Midweek Mention... Misery

Misery

Sidey: I've got a bit of a theme of sorts going this week. And we're kicking it off with our midweeker of misery, which I had never seen before.

Pete: Hmm. Any reason for that?

Sidey: I had never seen it.

Pete: I know

you're a, you're a, you're a, you're a filmy and this, I'd say this is a, this is a classic.

Sidey: Yeah, it's 1990. My dad hates all things I'm trying to think of a film he does like after,

like it could be a Clint Eastwood, maybe the one with the so

Reegs: which way you can.

Sidey: like wouldn't support watching anything, certainly not like this.

So I didn't see it. And then it has certain moments in it, one in particular that was so ubiquitous, kind of felt like you'd seen it or there was nothing else to see. So it just kind of passed me by a little bit. But I was keen to watch it because we'd mentioned it quite a few times in various top fives.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: The first time I watched this film, I'm pretty sure I was on a plane going to Canada. And, I just, well, I'll talk about it afterwards because I still feel the same about this film.

Sidey: the this film.

I recognised him and thought,

Pete: Story I, I recognized him and thought, I know this guy and I've seen this film before, but I hadn't seen it for a hell of a long time.

And then I thought he's really familiar. And yet it was a straight story. That's

Sidey: Like, borderline the same age in this as he did in the

Pete: in the, when was straight story nine, late nineties, isn't it?

Sidey: think,

Dan: He's got

Sidey: early noughties.

Dan: got one of those faces, you know, just white kind of hair, and the, the, there's

Reegs: And he's such a good character in this, which we'll get on to, I guess. But

Sidey: Yeah, I think this one starts off with James, now we're

Reegs: The opening shot is of a cigarette.

Sidey: Yeah, are we going with James?

Pete: Kahn.

Reegs: Well, that is his name.

Sidey: but I think that we've had

Reegs: when we did the Thief review, we had all kinds of pronunciations. But

Dan: kinds of pronunciations.

Reegs: it's

Sidey: And I think he's finished his, it's him finishing his manuscript. Yes. For this book. And then it goes a little bit non linear because it then goes back to his... Literary agent played by Lauren McCall as it happens where he's talking about what he's going to do to because he's got this incredibly popular series of

Dan: what he's going to do to,

Sidey: exactly.

And it's a

Reegs: THE Paul

Dan: Exactly, and it's

Sidey: trashy kind of romance novels. Sort of thing where he's on. He's not like particularly fulfilled by what he's writing. The series called misery.

Reegs: a

Sidey: Yeah. So, I didn't know that. I didn't know that there was a character called misery and that's what the whole the name came from. And his plan is to to free him up to write his, you know, his masterpiece is that he's going to have to kill her

Reegs: Yeah. And

Sidey: And he's announcing that to his agent. She's like, well, are you really sure that's a great idea?

Dan: You know, his agent. She's worried about the money, of course, and how that might dry up for her, because it's been such a success. But you're right, he's looking for something more

Reegs: He wants artistic relevance, and all that sort of thing, and also he's, I mean, like you say, this is going back in time, but obviously he's got the idea for this great novel, that's something completely different that he's going to do.

Dan: Yeah.

And and so he goes to the same place to finish his book,

Reegs: He has a routine, like a lot of writers do. He uses, you know, he goes to a particular place, has a particular ritual when he finishes his

Dan: bottle of Bolly, Dom Perignon or

Sidey: One cigarette with one match. Yeah. I think it's very, very particular.

Dan: lights

Sidey: Yeah. thumb. I was, I was enjoying the match content in this film. Yeah, cause you're a big fan of eating matches. Yeah, I am.

Yeah. he's,

Yeah, it's like almost Trim Peaks

Pete: Yeah, it's very, very interesting. I was enjoying the

Dan: Well, there's a blizzard. There's a blizzard coming in as he's finished the book and he's heading down the mountain.

Sidey: a straight away, I was like, what are you doing? That is not the machine for this journey.

Pete: should have done. It's

Sidey: It's 65, yeah.

Dan: It looks brilliant though until it slides

Sidey: in a straight line.

Reegs: It all happens really quickly as well. I mean, there's no fucking about. I think he's fannying about with the radio, isn't he?

And then he just veers straight off the

Dan: Just slides, keeps

Reegs: down. Stop. And...

Dan: And, and so word gets around after the blizzard ends that he didn't turn up at his destination and they

Sidey: don't we just, we just go straight into

Reegs: The rescue.

