Novelist Paul Sheldon is trapped in the snow after driving to get his latest work published. Thankfully, he is rescued by Annie Wilkes, a former nurse. She claims that she is his No. 1 fan and loves his Misery novels, as well as their main heroine Misery Chastain. However, the next Misery novel is released while he's in her care, and Annie finds out that Misery dies at the end. She becomes enraged, and forces Paul to write a new novel that undoes Misery's death. Paul, being too injured to leave her house, is totally dependent on Annie, and so begins his fight to find a way to write Misery back to life, all while Annie subjects him to all kinds of elaborate and gruesome humiliations.

What follows? A lot of meditation about writing, some amazingly suspenseful (and horrifying) moments, a huge Deconstruction of Fandom, the revelation of Annie's past, and some cheesy romance.

In 1990, a film based on the book was created starring James Caan as Paul and Kathy Bates as Annie with Lauren Bacall in a minor role. A few details aside, it's very faithful to the book and was critically acclaimed. Bates' role is considered to be one of her best, and she took home the Oscar for her psychotic Bitch in Sheep's Clothing. Was good enough to be included in Bravo's One Hundred Scariest Movie Moments.

In 2009, Lifetime released an original movie with a plotline somewhat similar to Misery called Homecoming.

  • Abhorrent Admirer
  • Adaptation Distillation: The movie forgoes any of the new novel nor the analogies to writing. Paul's ankles are also crushed, instead of his foot cut off; his thumb remains happily on his hand, and Paul's addiction to his pain medication is left out.
    • It's also interesting to note that in the novel, it's pretty clear right off the bat that Annie is certifiably insane. From the moment Paul regains consciousness he is able to assess that Annie is mentally unstable. However, in the film, Annie is originally played off as kind and hospitable person, albeit a bit eccentric. The audience and Paul don't realize just how deeply she is disturbed until later in the movie.
  • Affably Evil / Evilly Affable: Annie Wilkes
  • Alone with the Psycho: Buster in the movie, and Paul in a broader sense.
  • Antagonist Title: Paul hates Misery but the character's popularity precludes him from being a more serious writer.
  • Arc Words: Can You?, Africa, goddess, "Now I must rinse..."
  • Ascended Fangirl: What Annie Wilkes thinks she is...
  • Auto Cannibalism: Annie cuts off Paul's thumb, uses it as a candle on a birthday cake, and threatens to make him eat it.
  • Back from the Dead: The whole reason why Misery's Return started to be written.
  • Bad Samaritan
  • Battleaxe Nurse: Annie is a registered nurse, and a violent and psychotic one. Also, she's wielded hammers, so her having an actual battleaxe may not be too far off.
    • In the novel, it was an axe instead of a hammer. And a blowtorch to cauterize the wound.
  • Berserk Button: By the end of the story, Paul knows better than to correct Annie. Also, swearing also makes Annie really mad.
  • Big Bad: Annie Wilkes. Rather fitting since she's described as being a huge woman in the novel.
  • Big Eater: A rare, non-comic version of this. When Annie gets into her 'moods', she basically binges like crazy.
  • Non Sequitur Scene: The rare in-universe example. At the very end of the book, after his hallucination at the restaurant, Paul sees a small child going by with a skunk in a shopping cart, The oddness of the entire image inspires him to write a novel speculating on what the heck was going on with the kid.
  • Book Within A Book: Misery's Return, of course. The reader gets to see bits of it, particularly passages that mirror Paul's situation.
  • The Caretaker: The whole reason for this plot is because Annie Wilkes decided to take it upon herself to be this for Paul rather than calling 911 or taking him to the hospital herself. It does not go well.
  • Cat Scare:
  • Cliffhanger Copout: Annie accuses Paul of this, when he first attemts to revive Misery by simply rewriting the end of the last book so that she never died. She brings up an example of her favorite childhood serial Rocket Man. In one episode, the Rocket Man was locked into his car, which then fell off a cliff and exploded. The next episode showed the Rocket Man jumping out of his car in the last minute, which made Annie extremely angry, because "that wasn't what happened last week!"
  • Clueless Deputy: Duane Kushner, the young state trooper in the book. Justified since he is a rookie.
  • Creator Backlash: Paul really hates Misery, and quite happily kills her off.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Paul.
  • Deus Ex Machina: Discussed. Paul realizes that Annie knows it in all but name.
  • Dies Wide Open:
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: The novel is a parable for writing. For example, the amputation of body parts are analogous to the author having to cut parts of a book they like.
    • In On Writing, King notes that Annie Wilkes is a metaphor for his drug addiction. "Annie was (drugs and booze) and I was tired of being Annie's pet writer." With, of course, the dependence and isolation and exhaustion that go with addiction.
  • Death by Childbirth: Paul had to pay big for making Misery have this fate.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Annie is rather fond of this.
    • In the book, Annie cuts off Paul’s thumbs when he makes a mild complaint about the paper she purchased for him.
