Carla Gugino. In a sexy negligee. Handcuffed to a bed. Consider my interest officially piqued. And while I think that the minimalist plot is a little too slight for a 100+ minute movie, the lovely Ms. Gugino makes it a more than reasonable way to pass the time, not just because she looks great, but also because she puts in one hell of a performance.
Based on a novel by Stephen King, the film sees a married couple, Jessie and Gerald Burlingame (Gugino and Bruce Greenwood), travel to a remote woodland house for the weekend, where they hope to spice up their love life with a little bondage. Unfortunately for Jessie, no sooner has Gerald fastened her to the bedstead with handcuffs (real ones, not those fluffy ones they sell in Ann Summers—allegedly!), than he drops dead of a heart attack. With no-one around for miles, and the key to the cuffs out of reach, Jessie struggles with her sanity while trying to figure a way out of her predicament.
Meanwhile, a stray dog has made its way into the house and starts to eat Gerald, a strange, malevolent figure pays a visit in the night, and Jessie recalls a disturbing childhood incident during a solar eclipse that helps explain why she might be a little flaky.
Gugino's bravura performance carries the whole film, her suffering culminating in an eye-watering scene where she is forced to resort to self mutilation in order to escape her shackles. I've seen a lot of gory horror in my time, but this part of the film was genuinely gut-churning and makes me wince just thinking about it.
I'm not sure what to make of the film's finale, in which the strange creature that appears to Jessie during the night is revealed to be a serial killer with acromegaly, but it was certainly different.
6/10.
Based on a novel by Stephen King, the film sees a married couple, Jessie and Gerald Burlingame (Gugino and Bruce Greenwood), travel to a remote woodland house for the weekend, where they hope to spice up their love life with a little bondage. Unfortunately for Jessie, no sooner has Gerald fastened her to the bedstead with handcuffs (real ones, not those fluffy ones they sell in Ann Summers—allegedly!), than he drops dead of a heart attack. With no-one around for miles, and the key to the cuffs out of reach, Jessie struggles with her sanity while trying to figure a way out of her predicament.
Meanwhile, a stray dog has made its way into the house and starts to eat Gerald, a strange, malevolent figure pays a visit in the night, and Jessie recalls a disturbing childhood incident during a solar eclipse that helps explain why she might be a little flaky.
Gugino's bravura performance carries the whole film, her suffering culminating in an eye-watering scene where she is forced to resort to self mutilation in order to escape her shackles. I've seen a lot of gory horror in my time, but this part of the film was genuinely gut-churning and makes me wince just thinking about it.
I'm not sure what to make of the film's finale, in which the strange creature that appears to Jessie during the night is revealed to be a serial killer with acromegaly, but it was certainly different.
6/10.