Sidey: rescue, don't we? Because he's... I think we get a shot of him kind of pinned upside down

Pete: inside the car,

Sidey: and then he's in a kind of fog of semi consciousness and you can hear, I'm your number one fan.

And you're like, okay,

Pete: And he's coming round,

but

Sidey: yeah, but that's, that's the first thing you hear about. I'm your number one fan. I'm your number one fan. He does come to to

Reegs: door

and pulls him out. She gives him CPR. She gives him mouth to mouth.

And I was like, has his heart just stopped? Because a minute ago he was sort of conscious. So you don't give

Sidey: I was surprised. C, by the extent of his injuries. When you see them

Reegs: Well, we do see them pretty much straight away, right?

Sidey: Yeah. It cuts back to her house, doesn't it? Yeah. With him in bed, his face is beaten up a, a bit.

Well, quite a, you know, good

Dan: cuts back to her house, doesn't it? Yeah. Him in bed, his face found him and has nursed him back into

Reegs: That is good luck,

Dan: Yeah, really good luck. She lives in the middle of nowhere No

Sidey: Ms. Wilkes

Dan: things and miss Wilkes is is there and luckily for him She was because he's goosed without her coming in. I think he'll probably freeze to death in that car

Reegs: to death in that car.

Sidey: yeah, she, well, she's very kindly medicating him with some mystery pills and whips back the bed sheets to say, you know, there's no get an ambulance, no, can't get an ambulance, so I've done the best I can do to, you had a compound fracture of the

Pete: both legs. Yeah. Yeah.

Reegs: phobia in both

Sidey: and when you see it, you're like, oh man, she's got two crutches just with bandages, tied around, just splitting his legs, it's fucking barren.

Yeah,

Dan: just split

by

all accounts, right now we're looking at it. He's safe, he's saved a life, she's patched him up. There's the, the storm has knocked everything down, so it's gonna be a

Reegs: Phone lines are down, Dan can't get into town, so there's no ambulance coming, unfortunately. But it's okay, because she's a nurse, and she also knows him as well. She's a big fan, like you say.

Sidey: she almost,

like in their first conversation says that she's a big fan and also that she's been going up to the cabin, fucking watching him. You're like, yeah. Oh my god, like, fucking Alambo.

Pete: Well, yeah, but I guess if you're, if you're like a really famous writer, you know, people wherever you go, if you're a celebrity, there will be people who will follow.

There are always like

Reegs: she she is, she's Stan. Before Stan came along, right? Yeah.

But Stan, up He's he's actually got, at first, he's not really got that any reason to be particularly, you know,

Dan: No, he's very

Sidey: all very believable,

Reegs: and he thought, you know, he's so gratified, so pleased

Dan: He's so

Reegs: it that he says, well, why don't you read, you know, she, she finds the man, the, the novel and he's like, you,

Dan: do you know what this is?

Yeah. And she's like, oh,

Sidey: but he does it in a, in an amusing way. He says, he does. She says, oh, I couldn't help but notice in your briefcase there that you've got a manuscript.

And he says, I know only certain people can read that. It's like,

Reegs: My

agent,

Sidey: my

Dan: my editor,

Sidey: anyone who's saved me from a horrendous car wreck, it's like, oh, wow. Oh, Paul, oh, Paul, she's really like

Dan: well, over the next sort of day or so, she rushes in and, Oh, it's just unbelievable, unbelievable, so excited at different parts as she's going into the story.

Reegs: soon she comes in a little bit moody though. She's a bit like, I don't know if I should offer you...

Well,

Sidey: she's lost her temper before about the soup.

Pete: No, no, no.

So she loses her temper about the use of profanity in the

Sidey: And then she...

Pete: while she's kind of like handing him over some suit.

Sidey: right, she spells the

Pete: at first she kind of comes in a little bit, like, he's like, are you okay? And she's like, oh.

Reegs: it's something clearly off

Pete: bit from me to like, you know, Critique like your work or anything, but and then he's like no no go on like let me know and she's like look You know, I'm not happy with the profanity and like and he explains that that that's how you know

Reegs: he says, I was a street kid like that. And that is, you know, he sort of explains it very gently. That's how people talk. And he's not condescending. But he explains it very rationally.

Dan: And he,

Pete: but

Reegs: she loses her shit.

