Adapted from Stephen King's bestseller by master of the horror adaptation, scriptwriter William Goldman (Marathon Man), Misery is a taut tale of perhaps film's friendliest ever femme fatale. When Paul Sheldon (James Caan) an enormously successful novelist crashes his car in a dark and disorientating snowstorm somewhere in the Rocky Mountains. He is discovered badly injured by his self-styled "number 1 fan", Annie Wilkes, a nurse who adores the writer's series of sappy romance novels about a beautiful 19th-century English heroine, Misery Chastain.

Waking up in Annie's remote snowbound house, Paul finds himself with two broken legs, and is told that the roads are closed, and the phone lines down. As Paul patiently awaits returning to civilisation, he permits Annie to read his newest work. Disapproving of his new shift in subject matter, that is, non-Misery material, Annie forces Paul to burn the manuscript and begin composing a new work, titled Misery's Return. As he conforms to her wishes, Paul comes to realise that Annie has a murderous past and that she does not intend to ever permit him to leave.

It's Kathy Bates' Oscar-winning turn as Annie, the smiling, sweeter than sweet psychopath that embodies this atmospheric and claustrophobic film's cold, cold heart.

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