Most horror fans are convinced that film adaptations of Stephen King’s novels will shock, terrify, and challenge them as intended.
However, there is one film based on a King novel that has proven to be too much for some viewers – and you can see it on Netflix if you dare.
The streaming service has purchased the rights to offer films from King’s huge back library, including Carrie and Misery, as well as create its own adaptations.
These include 1922 and the film in issue, Gerald’s Game.
It was a Netflix Original released in 2017 and starred Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood. It was directed by famous horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who also directed Hush, the King adaption Doctor Sleep, and the television series The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor.
The recent solar eclipse on April 8 in North America prompted an increase in individuals wanting to theme their watching and watch Gerald’s Game, which also contains an eclipse.
‘My friend recommended this. What am I getting into??’ posted a social media user in Facebook group Netflix Bangers, sharing a poster of Gerald’s Game, and while much of the reaction was positive, there were also warnings peppered throughout.
While many responded to say it was a ‘great thriller’, Antoinette Dick confessed: ‘This movie kinda scarred me a lil [sic] bit I think.’
Stacey French Whitt agreed, adding: ‘Great movie! It was messed up lol [sic].’
‘Loved it – seen it 3x lol [sic]. Can be uncomfortable in certain scenes but worth a watch,’ shared Sarah McIntyre.
Sarah Sullivan Smith was starker in her warning though, cautioning: ‘Be careful. The big climactic scene made me sick to my stomach. I had to take a break before I could come back and finish watching it.’
It was also a topic of conversation on X, where Gerald’s Game was described as ‘extremely hard to watch’ and ‘a movie with a plot twist that’ll have me in disbelief for days’.
‘I watch about 100 horror movies a year and this one is the only one that haunted me for weeks,’ wrote genre fan Alice.
However, the warnings over various scenes (well, one in particular) have been around for a while online.
‘Okay, I genuinely nearly just passed out. #GeraldsGame has been on pause for ten minutes. A film has NEVER affected me like that before,’ tweeted @bigredsnackfoam on the day of the movie’s release on Netflix.
‘Can’t believe it affected me like it did. I swear I’ve seen worse. But I genuinely felt faint. Had to run to the loo and everything,’ they added, sharing perhaps a little too much information.
King’s work was originally considered ‘unfilmable’ owing to its setting as a psychological thriller about a couple attempting to spice up their marriage at a lonely lake cottage.
After the husband dies unexpectedly, the woman is shackled to their bed frame and must battle to survive and escape.
Flanagan admitted that the novel as written was’really tough to adapt’ as the team attempted to create ‘a mechanism to make the tale cinematic’ while keeping true to the source material.
‘In the book, Gerald’s dead and gone by page 10 and the rest of the book takes place entirely in Jessie’s head. It’s a stream of consciousness. The trick for us was trying to make that visually interesting,’ he told The Independent in 2017.
‘What we came up with was keeping Gerald — played by Bruce Greenwood — in the movie by taking that inner monologue and making it an outer monologue. It was really hard.’
Gerald’s Game is available to stream on Netflix now.