Pete: they do not, they don't talk like that. And while she's like talking and her voice is getting, her voice is raising, she's like quivering with the soup in her hand. The soup's kind of like spilling a bit. There's a few shots like this in the film where He's, like, watching her and watching what she's doing with her hand because she's losing control.

Yeah, yeah,

Sidey: a bit of a

Reegs: There's a load of, he, the cinematographer, I can't remember, I've got his name in here somewhere, I'll have to do it later, but there's, like, a load of deep focus shots, so everything is constantly in focus in the frame, so everything takes on a bit of meaning. Yeah. The soup spoon, the typewriter later, every, you know, when he, the penguin, all those bits, it's done really cleverly.

Dan: it's Jeff Kitchen, the name

Reegs: Is it? Yeah.

Pete: And a lot of

Reegs: I think it's Barry Feld, I think was the,

Pete: a lot of the, a lot of the shots of people's faces are like real close up as well, where you see, you know, it's just her dialogue and his dialogue, but it's like closeups of their faces, which was, I I, which was noticeable.

Couldn't

Reegs: And we haven't really, she's kind of, real, like primm and proper most of the time.

Sidey: Front and center. It is constantly in the shot.

Dan: and

centre, constantly in the

Sidey: Well, she's not even finishes it. She gets about halfway through, whatever it is, and she just burst into the room one morning and she says, you dirty bird.

Yeah, . So she doesn't, you know, swear like we might. But she's a fucking irate and she's like, you can't kill her. And she's got to this park where,

Reegs: oh well no, we haven't done that bit yet. We haven't got Misery's book yet. 'cause she goes out to town.

Sidey: Oh. So yeah,

Reegs: Yeah. To go and get the copy of the book, doesn't she? So Paul Sheldon's latest book comes out after this 'cause.

Pete: latest book comes out. Yeah, because the first manuscript that we should, we should is this new

Sidey: manuscript that one,

Pete: untitled one, which is a removal from the misery.

Sidey: character.

Pete: It's the direction he wants to go off in, but she's not happy with it at all. But then, yeah, like you say, she goes off into town one day to get some supplies and stuff. And when she comes back, she's got his new

Reegs: she's so excited.

Pete: powering

Reegs: But the tension now, can it Khan? Fucking hell, now I'm

Sidey: is

Reegs: it as well. James James Khan is brilliant in this because he knows what's coming and he knows that she's not gonna be pleased.

And he cause he's prepared, completely prepared for when she does eventually attack him. Cause she does say she can't believe it, she comes in to him

Sidey: Yeah, you can't kill her, and she's irate, she's absolutely

Pete: Yeah, but like you say, calling him like a dirty birdie at one point, but that's, but she

Dan: she's frightening with it. Yeah, she is. Because he's... Completely at her will really, because he's still goosed, his legs are broken, he's still in bad shape, he's still recovering, he's getting a little bit stronger, but the long and short of it is, she comes in with a typewriter and says, You need to fucking write this girl back into the story

somehow.

Sidey: him burn the

Pete: like, yeah.

Reegs: yeah,

Pete: it.

Sidey: That's

got to go, that has got to go, and the next book has got to be

Pete: Misery, returns, literally, and, and

Reegs: and he has this moment where he's like, oh, it's fine. I can burn the manuscript. It's fine. There are dozens of copies out there. It doesn't make a difference. He's trying to play it off. All cool.

But you can see in his face, he's like, oh my

Pete: doesn't make

Reegs: this

Dan: it

Pete: a

difference, he's trying to and says no, because back in then, you, I can't remember, she said, he said it famously to to someone who was interviewing him that He doesn't keep copies and that they're the only one and so on so he she recounts that back to him So like he's pretty she's pretty much like got him snookered there What what we is really difficult to get across is in these scenes where you have her Coming in all kind of like happy clappy like whimsical that kind

Dan: Passive aggressive.

Pete: in like facial expression absolutely everything from from that to Unbelievable, I was sat there watching it knowing exactly what's going to happen because I've seen it before, knowing that it's like a thriller, a psycho thriller, edgy as seat, not edgy as seat, but you know what I mean.

And still feeling like, anxious every time, I'm like, oh please don't piss her off, please, like, she's fucking terrifying when she flips like that, because you see the loss of control. I mean there's this one before the, before the ceremonial burning of the, the the manuscript. While she's saying, you better do this.

She's like flicking lighter fluid all over his bed.

Like, almost like, if you don't do it, I'm gonna burn you to death.

