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Horror fans will love movies like Gerald’s Game!

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Gerald's Game

Gerald's Game

There have been a lot of movies based on Stephen King books. Some of them, like “The Shining” by Stanley Kubrick, “Stand by Me” by Rob Reiner, and “The Shawshank Redemption” by Frank Darabont, have become classics. But many others, like “The Langoliers” in 1995, “Graveyard Shift” in 1990, and “Riding the Bullet” in 2004, leave something to be desired.

So, you wouldn’t be wrong if you were surprised to hear that one of the best Stephen King movies is a direct-to-Netflix movie. “Gerald’s Game” is a smart, interesting adaptation, which is good news for King fans who have access to a streaming service. It shows that it pays off to pair King’s writing with filmmakers like writer/director Mike Flanagan.

“Gerald’s Game” is based on a Stephen King story that was thought to be unfilmable for a long time. It is about a husband and wife (Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood) who have planned a romantic weekend getaway to save their failing marriage. He brought handcuffs with him, but she didn’t know, and the weird surprise quickly turned into a nightmare. “Gerald’s Game” has a limited number of characters and places, but it never feels claustrophobic. It makes up for its limitations by giving viewers an interesting, scary, and emotional experience.

If you liked “Gerald’s Game” and want to watch more suspenseful movies like it, we’ve got you covered. Here are ten movies that fans of “Gerald’s Game” should watch, ranging from movies with similar themes of claustrophobia and survivalism to other great King adaptations and Flanagan gems.

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Revenge (2017)

Strictly speaking, “Gerald’s Game” isn’t a member of the “rape-revenge” genre; neither is this under-seen feature film that marks an outstanding debut from writer/director Coralie Fargeat. Both films, however, take genre tropes and turn them into stories that empower and surprise the audience.

“Revenge” follows Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz), an aspiring actress who tags along with her affluent, married boyfriend (Kevin Janssens) for a romantic weekend in the desert. But when her boyfriend’s mates show there early, tensions begin to rise and one of the men sexually abuses Jen. When Jen’s lover tries to buy her silence, he chases her off a cliff and leaves her for dead. Spoiler alert: she’s not dead.

This suspenseful tale will keep you guessing and glued to the edge of your seat for the entire movie. Survivors in “Revenge” and “Gerald’s Game” are depicted as coming in a variety of sizes and shapes.

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Possession (1981)

While “Gerald’s Game” is about a woman’s inner strength and survival instincts, its drive is a marriage on the rocks.

Such topics lend themselves to what perhaps could be the definitive film about divorce. Andrzej Żuławski’s 1981 masterwork is many things: a national allegory, a meditation on loss, and most clearly, a frightening exploration of fractured relationships. “Possession” portrays a young woman, Anna (Isabelle Adjani), who abruptly abandons her husband Mark (Sam Neill) and small boy without any apparent cause. Devastated at the idea of adultery, Mark digs deeper.

What he discovers is stranger, weirder, and more disgusting than he could have ever imagined. Featuring not one, but two outstanding performances by Adjani (to make matters worse for Mark, doppelgängers abound), “Possession” also contains swirling, confusing photography courtesy of French DP Bruno Nuytten. Cinematic craziness that must be seen to be believed, the less you know about “Possession” the better (not that fragmentary story elements can prepare you for the atmospheric totality Żuławski has in-store).

The Witch Who Came From the Sea (1976)

The rotting ruins of a once-thriving seaside resort lie on an unknown coastline, their soft wooden boardwalks slicked with salt-stained paint. Millie Perkins) is a local single woman who cherishes the foggy memory of her father (a captain who perished at sea) and we follow her journey through her life. Only, Molly’s older sister Cathy (Vanessa Brown) remembers things differently. As far as Cathy’s concerned, their father was a sexually abusive, violent alcoholic. Molly rejects her sister’s recall, choosing to drift away on an imagined riptide that has more … uh, direct means of dealing with repressed memories of her dark past. After all, it’s hard to believe that two horrifying killings bear the spooky, blood-drenched resonance of Molly’s masochistic fantasies.

