GERALD'S GAME (2017) Netflix Review

Netflix brings another of Stephen King's disturbing stories to life with Gerald's Game where the sanity of a woman with unresolved trauma is tested after she is left handcuffed to a bed. Alone and secluded, Jessie Burlingame has no hope of rescue after her husband Gerald Burlingame falls to the floor dead after initiating an awkward bedroom scenario in a last-ditch effort to rekindle the spark of their dying love. Instead, the man dies of a heart attack after taking too many little, blue pills. Will Jessie follow suit?

She will die if she does manage to free herself from the bedpost. Starvation and thirst loom over her. With every passing hour, her strength fades away. Meanwhile, the solitude forces her to face the inner demons that she spends most of her life suppressing. Each one manifesting before her in a cruel, mocking fashion.

They whisper the same lies that she tells herself every day of her life:
1) She is too weak to free herself from the bed.
2) She is too weak to face the world alone.

It is a double-edged sword. Either she dies horribly, or she faces a long life without the comfort of her wealthy husband. She must decide the value of her life. Live or perish.

Tragically, the voices in her head are not the only dangers in the house. A very real dog lies in wait to eat her fresh corpse as soon as she succumbs to death. In the meantime, she must watch the animal slowly devour the corpse of her husband. It forces her to endure the reality of her fate if she fails to escape the bed. If she passes dies, it will eat her corpse. Even if she passes out, it would eat her alive, and she would be too weak to fight it.

That dog represents more than a gruesome future. It also represents her past. Every man in her life is a hungry dog. Each one devouring her bit by bit, taking advantage of her kind and timid soul. Like every dog before it, she feeds that dog fresh meat out of her fridge thinking her kindness would do it some good. She is wrong.

Instead of taking her offering with grace, the dog returns to the house for more food. The dog finds plenty. It first eats her husband before setting its sight on her. Chained to the bed, she faces the most important lesson of her life. She can no longer avoid or suppress it. She must stop allowing dogs to devour her. If she can fight the lurking in her bedroom, she can learn to fight the dogs in her past.

Her life is a lie. She pretends to be a well-adjusted housewife, while dogs knaw away at her soul. The trauma begins with her father. He molests her at the age of 13, an experience she buries. Instead of holding him accountable, she feeds that dog with her silence. She even refuses to tell her dog of a husband who cheats on her. Instead of confronting his infidelity, she buries it. Happier in her comfortable lifestyle than defending her integrity. Finally, she meets the Moonlight Man. This man lurks in the shadows while she suffers, refusing to set her free. Instead of fighting him or demanding freedom, she convinces herself that he is a figment of her imagination. She buries the reality of her situation. The Moonlight Man intends to kill her.

She must free herself. In a world filled with dogs, she has only herself on whom to rely. First, she must fight the dog trying to eat her alive. Every time she fights, her physical strength fades, but her inner strength endures. After two days of facing the dogs of her past, she finds the will to live. Her inner strength improved. However, her body is barely strong enough to slip the cuffs and escape the house. Before she escapes, there is one more dog to face. One more test. Barely conscious, she regresses and fails.

She feeds the Moonlight Man with an offering. She gives him her wedding ring in exchange for safe passage out of the house, so she can get to a hospital. After three days of starvation, hallucinations, and fighting off a hungry dog, she survives. But the dog comes back for more. He appears to her in her nightmares, feeding on her fear and demanding all she has left of herself. He wants her soul.

The only way to keep her soul is to refuse. She must face the Moonlight Man. She must tell him NO. No more dogs. No more offerings. There is so little left of her, and she wants to keep it.

Is there any strength left in her to fight off the Moonlight Man?

Will she chose to live?