10. Misery - Hammer Time
Paul Sheldon (James Caan) is a writer of successful romance novels, trapped in an isolated, snowbound house with his 'number one fan', Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates in her outstanding breakthrough role). Annie rescued Paul from an accident and is nursing his shattered legs back to health until the thaw brings rescue (at least, that's what Annie says). Only when Annie finds out that Paul has killed off her favourite character, Misery Chastain, in his most recently-published story, she demands Paul write her back to life. What follows is a supremely effective cat-and-mouse thriller, adapted from a Stephen King novel. It's one of those rare instances where the film adaptation actually improves on the original story. In the movie, the plot moves quickly. Sheldon goes from passive, bed-ridden dependent to resourceful escape artist in just a few scenes, once he realises just how mentally unstable Annie is. Turns out Annie doesn't miss a trick, though. Sheldon's been exploring her house while she's out, navigating his wheelchair around the tight corridors. He gets back to his bed before she's home but when she gets in, she spots signs of Paul's transit. Furious, Annie bursts into Paul's room and immediately administers a shot, putting him out. Paul wakes up, sometime later. He's been tightly bound to the bed. At the foot of the bed is Annie. She talks to him in a tone that gently admonishes, saying how she's disappointed with him. As she puts a wooden block between Paul's twisted and swollen feet, she says she's sorry about what she's going to do, but that it's for his own good. Then Annie brings a sledgehammer into view, and we know what she's about to do with it. The shot of the hammer hitting the foot side-on is brief. On repeated viewings, it's clearly a prosthetic appendage - the hideous way the foot hinges away from the blow is kind of amusing when you see how rubbery it is - but for that first viewing, you can feel that heavy instrument connect to soft tissue. That we have to witness it a second time, on the other foot, makes the scene almost too much to bear. In the original story, Annie cuts off his foot with a sharp axe, cauterising the stump with a blowtorch. The movie treatment wisely reigns in the outright gorefest of King's writing, making for a tighter, more credible scene - and one that many people have a hard time forgetting.