Yeah, because

Reegs: well because of his injuries and he's dependent on her and also he, she has basically hooked him on this is much clearer in the book, but she's got him hooked on painkillers as well.

And he's actually been planning now a little bit of his own sort of like, resistance. So he started secreting painkillers away in the

Sidey: Mattress, yeah.

Reegs: the mattress.

Anyway, so because he's got to write this book, she goes off into town to get some paper and gets him a

Sidey: to get some paper and...

Well, that's another, that's another rage moment because she goes off to get the supplies and the typewriter and all this sort of stuff.

Reegs: But isn't this when he goes out?

Sidey: And he says, he says, oh this, this paper's no good, it smudges. And she's like calling bullshit on it and he shows it and she's fucking raging that it does smudge and she's like...

this is your nothing's ever good enough you don't you don't respect me or have any like blah blah so she fucking waxed it with a fucking ream of paper

Pete: typewriter,

Reegs: No, the typewriter, she drops the

Pete: no, it's, it's the paper. She, she like, whacks him, like, the, the big wadge of paper, the ream of paper. I, I wanted to just really quickly touch on, on this scene, because, to this point, and now we're getting 45 minutes into the film, something like that, maybe, like, halfway through the film, a bit more, and, this is, I, in my head, I was going, There's a, there's something that she calls him a couple of times in the film that I just assumed that that's what she called him all the way through the film, that I'd like misremembered it, and I'm thinking, oh, maybe it's a different film, because like, when she calls him Mr.

Man, and I never really kind of like understood that, but I like remembered it from having watched it the first time, and that's the first time she calls him it, because she's basically calling him out for being really ungrateful, like, what about a bit of gratitude, Mr. Man, and then like, chucks the ream of paper on his legs,

Sidey: that's the, the trip into town. I think that, yeah, the sheriff sees her going mental at someone who pulls out in front of her. Yeah. And he starts to think, well, she, yeah, she's a wronger because she does have

Reegs: Yeah, she's a bit of a whiner, because she does have history.

She's got a hair pin,

Sidey: he's he's found a hair pin which he's managed to pick the lock with And this is the tensions like really ranked up here because he he's wheeling himself around the house and you're like, oh You know, you know, she's going to be coming back and he knocks, he

knocks over the, the little glass penguin figurine and puts it back.

It's very obvious from the way they show you that he's put it back wrong. And you're just waiting for that to pay off later on. And then it's the race, but you know, you kind of, I

Reegs: Is this where he finds out a little bit about her history as well?

Sidey: Well, she's got this weird, he's got this weird shrine.

I think that's the second time he goes out, but she's got this shrine of all his books and a signed photograph and all this fucking weird.

Pete: But, but in the town with Farnsworth, is that his name? Yeah. You find out, so what he's done, he's, he's, he's not kind of, he's been out and, and looked at where

Sidey: He's done helicopter trips over nothing.

He's done

Pete: trips, he's been out on the road, just missed

Sidey: that far away from the car, yeah.

Pete: him back just as he was about to discover the car and everything.

But he's kind of, you know, he knows that there's more to it

Reegs: He won't let it go.

Pete: Yeah, so what he does and goes against all of the back copies of Sheldon's books and because

This this bit was like lost to me But I assumed that towards the end when he's got he's got a couple of passages like on some paper and

Sidey: so

Reegs: He reads it in her confession in the paper,

Pete: which is obviously a bit further down right but that because he's read the books and he's read that quote from the book

Reegs: He writes it down himself.

Pete: that's what sort of pieces it together.

So, it was just worth bringing up to show that he's kind of a... And then, when her coming into town, he's asking questions about her and so on,

Sidey: When the literary agent phoned him, I thought they were setting him up to be like a bumbling, like Chief Wiggum style, you know, hick, like nothing.

But he was really good.

Dan: isn't he? He's

Sidey: good and he had a great relationship with his wife, like she tries to wank him off in the car. He's like, no, no.

Dan: no.

Pete: Yeah.

Reegs: you're in this car, you're a deputy or something.

Dan: Very professional.

Sidey: But she does come back, she does give him the paper, and he has to Write this fucking cheesy shit that he

Reegs: Well, I bet that again, right again, this, I don't know how clear this is in the movie, but it's my experience again is colored of read. I've read the book quite a few times as well because it's really good. In the book, this like spurs him on to write the best ever novel.