There is no other film like “The Witch Who Came From The Sea,” a psychedelic psychosexual terror trip that must be seen to be believed, in Matt Cimber’s career of blaxploitation directors. Blending features of the vengeance genre with an experimental flair, the 1976 film also offers an early insight into the talents of famed cinematographer Dean Cundy, who would go on to photograph the likes of “Jurassic Park” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

In terms of explicit links, “Gerald’s Game” and “Witch” are both concerned with women mentally chained by their abusive dads. “The Witch Who Came From the Sea,” an exploitation masterpiece that made the infamous “video nasties” list in the United Kingdom, is a riveting and twisted viewing that will capture anybody with a thirst for risk-taking cinema.

The Others (2001)

If you arrived at “Gerald’s Game” without reading Stephen King’s work, you may have had questions regarding ghosts, visions, memories, and the blurring lines between them. The gothic genre thrives on the tension between terror and intrigue created by its inherent ambiguities.

Enter: “The Others,” a 2001 English-language film directed by Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar. The film depicts Grace (Nicole Kidman), a buttoned-up mother who carefully takes after her two small children, both of whom suffer from light sensitivity. When unusual happenings lead Grace to fear her dark-shrouded house is haunted, her first concern is her kids, who appear especially upset by the ghostly presence. If you prefer that icy sense of not knowing exactly what’s genuine and what isn’t, “The Others” is a true nesting doll of gaslighting, changing situations, and rug pulls. Seeing it alongside “Gerald’s Game” would be great, but you might not want to plan on going straight to bed afterward.

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The Night House (2020)

Combining lakefront properties, blood-red skies, and sinister husbands, 2020’s “The Night House” is an intriguing modern chiller from “The Ritual” filmmaker David Bruckner. The film stars Rebecca Hall as Beth, a widow grieving the suicide of her beloved husband. While investigating her husband’s past, Beth begins to have paranormal experiences that make her believe that she is being stalked. To say much more would be to give up the ghost, as it were.

The similarities between “The Night House” and “Gerald’s Game,” despite their obscurity, are striking. For one, both films are carried by tremendously powerful (and difficult) performances from their lead ladies. Without Hall and Carla Gugino, neither film works. In addition, both films are set in idyllic lakeside mansions that gradually transform into dreadful prisons. The Night House is a must-see for fans of intelligent, script-driven horror flicks with strong female protagonists.

Images (1972)

Mental and physical survival become increasingly dependent on the main character, Gerald, as the plot of “Gerald’s Game” unfolds. They manifest in the personas of her spouse Gerald, the young version of herself, and later, the adult version of herself. While the apparitions materialize in response to her extreme trauma, she relies on both their company and advice to survive.

In “Images,” the 1972 psychological horror film directed by New Hollywood sensation Robert Altman, Cathryn (Susannah York) is coping with a similar mental collapse, albeit with far more disastrous repercussions. Cathryn has a hard time sorting out reality from her hallucinations, as her schizophrenia is getting the best of her. Her ability to tell the difference between the real world and her imagination becomes more and more difficult as her mental state degrades like a rotted rope. Hallucinogenic, psychedelic, and spooky in its representation of a disintegrating mind, “Images” has a subtle fear that is hard to shake long after the credits roll.

Gerald’s Game

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

Maybe you went away from “Gerald’s Game” in awe of Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood’s starring performances. Maybe the originality of the film’s modest scope truly did it for you. But if Jessie’s inventiveness was what launched “Gerald’s Game” into the stratosphere for you, then you’ve got to check out “10 Cloverfield Lane.”

This JJ Abrams-produced sci-fi survival horror film follows Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a young woman who comes to after a traffic accident, finding herself in a harsh subterranean bunker. Having lost use of one of her legs, Michelle is forced to weigh her instincts for escape against the fervent warnings of Howard Stambler (John Goodman), her overbearing savior.

