misery: first, when Annie attacks Paul during the night upon discovering that he has killed Misery in the final novel. Another occurs later when Paul wakes in the night due to the sound of rain and thunder and is then shocked to see Annie standing over him, ready to inject him with a sedative. These scenes serve to tell the audience that Annie can enter Paul’s bedroom at any time, and he is helpless to prevent it.
Annie towers over Paul in a rage.
Thriller conventions are used at various times throughout Misery. Director Rob Reiner often chooses to use inserts of objects such as a cigarette, a match, the typewriter or the misplaced ornament which tells Annie of Paul’s escape from his bedroom, all of which provide clues to the audience and create suspense. In preparation for the production of Misery, Reiner revisited a number of thrillers by ‘the master of suspense’ Alfred Hitchcock, which is evident by the high number of inserts, a typical trait of the Hitchcock thriller. The nineties horror film’s use of thriller conventions is shown in Misery when Paul seizes the opportunity to explore the house and possibly escape when Annie goes to buy supplies from the store. Both Paul and the audience know he has a limited amount of time at his disposal, therefore it is excruciating to watch him struggle to retrieve the dropped bobby pin needed to unpick the door lock, then having to re-position his wheelchair several times while struggling to pick the lock. Whilst the audience witness these difficulties, at several moments we are provided with cross-cuts to Annie’s progress on her trip to the store – information that Paul obviously is not given – and the audience therefore feels helpless.[4]Throughout this sequence, as Annie starts her journey back to the house and Paul’s time runs out, the cuts get faster, increasing the tension and suspense. This scene is perhaps the clearest example of a thriller convention in Misery, and is reminiscent of the climax to The Silence of the Lambs. During this scene, cross-cutting is used to show Clarice simultaneously arriving at a property as the FBI arrive at another, yet it is the isolated Clarice who encounters the psychopathic serial killer Buffalo Bill.
The final convention that Misery shares with a number of successful nineties horror films is a postmodernist style. Similarly to Scream’s characters referencing other horror films, or even Scream 2 featuring a film made about the events depicted in the franchise’s first instalment, Misery also contains elements from outside the world of the text. One example of this is shown by Paul’s occupation as a successful writer, like Stephen King.[5] Paul intends to end the Misery series, despite their huge popularity with fans such as Annie. King made his reputation as a popular horror novelist, but his fantasy Eyes of the Dragon (1984) received criticism from fans who were dismayed at the shift in genre and style. Of his fans, King said “some of them are quite crackers. I don’t think I have met Annie Wilkes yet, but I’ve met all sorts of people who call themselves my “number one fan”.[6] This creates a link between author and character, and between reality and fiction–a distinctive postmodern style akin to that of many other nineties horror films.
Challenging nineties horror conventions
Despite the various ways in which Misery reflects nineties horror film conventions, there are also examples of how it challenges these traits, too. Films such as Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Blair Witch Project are considered as archetypal nineties horror films, and it is immediately clear that Misery shares very few conventions with these films in terms of narrative or style. Furthermore, Misery’s cast and characters challenges the nineties horror film convention of featuring teen stars. Misery, conversely, exclusively comprises middle-aged characters and older – Paul, Annie, and even the sheriff and his wife all fall into this much older age bracket. Yet the film was still a commercial and critical hit, proving that a narrative centering teen characters played by young stars was not essential for success. James Caan, a respected actor who had a history of playing masculine characters such as Sonny in The Godfather (1972) was cast against type in the role of Paul. Kathy Bates, who won the Best Actress Academy Award for her role as Annie, was a surprising, yet perfect choice. Bates was a relative unknown to film audiences prior to Misery, having only appeared in a small number of feature films prior to 1990, although she was considered “one of America’s finest stage actresses,” according to the New York Times.[7] The casting of Caan and Bates is a huge contrast to that of Neve Campbell and Skeet Ulrich in Scream.
Additionally, Misery is just as much a psychological thriller as it is a horror film. As such it does not feature the sheer number of jump scares, moments of violence, and high number of deaths as was a convention of other horror films in the nineties. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Sleepy Hollow all played on audiences’ fears of the villains’ ability to appear suddenly: occasionally they would appear (and would increase the death count) and other times the menace would merely be implied. Misery, however, only uses jump tactics twice, both times when Annie appears over Paul during the night. Of course, Misery is still frightening; however, the fear is created more by Annie’s sudden bouts of rage and her believability as a character. Misery favours a greater emphasis on threat and psychological torture, thus challenging the nineties horror convention of explicit violence.
Arriving at the start of the nineties, and created from Stephen King’s source material, Misery was not consciously attempting to reflect or challenge nineties horror conventions; it has a unique style and identity all of its own. Yet through the development of Annie Wilkes’ character as the villain (which allows the audience to understand her motivations), along with the blending of the psychological thriller and postmodern elements, it is possible to see how Misery reflects (and possibly even creates) horror film conventions which were developed by other films later in the decade.
Notes:
[1] Wee, 44.
[2] Tudor, 110.
[3] For further reading into horror and postmodernism, Isabel Pinedo’s Recreational Terror, pp. 9-50, is highly recommended. Pinedo discusses the role that hybridity can play, and offers five characteristics of the postmodern horror film.
[4] Hitchcock employed this exact technique in many films, such as during the climax to Rear Window (1954).
[5] King also uses authors as characters in other novels including It, Salem’s Lot and The Shining.
[6] Beahm, 187.
[7] Sacks.
Works Cited:
A Nightmare on Elm Street. Directed by Wes Craven, New Line Cinema, 1984.
Beahm, George. The Stephen King Story. Andrews and McMeel, 1991.
The Blair Witch Project. Directed by Daniel Myrick / Eduardo Sánchez, Artisan Entertainment, 1999.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Columbia Pictures, 1992.
Candyman. Directed by Bernard Rose, TriStar Pictures, 1992.
Child’s Play. Directed by Tom Holland, MGM, 1988.
Clueless. Directed by Amy Heckerling, Paramount Pictures, 1995.
The Godfather. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Paramount Pictures, 1972.
I Know What You Did Last Summer. Directed by Jim Gillespie, Columbia Pictures, 1997.
Interview with the Vampire. Directed by Neil Jordan, Warner Bros, 1994.
King, Stephen. Eyes of the Dragon. Viking, 1984.
Misery. Directed by Rob Reiner, Columbia Pictures, 1990.
Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing, State U of New York P, 1997.
Puppet Master. Directed by David Schmoeller, Paramount Pictures, 1989.
Romeo + Juliet. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, Twentieth Century Fox, 1996.
Sacks, David. “I Never Was An Ingenue.” New York Times Magazine, 27 Jan 1991, p. 25. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/27/magazine/i-never-was-an-ingenue.html.
Scream. Directed by Wes Craven, Dimension Films, 1996.
Scream 2. Directed by Wes Craven, Dimension Films, 1997.
Seven. Directed by David Fincher, New Line Cinema, 1995.
Sleepy Hollow. Directed by Tim Burton, Paramount Pictures, 1999.
The Silence of the Lambs. Directed by Jonathan Demme, Orion Pictures, 1991.
The Sixth Sense. Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Buena Vista Pictures, 1999.
Tudor, Andrew. “From Paranoia to Postmodernism?” Genre and Contemporary Hollywood, edited by Stephen Neale, BFI, 2002.
Wee, Valerie. “The Scream Trilogy, ‘Hyperpostmodernism’, and the Late-Nineties Teen Slasher Film.” Journal of Film and Video, vol. 57, 2005, pp. 44-61.
Wes Craven’s New Nightmare. Directed by Wes Craven, New Line Cinema, 1994.