He like it is brilliant. He can't believe it. Like,

Dan: well, she gets really excited, doesn't

Reegs: to his risk

Dan: when she realizes that, is it some bees that or something like that, that is a reason that he

Reegs: well, she tells him he cheated. First time he gets enraged because she, she compares it to the Saturday afternoon matinees.

'cause he tries to cheat the only, oh, she wasn't really dead or something. Yeah. And she's like, She tells this story about how when she was a kid, she used to go and see the matinees and there was a cliffhanger and they cheated one week. And it's another one where it sends her into an absolute rage.

Pete: despair.

She doesn't like being sort

Reegs: But he wasn't in the cock a doodie car!

Sidey: car!

yeah,

Pete: yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. But she is, so it doesn't, it isn't as apparent in the film, but... She's kind of, you know, absolutely like gushing with like the, the work that he's putting down and everything and obviously as the number one fan, she's a decent barometer of his of his writing and so on.

And

Reegs: And he's writing it on this typewriter that doesn't do ends anymore. So she's filling them in as she does,

Pete: anyone, anyone else? Pause every time it was typing to make sure there was that. Did you do it as well? I did it at one point. I had like Cindy, watch it with me and we were like pausing, looking and there was, there were gaps where the ends would be Yeah.

Looking for continuity errors.

Reegs: There's

Sidey: another trip, he makes another trip round the house when she's out. And does discover these scrapbooks. I think she's left them out. Or she must have just been looking at them. she's

Reegs: been

Sidey: she's kept scrapbooks of she's basically, she's, we know that she's a nurse.

But she's,

Reegs: maybe it's more clear in the book

Sidey: she's, I don't know, maybe it's more clear in the book again. She'd either deliberately killed or was suspected of, so she had killed, so I was like, well, how's she out, like?

Pete: suspected of, that she, it was never kind of like proven, but there was a load of suspicious deaths, involving

Sidey: that's the quote, it's like, only God can judge me, like the Mark

Reegs: but there's that, but then there's a whole load of unrelated clippings as well about other people di not just in her nursing capacity and shit.

And there's loads of them. It's, he's like turning over about 20 pages of

Sidey: So this is like her trophies, really, as she's kept the newspaper cuttings of it.

And he's reading like, oh my f ing god.

Dan: Yeah, well if the first time when he saw all the, the stuff about himself wasn't scary enough, like a shrine, then this, he knows he's in big trouble.

And he's been working out, he's been slowly getting himself fitted by raising the typewriter, this big heavy typewriter above his head and down. He, he knows at some point he's got to kind of make a fight, because we've been here a few weeks now. It's been a, yeah, it's he's been here a few weeks now at least I think.

Reegs: even gets a

Pete: He re he kind of regrets his little forays around the gaff because she comes and puts an end to those.

Sidey: to

those. Yeah.

Pete: here? Yeah.

Reegs: I think it's one night, he's just in bed, And she just injects him with a load of stuff that makes him pass out, And then when he comes to, he's

Sidey: She's got the block.

Pete: the bed. Yeah.

Dan: Well, this is

Sidey: So I, I, it's obviously, yeah, aware of this. I think, I don't think I'd actually seen the bit where she whacks him, but she explains that have you heard about this and this mine and when, if, if they caught the native workers stealing a diamond, they didn't want to get rid of them because there's still need in the work.

But what they would do is this, it's a procedure called hobbling and she fucking puts the block in between his legs. And gets the sledge, and there's no fucking time wasting, it's just whack, and the first one you actually see, just fucking go, they could go right angles, and the scream, like, oh, Jesus, it's awful.

Reegs: think you only hear the second one in the book. It's a different injury. I dunno if, are you interested in what she does in the book? It's same setup, same story. She goes to his legs with an ax, then quarter rises the stumps with the blow torch, and then hacks the little bits that she has to offer with a kitchen

knife.

Sidey: Jesus.

Dan: Okay. Well this, this was,

Reegs: I, I agree.

Dan: apparently so gruesome that in a an audience... For the test screenings, they were fainting and, even the cast was talking, talking about Kathy Bates, how scary she was, like the, the other crew members and things were just like, had to tell him, no, she's just acting,

Pete: I, I actually read, I read about this I, I hadn't read the book, but I read about what happened in the book.

And the reason why they left that out the book and went for the, the hobbling as well, is because they thought that whilst it, it was still gonna be like true to the character because it wasn't just a, you know, a, you know, like just amputating someone's feet and stuff, it would still retain some level of sympathy for the audience for her.