    • In the book, Annie’s scrapbook mentions she murdered a hitchhiker she picked up. It’s heavily implied it was because Annie made a pass at him and he ignored it.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending
  • Enfante Terrible: Annie. See Serial Killer below.
  • Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: She keeps a framed portrait of her mother in her parlor and in the book, says that her mother was the only person to stick up for her.
  • Everything's Better with Penguins: No, seriously. Annie owns a little model of a penguin on a pedestal. It becomes surprisingly memorable.
  • Evil Overlooker: The poster above.
  • Fan Dumb: In-universe example: Annie was extremely pissed when she found out about the new book Paul was writing, which was (in short) about a guy who stole cars. Essentially she was saying, "How dare you write anything but what I want you to write!!!" Averted, however, in that she doesn't want to be cheated via Cliffhanger Copout. She's too smart to be fooled by the cheap "resurrection" of Misery.
    • Emphasized more later on
    • Somewhat averted, though, in that Paul comes to the conclusion that while Annie might be nuts, she's also correct about his writing. He realized that his novel about the car thief was pretentious drivel while Misery's Return, the book he only wrote to save himself from her, was probably the best thing he'd ever written.
  • Film of the Book: Starring James Caan as Paul and Kathy Bates as Annie.
  • Fingore: Annie
  • Focus Group Ending: Focus groups were extremely unhappy with Paul walking normally at the end of the film, so the ending was re-shot with Paul needing a cane to walk.
  • The Ghost: Annie's mom, a great influence in the story despite being dead for who knows how long before it.
  • Good Is Not Dumb: Buster, the amiable local sheriff who figures the puzzle out. He only appears in the movie.
  • Gosh Darn It to Heck: Annie doesn't like it when your characters are dirty birds who use use cockadoodie foul language...
  • Groin Attack:
  • Growing the Beard: An in-universe example with Misery's Return. Paul goes as far as to consider that it might be the best book he's ever written.
  • Hair-Trigger Temper: Annie Wilkes
  • Hikikomori: Except to purchase food (and the next copy of Misery's romantic escapades, of course), Annie rarely if ever leaves her secluded cabin.
  • I Should Write a Book About This: Paul's agent pitches him the idea of writing a non-fiction book regarding his experience, he elegantly disregards it as a cheap shenanigan.
  • I'm Your Biggest Fan
  • I Was Quite a Looker: When Paul reads Annie's collection of newspaper clippings (called 'Memory Lane') he sees that she was "startlingly pretty" when she was young.
  • Karmic Death:
  • The Kindnapper: Annie Wilkes, who, upon finding Paul Sheldon, the protagonist and her favorite author, at the scene of a car accident, decides to take him home with her rather than at least attempt to call the hospital or for other emergency help. She's figured that since she's a trained nurse, she could take care of Paul herself! And she loves him, so surely he'll love her, too, once he gets to know her...
  • Large Ham: There's a reason why Kathy Bates is nowaday best known as Annie Wilkes in the movie.
  • Loony Fan: Guess.
  • Love Makes You Evil: Not that Annie wasn't evil to begin with, mind you.
  • Love Makes You Dumb
  • Mad Doctor: Annie, killer nurse.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Paul and Annie both take turns manipulating each other.
  • Mary Sue: Misery is an in-universe example. There's a reason Paul hates her.
  • Mercy Kill: Paul theorizes that Annie sees most of her murders as examples of this. She mostly kills old and sick people - that's why she gets away with it - whom she sees as "poor, poor things", and thinks she's doing them a favor. Later, when she gets more psychotic, she starts to see babies like that, and it turns into a murderous Munchausen Syndrome.
  • Money, Dear Boy: Why Paul puts up with writing the torrid rag of a Victorian airhead whom he has grown to hate for so long: to put braces on his daughter's teeth and put her through private school and college, of course.
  • Mood Swinger: Annie can be pleasant one minute and angry the next.
    • Fridge Brilliance: Invoked by Stephen King in his memoir On Writing. He subscribes to the Show, Don't Tell school of work, and does not spell out that Annie is manic-depressive, preferring that readers work it out for themselves.
  • Mood Whiplash: Annie spouting phrases like "kaka-poopie-doopie!" in the middle of her "moods" is either utterly terrifying or darkly hilarious.
  • Most Writers Are Writers
  • Munchausen Syndrome: Not a good trait in a nurse.
  • Mythology Gag: When Annie is talking to Paul about her "good news and bad news," she mentions a hitchhiker who was sketching pictures of an old hotel whose caretaker had gone crazy and burned it down. "Famous old hotel called the Overlook."
    • When he was a kid, Paul lived across the street from the Kaspbraks
  • Nice Guy: Paul, at least in the film, where he is nothing but polite to everyone he meets, and is initially nothing but kind towards Annie until he realizes that she is... well, Annie.
  • No Kill Like Overkill: When it looks as if Paul is saved when a state trooper shows up, Annie stabs the guy with a gravemarker in the chest, in the groin, and in the butt among other places....and when it turns out he's still alive, she runs him over with a riding lawnmower.
  • Oh Crap: Every time Paul realizes that Annie is in a mood switch. Especially when she swears.

Now my tale is told.

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