10 Most Hysterical Characters In Horror Movie History

Few people write hysterical characters as well as Stephen King. And the characters of his Misery (1987), adapted by Rob Reiner in 1990, is no exception.

Misery is the story of how former nurse Annie Wilkes (Kathy Bates) saves novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) from a car accident, only to take him hostage and force him to rewrite his latest novel for her.

Masterfully played by Bates, Annie is a melting pot of high-strung emotions and sinister designs. Though at the beginning of the film she seems little more than a kindly, homely woman intent on nursing her favourite author back to health, the mask begins to slip as Paul rebels and the real Annie comes out to play. Apart from the horrors she visits on Paul (including a harrowing hobbling scene that few of us will ever forget), Annie is generally unstable and clearly not used to keeping a social face on for more than a few hours.

The hobbling scene itself is a symptom of Annie's inability to control her emotions: Discovering the already frail Paul's attempts to escape, she breaks his ankles as a punishment, to prevent him from trying again. She claims to be Paul's number one fan, but abuses him to near-death, and for every modest trait – her disapproval of swearing, for example – she is so easily gripped by its opposite.