Which was what the director wanted to achieve

Sidey: have a huge amount, I've got to be honest.

Reegs: I think it's more gruesome because it's less gruesome, if you see

Pete: I know, yeah, yeah. It's just like the fact that she's

Dan: it's so

Reegs: And you see it for maybe, honestly, a

Sidey: Split second,

Dan: with the story that she tells, and you just think, oh, wow, they did that.

And now she's kind of

Pete: Because she goes about it in such a completely clinical and practical way.

It's just like, you know, like completely emotionless. It's like, as if like, Oh, and now I'm going to break your ankles. Like

Sidey: it while he's before that, he had found her closet with all the painkiller tablets and he stashed a packet.

And there was a little moment where she might have discovered that he had them like in the waistband of his trousers. And he's been collecting them in a little bit of paper. He's made a little makeshift envelope and he's trying to.

Pete: A wrap, let's call it,

Sidey: stash a load of gear

Reegs: Oh yeah, and they have a little seduction,

Sidey: they have this cute dinner where he pours an enormous glass of wine.

Yeah. And then. While she's not looking or out of the

Pete: or having

Sidey: yeah.

Four candles, he tips that painkiller stuff in her wine,

Dan: stuff in a bit.

Sidey: she knocks over on purpose or not? No, just a fluky

Reegs: Just a fluke, but the look of crushing disappointment on his face.

Dan: Yeah, it's taken him weeks to get all that. Yeah, and he's, he's coming, he's still trying then. But also, the policeman, the detective, he's slowly closing in as well. Because he's not far off the scent,

Sidey: He goes to the library, doesn't he? Yeah, yeah. And he goes through all the old archive newspapers, and that's where he sees the quotes.

Outside the courthouse that he's, that he's written

Dan: thinks I'll go pay her a visit.

Pete: definitely connect to them. And about this time there's one day she walks in and she's like, got nothing that he's done, but she's just got, cause it's raining and she says, Oh, like I hate that. She's like, come in absolutely like, you know, depressed

Reegs: You like, is she about to top

Pete: yeah. And that's what, that's when she shows that she's got a gun.

She just gets it out in the middle of the conversation. and

Sidey: yeah,

she walks off and says I might, I might use it, and then just walks off. We haven't even mentioned the pig!

Pete: no, , the pig called misery. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And

she's

Reegs: like, chasing it round, making that oinking thing. It's, like, one of the most repulsive

Sidey: repulsive things you've ever seen. Yeah.

Pete: It's definitely not the worst, but like most sort of like it's

Reegs: not the worst thing I've seen this week.

Pete: No, no. . Yeah,

Sidey: Sheriff Buster, he decides that they've done helicopter trips over and sort of snooped around, but nothing. So he's going to go door to door, knocks on the door but as she sees the the wagon approaching, she's got to like, wheel, I think she manages to get an injection in

Pete: Yeah, she does, in his shoulder,

Sidey: and drags him off into the basement. And Does a pretty good convincing job of trying to play it cool. She lets Buster into the gaff, lets him have a wander around. And just about got away with it. Until he goes outside.

Dan: a bit of a clumbo, doesn't he? Comes back.

Sidey: Well, Paul comes around and is able to knock something over.

Pete: the barbecue,

Sidey: Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. He knocks over the the barbecue makes it sort of and he thinks, oh, that's her and he he runs runs back and says, you okay? And then you can hear the shouting of down here. I'm down here and he

opens the the door to the basement and kaboom. She just

Reegs: blows

Sidey: guns him down. It's like um. Psycho, the police, Albergast is it?

Yeah, where he's, he's like snooped around the whole film and as soon as he gets in, just gets gunned

Reegs: I was gutted?

Sidey: I was

Pete: blows a big hole

Reegs: There's a huge hole in

Pete: yeah, well it

Sidey: man, I was devastated. It's a big hole in his chastity. Because they'd really been painting this picture of him being this like wholesome guy with his missus, actually pretty good at his job.

You know, he's a fucking like A1 guy. Fucking

Pete: the only light relief in the film as well.

Reegs: essentially dies for doing his

job.

Sidey: Yeah,

Reegs: Great.

Pete: But then so she's then about to do, I think like the murder suicide that, that she wants to do. That's like the most poetic way of ending her life by sort of killing him and her at the same time.

