These days, every public entity, from pop stars and athletes to fast food companies and, ahem, movie review websites, maintains such a meticulously curated presence online – their “brand” – that breaches of protocol, even deeply human ones, risk massive controversy. This disconnect between a celebrity’s public persona and private self is an all-too-common discovery in the age of social media. Having rescued Paul from a bad car accident during a snowstorm, she’s initially surprised to discover he’s different from what she expected, based on how his book covers described him, but she makes the most of her private audience with him to air her grievances.
Sure, she has difficulty with boundaries, but she seems harmless enough and genuine in her love for the work of writer Paul Sheldon ( James Caan). When we first meet Annie Wilkes (played b Kathy Bates, who won an Oscar for her performance), she’s polite, sweet, and, dare we say it, likable. “When you first came here, I only loved the writer part of Paul Sheldon.” To celebrate its 30th anniversary, we explore how the Hitchcockian thriller predicted the fraught relationship between the content creators of today and their sometimes problematic fans. Keep those cockadoodie sledgehammers handy. The harrowing tale of a deranged superfan who kidnaps her favorite author not only anticipates the rise of toxic fandom, but also hints at the kind of dangerous direct access that contemporary social media affords the general public. One film that has avoided that fate is Rob Reiner’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery, precisely because it has only become more relevant since it debuted in theaters on November 30, 1990.
Compared to other genres, comedies and horror films are at greater risk of losing their efficacy as they age. No matter how The Exorcist may have terrified audiences upon its release, there’s a good chance someone watching it for the first time in 2020 won’t be fazed by it, either because they’ve become desensitized or because the subject matter is effectively passé at this point.
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