"It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change."
— Charles Darwin
Survival is a basic human instinct. Many movies and books show us how people survive in dangerous situations. That’s why I was interested in Gerald’s Game. First, the movie poster caught my eye a woman handcuffed to a bed, looking terrified. Then I saw that it was based on a book by Stephen King, the same writer of The Shawshank Redemption, a movie that stayed with me for days. Like that movie, Gerald’s Game is not just a horror story it’s something deeper, more emotional, and more psychological.
The film is about Jessie, a woman who is trapped on her bed after her husband dies suddenly during a role-play game. But the real horror is not just being tied up it’s what starts happening in her mind. Jessie begins to remember her childhood trauma, especially the sexual abuse she faced from her father. This memory, which she had locked away for years, returns when she is stuck in one place both physically and mentally.
What made this movie special for me is how it mixes the past and present, dreams and reality. It reminded me of postmodern stories where you can’t easily tell what is real and what is not. Jessie talks to her dead husband. She talks to herself. She sees a strange man in the shadows and you wonder, is this all in her head?
The use of color and symbols in the movie is powerful. The red-orange light and the eclipse in her memory show how deeply the trauma affected her. She promised never to tell anyone, and that silence shaped her life. The room she’s trapped in becomes a space where all her memories, fears, and pain come back to life.
This idea of facing deep, hidden pain reminds me of the theory by Jacques Lacan. Lacan said that we are not fully aware of who we are our mind is split into different parts: the real self, the imaginary self, and the symbolic self. In the movie, Jessie talks to different versions of herself. These voices are not just hallucinations they are parts of her mind helping her survive, helping her remember, helping her fight.
According to Lacan, the “Real” is something so painful or strange that we cannot fully understand it. Jessie’s childhood abuse is that “Real” thing something she never faced directly. But now, tied to the bed with no escape, she finally faces it. Her mind brings back everything she had pushed away. That’s when healing begins.
There’s also the “Moonlight Man,” a creepy figure she sees in the dark. At first, we think he’s not real. But later, we learn he is a real serial killer rather nacrophile who was standing by her bed while she was trapped. In the final scene, Jessie faces him in court. He looks at her and says, “You’re not real. You’re only made of moonlight.” This line shows that he, like her father and husband, never saw her as a real person only an object.
Jessie replies, “You’re so much smaller than I remember,” and walks away. This is a strong moment. She is not scared anymore. She has taken back her power not just from the killer, but also from her past abusers. By facing her trauma, she has set herself free. She started writing diary which symbolically means to start telling her own story.
The handcuffs, the eclipse, the wedding ring all these are symbols. They represent how Jessie was trapped in her marriage, in her childhood, and in silence. But by the end, she breaks free, both physically and mentally.
Gerald’s Game shows us that horror doesn’t always come from ghosts or monsters sometimes, it comes from memories. But healing is possible when you finally face those memories and say, “You’re smaller than I remember.” If you're someone who enjoys movies that go beyond jump scares and ghosts, Gerald’s Game is a must-watch.
Here is trailer.
Thank you.
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