And he convinces her that actually no, like, look, you are right. I do love you. This is how we're going to go out like, I'm all for that, but let's finish the book first, which makes sense, which does make sense. And, and, and panic, like, you know, yeah, pandas to her, I guess, like psychosis. Yeah. Yeah. So

Reegs: he's using her love of misery as leverage, basically, to keep himself alive.

Pete: So, yeah, he's had to get creative there. So he gets a, a bit of a stay of execution really until the, the next scene, which is the, yeah, the, the final

Dan: Well that's it, he, he, he's got, he's got it and somehow he's got a match. And he's got his thumb with him.

Reegs: his,

Sidey: He says I need, you know, when we finish I'm gonna need...

The

Reegs: she says it to him, I think, doesn't

Sidey: glass, the glass, the Dom Perignon

Reegs: Dom Perignon.

Sidey: one match.

Pete: they both say Dom Perignon as

Sidey: when, when, when she comes back is that you've done it wrong and she's a gas is winning two glasses. She's like, Oh,

Dan: Yeah,

Pete: Yeah,

Reegs: It's gonna be a lot happy ever after.

Dan: You almost think there's hope for

Pete: yeah, I was rooting for them to be honest. No, but by the time she comes back in the room, he's like, soak the like the manuscripts in maybe the Dom Perignon

Sidey: No, he'd stolen the, while he was in the basement,

Pete: oh, the lighter fluid. Yeah. He stuffed it down his pants.

Reegs: he starts like dangling all the plot threads, you know, Oh, how misery, who misery chooses between, you know, whatever, Dan and Sidey, or...

Sidey: or whatever his

Pete: or Ted or whatever his name is. Yeah, yeah.

Reegs: Blah's mysterious benefactor, it's all right

Dan: will the gold go? Yeah, it

Sidey: And he lights it on fire and she has a huge panic trying to, like, put the fire out of this thing.

Dan: Douse

Pete: while she's trying to put it out, that's when he absolutely nails over

Dan: the typewriter from all that working out he's been doing it comes from high and it comes off the top rope straight down there, but she's a strong woman.

Reegs: a

Dan: Yeah. She's a strong girl though.

Sidey: Yeah, She's still got some fight in her

Dan: still got some fight on her and it gets really messy because he's pretty much, you know, crippled still. He's only got the use of his upper body. And

Sidey: Well, they have a rumble, don't they, on the floor?

Dan: taken a big hit, so.

Sidey: She's got the knife, because he had stashed a knife, but she's now got a knife. And they have a rumble, and eventually she smashes her head down again on the corner of the

Pete: typewriter again, yeah.

Sidey: I didn't like this bit, I have to

Pete: after, so. Well, but I think,

Sidey: This bit, fine, but the next bit, where she's, you know, comes back again, I'm like...

Reegs: Ah, it's a staple

Sidey: I know, but it just felt like it was veering into the supernatural, and I was like, no, she should just be a psycho.

I still love the film, don't

Pete: like you, you know, it's coming, you know, that there's that, like, they're never dead. Are they? And so, yeah, she, she comes back, but then like quite sort of poetically, he like stoves her head in with like a, like a pig kind of like

Sidey: Yes, there was, yeah.

Pete: Yeah. And this time she is dead. And by the, by the end of it, she's looking pretty, this is like, it's gone full horror now.

Like she's bleeding from the eyes and

Sidey: Yeah, she's in a bad way. And then we get a... Was it 18 months later or cut to it? Something like that. Something

Dan: Yeah, we cut to Newark, or somewhere some big city, and he's

Pete: walking with a

Dan: walking Kane but he's

Sidey: walking...

I'm impressed that he was, you know, back on his feet 'cause that was some

Dan: and it it, yeah. And it

Reegs: the trappings of what looks to be a tremendous amount of success. I would say

Dan: that's it. He hasn't just stopped there and got himself fit. He's been writing again and he's done the kind of novel that he always wanted to, to be known for.

Reegs: I think he's a publicist 'cause he goes to meet Lauren

Beko

Sidey: that's right, yeah.

Reegs: And she's like, oh, I want you, why don't you write about misery? That'd be a good one.

Sidey: Well, she says, I would be I would be lynched by every other agent at our union dinner if I didn't ask you to do, you know, a biography of your time of misery.

And he's like, nah. You want me to...

Pete: of trying to get past

Sidey: Yeah, he says, you want me to relive, like, the most horrific trauma of my life? And she's like, well, yeah.

