![\"\"](\"https:\/\/earofnewtdotcom.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/01\/screenshot-lrg-27.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In Misery<\/em>, the 1990 movie based off Stephen King\u2019s bestselling book, Kathy Bates stars as Annie Wilkes, the \u201cnumber one fan\u201d and kidnaper of captive romance novelist Paul Sheldon. Wilkes subjugates Sheldon to psychological and physical torture, while forcing him to write another book about Misery Chastain, the protagonist of Sheldon\u2019s series. Bates\u2019 performance is stunning and terrifying, and earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress. Wilkes is somewhat of an oddity in horror, as she is a female villain. In a genre that is so dominated by male villains, it is worth considering what threat Annie Wilkes presents to the audience, and why her threat scares us so deeply.<\/p>\n Underlying this questioning is the assumption that horror is a genre that typically offers women heroic positions and men villainous roles. In horror movies, one lives a feminist fantasy: men are portrayed as violent, think, and single-minded, oppressing young, usually female, protagonists. The ideological importance of this argument is that horror movies portray male violence negatively, implying that it is an issue which needs to be overcome, and can be overcome, by women. Given that many viewers of horror are young and male, this argument implies that men recognize and choose to live out the repercussions of their own violence.<\/p>\n Misery <\/em>reverses this fundamental dynamic of horror film. Instead of a male villain and female hero, Misery <\/em>presents us with a male hero and female villain. Correspondingly, instead of a feminist movie, Misery <\/em>is a misogynistic movie. Indicative of this is that the camera never switches to Wilkes\u2019 perspective. Instead, we are bound to Sheldon and his negative view of Wilkes. The camera reinforces \u201caudience\u2019s identification with his victimization while distancing us from Annie herself.\u201d (Magistrale 66) We are not only viewers of Sheldon\u2019s punishment at the hands of Wilkes, we experience it as well.<\/p>\n The viewer shares Sheldon’s pain as Wilkes “hobbles” his feet<\/p><\/div>\n Furthermore, all the oppressive forces that repress Sheldon are female. Out of the five women discussed in the film, three are damaging to Paul. Wilkes tortures him physically, but Sheldon\u2019s editor, Marcia Sindell, and Misery Chastain prevent Sheldon from becoming a \u201creal writer\u201d by limiting his creative talent. Even the Sheriff\u2019s wife, one of three women in speaking roles that are more than one line, is depicted as nagging and obstructing the Sheriff\u2019s search for Sheldon. Finalizing the movie\u2019s crusade against women is the climax of the film in which Sheldon performs a symbolic rape of Wilkes by shoving the burnt remains of Misery\u2019s Return<\/em> down Wilkes\u2019 throat (Lant 177).<\/p>\n Misery\u2019s<\/em> misogynistic leanings should not be misinterpreted as disparaging women\u2019s abilities to be capable people. While the movie believes that women are bad, it certainly doesn\u2019t believe that they aren\u2019t competent. Annie Wilkes is incredibly adept and intelligent, albeit in a twisted and insane manner. Wilkes is revealed to have a long criminal past, showing her to be a serial killer who has killed her husband and 11 children, escaping all charges. Sheldon spends much of his time in the movie attempting to outsmart Wilkes, often to no avail. Twice Sheldon escapes from his room, only to have Wilkes notice because Sheldon misplaced a porcelain penguin, which \u201calways faces south.\u201d Placed in the historical context of King\u2019s writing, Wilkes \u201cis a prototype\u2014 at least in terms of her strength, intelligence, and angry resolve\u2014 for King\u2019s feminist protagonists who follow her in a series of heroine-centered books published during the 1990s.\u201d (Magistrale 66). This context confirms that Wilkes\u2019 power is not an accident, although she is marred by her mental disorders and this books role as a transition for King.<\/p>\n Not only is Wilkes intelligent, she is emasculating. She dominates everything relating to sex, social affairs, and economic activity. Sheldon is confined to Wilkes\u2019 bed, and bedroom, for the near entirety of the movie. Multiple times we see symbolic forms of rape carried out by Wilkes onto Sheldon, such as when she forces painkillers down his throat or injects him with a sedative to keep him quiet. Wilkes is entirely in control of with whom Sheldon can communicate. This is especially apparent in the beginning of the movie when Sheldon begs to call his daughter. Wilkes, after initially claiming she did, screams at Sheldon and refuses him access to the outside world. Wilkes is also the liaison to resources for Sheldon. She decides what he can possess, and his economic life is entirely at her mercy. She forces him to write by threatening violence or starvation if he doesn\u2019t. Wilkes recognizes Sheldon\u2019s dependence, informing him, \u201cAnd you better hope nothing happens to me because if I die, you die.\u201d Wilkes\u2019 dominance of these spheres confirms the seriousness with which the movie interprets the feminine threat.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.onepagewonder.com\/halloween\/misery5.jpg\")