8. Gerald's Game (1992)
Why It Should Be A Movie...Gerald's Game appears to be a rather bizarre Stephen King effort at first glance, because the plot is mostly based around the idea of a sex game gone wrong, and the main character is handcuffed to a bed for most of the story, nearly all of which she spends hallucinating. Oh, did I tell you that she's also naked? Yes, after her husband accidently dies during a sex game, Jessie Burlingame is left tied to a bed in the middle of nowhere. Pretensions aside, though,
Gerald's Game could make a taut thriller, made up of flashbacks, hallucinations and a gripping escape story, akin to other one room-premise successes like the recent
Buried, which starred Ryan Reynolds.
Why It Never Will Be... Core idea aside, which could prove a little too much for general audiences (and even King fans, perhaps), this is probably one of the author's lesser novels, but I do think it would work well as a motion picture. Thing is, there's no real reason to make into one, and releasing a movie called
Gerald's Game in this day and age probably will probably provoke frowns. Really, though, the fact that this book isn't considered to be one of King's best, coupled with the fact that most of it takes place in one room, means it's on the back-burner. Made cheaply with skill, it could be a little gem, but there's a still problem inherent to the marketing - who do you sell this movie to?