Reegs: But as we see, he is continuing to relive that trauma because the waitress who brings him his drinks order

Dan: is... Yeah, for a second,

Sidey: and it's not, but she, the lady says, I'm your number one fan, and he says, oh, that's so

Pete: The end.

Farnsworth

Sidey: we've got to Yeah, it's, it's fucking great. I mean, even knowing, you know, that scene and there's no surprise when I'm watching it, even though I haven't seen it, but still, it's just like ridiculous. The two performances really, and Farnsworth as well was great. But yeah, Kathy, she, she did win the Oscar, didn't she

Yes, Yeah, it's just like a career defining performance. It's just

Reegs: Such an

Dan: The first ever Stephen King character to win an

Sidey: Oscar. Right. other thing I didn't realize it's Rob Reiner. Yeah. He's like really a comedy guy.

Reegs: Right has there ever been a man who's had a career that was like in two halves because he did like Spinal tap that we did and he did when Harry met Sally and he did this and he did

Princess Bride stand by me few good men all brilliant films in a row Then he did that north one the one with Bruce Willis as a fucking imaginary bunny or something and then his career just

Sidey: Yeah.

Reegs: forever.

Sidey: Well, shame.

Dan: Well, not in this one. This was, as I say, first time I saw this in a plane up until that point, it was about 14 was the scariest thing I'd ever seen.

And it was, and Kathy Bates was just electrifying. She was just shocking. She was just terrifying. And I remember, Still, you know, it never left me that this film is always one that I think Stephen King, Kathy Bates, she's known for this scene. She just owned that character. She

Sidey: it's like absolutely

It's like that kind of Hannibal Lecter kind of performance. It's so iconic. Absolutely. And so scary.

Pete: And, and this is the sort of, I mean, are we calling it a horror film?

Dan: Yeah, I think so.

Pete: It's kind of, yeah, it's definitely like a psycho thriller type.

Sidey: gateway, horror.

Pete: Yeah, probably. This is, you know, like, The Shining and stuff like that. Obviously, like, different, but, you know, this is the type of, let's call it, horror that I can really get on board with because even though there are moments in it that you're like, you know, you, you want to look away and it's, it's horrible and you know they're coming and you feel anxious and everything.

But the, like, the, the plot, the, the characters, the performances, everything fully justifies me giving my time to, to being shit scared

Dan: Yeah, exactly,

Pete: and I'm happy to, to let it do whatever it's gonna do to me, like,

Dan: Not, not really lots of jump scares, things like that, but I mean it did have, it did have those moments. Yeah, yeah. Not lots

Pete: one where she appears, like, he, I think he wakes up and she's just there, like, over

Dan: that's the hobbling scene, isn't it? And it's, it's like lightning and thunder just at the moment comes through the wheel and he's like, fuck you.

Hell.

Reegs: this book... The book that it's based on, and I guess the movie, is really about Stephen King's struggles as a writer.

And so Annie represents the period of his life where he went through cocaine a bad so that is also the story behind the story

Sidey: Oh, that's interesting. Did you see the list of people considered for James Kane's role?

I There's a lot. . It's like everyone in Hollywood.

Pete: was in there.

Sidey: It was offered to Jack Nicholson, but he turned it down because he'd just done The Shining and he was done, absolutely done with Stephen King adaptations. But Warren Beatty, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Richard Lathes, Harrison Ford, Morgan Freeman, Mel Gibson, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, William Hurt, twice, Kevin Kline, Al Pacino, Robert Redford, Denzel Washington, and Bruce Willis, all of whom

Dan: think they got it right with James

Pete: Khan

Sidey: it.

Pete: The same for, for Kathy Bates as well, for Annie.

Reegs: She was going to be

James Caan.

Pete: No. Yeah. She's gonna be with I

Reegs: going

Dan: Brave strategy,

Pete: I'm trying

to find it here and I can't,

Reegs: It's impossible to imagine anybody else doing that role.

Pete: AB absolutely

Dan: Cun. I of those names you dropped there could do a great job, but Kathy Bates is misery. It's just...

Pete: miserable, it's just... Even if you've seen this a million times

Dan: nobody

Sidey: wouldn't have done that.

Pete: just watch it

Reegs: Even if you've seen this a million times before,

Sidey: just do it again. Again,

Reegs: 'cause it's

Dan: it's gay.

It's still good.

Pete: still