All in all, it’s a hefty order: squirm her way out from under her rescuer’s thumb while accounting for the potential that he may or may not be lying about the outside world being dangerous. After all, this is a clandestine “Cloverfield” sequel. Michelle’s quick intellect and determination make for a nerve-wracking yet fascinating watch as she finds a way out of the underground castle and builds a hazmat suit on the fly.

The feature film debut of filmmaker Dan Trachtenberg, “10 Cloverfield Lane” is a sharp, well-crafted, economically presented narrative of an overpowered woman defying the odds. Come for the suspense, stay for Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s character using her skills as a fashion designer to make a gas mask.

Hounds of Love (2016)

Ben Young’s thriller might not have smashed any box-office records, but it’s the kind of movie that you need to see once — and then you never, ever want to watch again. Positively.

An uncompromising portrayal of a young Australian girl (Ashleigh Cummings) being tortured by a predatory couple in their suburban house is what the film is about, to put it simply. To say it’s hard to watch is putting things mildly. However, if you’re going to tell a story like this, the best approach to treat the subject matter with respect is to refuse to sugarcoat it.

Without ever feeling exploitative, “Hounds of Love” vaguely depicts the pathology of the captors, without going so far as to overly humanize them. Instead, the flick allows us in on this awful nightmare to show that bogeymen are often simply humans; sad and damaged yes, but ordinary in a terrifying sense.

This is, ultimately, one of the theses of “Gerald’s Game”: that what goes bump in the night is no monster, but a neighbor, a partner, a family member; that under the cheap rubber mask there’s always some hurt, furious individual looking for a means to recover a sense of control and power.

Misery (1990)

It was a smart move by director Rob Reiner (of “Stand by Me”) and screenwriter William Goldman (of “The Princess Bride”) to team up on this Stephen King adaptation. The result is a classic.

Like “Gerald’s Game,” this is a King adaption in which the main character spends the majority of the time in bed. James Caan plays Paul Sheldon, a novelist who is imprisoned by a fan who is so obsessive with his work. Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) saves Paul and nurses him back to health, but Paul soon finds that Annie is far more dangerous and deranged than she originally appears to be.

Both “Misery” and “Gerald’s Game” tease tension out of the helplessness of their heroes. Squirm-inducing sequences like this one will force you to examine your choices in the past that could have led to a situation where you were alone and at the mercy of another. There are many parallels between “Misery” and “Gerald,” two of King’s favorite topics that he has returned to often throughout his career.

Hush (2016)

The director of “Gerald’s Game,” Mike Flanagan, has worked on several films based on Stephen King’s novels and has established himself as one of the most respected directors of King’s works. But “Gerald’s Game” has a great lot in common with one of Flanagan’s non-Stephen King projects: 2016’s “Hush.”

This intriguing (and spine-tingling) take on the home invasion genre was made available on Netflix following its premiere at South by Southwest. One of Flanagan’s co-writers Kate Siegel plays the novelist Maddie Young, who was born with hearing loss and autism due to an infection contracted at an early age.

Living in a cabin in the woods may be no problem for Maddie, but her impairment, and her remote abode, prove extremely tough when a masked man (John Gallagher Jr.) enters carrying a crossbow. Maddie, unable to speak or hear, appears to be the ideal victim. Luckily, much like Jessie of “Gerald’s Game,” Maddie is severely misjudged, both by the crowd and the masked man prowling outside.

One thing “Gerald’s Game” pulls off very well is squeezing drama, tension, and satisfaction out of the cleverness of its star, who overcomes enormous odds. Drawing from its tension-filled forebears (including, but not limited to, Terence Young’s anxiety-riddled “Wait Until Dark”), “Hush” also boasts one of the finest on-screen cats of the 21st Century. So if you watched “Gerald’s Game” and couldn’t help but enjoy the crap out of that German shepherd, good news: Mike Flanagan is a master when it comes to extracting killer performances out of animals.

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