It was announced last year that horror’s current hottest property Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil) was to direct an adaptation of Stephen King’s Gerald’s Game for Netflix. With filming now wrapped the film’s lead, Carla Gugino has talked to Den of Geek about the shoot, the bulk of which would have seen her character, Jessie, alone and handcuffed to a bed.
“It was one of the hardest, most challenging shoots I’ve ever done, which is saying a lot,” the Watchmen star revealed. “I’ve definitely chosen some material that’s been really challenging. We shot six weeks in Alabama. I think Mike is absolutely the man for the job. It’s one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done. I love this woman… you’re dealing with something that has elements of horror, but also is really more of a thriller, in the [vein] of Misery. And she is also dealing with this childhood sexual trauma with her father, and those are all tricky tones to find together.”
Gugino (pictured in Sucker Punch) adds: “Every step of the way, one of the things [Flanagan] said to me, which directors very rarely say, was, ‘I want you to take ownership over this; this is as much yours as it is mine’… I’m really excited about it.”
In King’s 1992 novel, Jessie and her husband Gerald head off to a summer home for a romantic retreat where she reluctantly agrees to Gerald’s sex games. With Jessie handcuffed to the bed, Gerald crosses a line and the game ends tragically. Now alone and trapped, her only company comes from a stray dog and her darkest memories and fears. As night comes, she is unsure whether it is her imagination or if she has another companion: someone watching her from the corner of her dark bedroom.
Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek, Super 8, Disturbing Behaviour) stars opposite Gugino as Gerald. Rounding out the cast are Henry Thomas (Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gangs of New York), Carel Struycken (Men in Black), Chiara Aurelia (Big Sky, Pretty Little Liars) and Flanagan regular Kate Siegel (Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Oculus).
Gerald’s Game will premiere on Netflix sometime later this year.
Words: Kevan Farrow (@KevanX)
