Classic Villains: Misery’s Hammer Swinging Annie Wilkes

By Owen Quinn author

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

1990 saw the release of the movie adaption of Stephen King’s novel Misery starring James Caan and Kathy Bates.

The plot sees famous author Paul Sheldon played by Caan crashing in deep snow having finished his new novel. He is famopus for the Misery series but tired of the character he has killed her off as he wants to expand to other stories. He is rescued by one Annie Wilkes who as it turns out is Sheldon’s biggest fan. However this is far from the lucky happenstance it appears to be as Sheldon discovers that Annie has a darker side than first appears.

On paper Annie is a dark presence and Kathy Bates took the role on for the big screen winning an Oscar for her performance. Rightly so as she is magnetic. Jason had his machete and Freddy had his five fingered glove claw but the most terrifying person that year was Annie welding a sledge hammer.

Annie lives in the countryside near the town of Silver Creek and at first, realising ahe had her favourite author in her home albeit bed ridden, is a genuine thrill for her. She gushes all over Sheldon displaying her fandom genes. She even introduces him to her pet pig which she named Misery of course. She seems harmless enough and seems to have a knowledge of medication due to his injuries. She tells him she has made calls to the hospital and agent and spoken to the top orthopedic surgeon. He allegedly told her that as long as there is no infection she could keep him there until the snows clear and the roads are accessible again. While there she bought the final book in the Misery series, Misery’s Child. It is clear that she is besotted with Sheldon and Misery. Annie tells him that there are two perfect things in the world, one of which is the Misery’s Child book and the Sistine Chapel. She says he is a great poet. As time passes she opens up to him about her failed marriage something she is not a fan of, and how reading Misery on the night shift as a nurse in the hospital got her through these times.

Even her language is bizarre. She never swears and uses phrases like cock a doodie.

But when she reaches the end of Misery’s Child, Annie freaks out. She is furious at him for killing the character off and beats his damaged legs with the book. Coldly and without emotion she informs him she never called anyone and no one is coming for him. If she dies so does he. Such is her twisted personality, she is nice as pie the following morning when she finds him lying on the floor.

But she has a plan. Forcing him to burn his new non Misery novel, she demands he bring Misery back. Supplied with a typewriter and paper, Sheldon is forced to write for his life to appease his number one fan. When he tells her the paper is the wrong type because it smudges, she unleashes another furious attack on him.

At the prospect of a new Misery book being written in her home, Annie returns to her friendly self but Sheldon is sneaking out of his room and discovers the threat is worse than he thought. Annie is baby killer who was charged over the deaths of several infants. She is a complete fantasist who keeps it all in a scrapbook to read back over at her leisure. The trial collapsed due to lack of evidence but it is clear that she was guilty. Her ego is fragile but Sheldon plies her with compliments to gain her favour and put her off guard.

Annie is clearly disturbed and suffers from depression triggered by the rain. She admits she once loved the writer but now loves him as a person. She admits she knows he doesn’t love her and that he will never know the pain of unrequited love. She is not a movie star type so he would not look at her twice. She flashes a gun admitting she thinks about using it sometimes on herself. She says she might put bullets in it leaving Sheldon with no illusion he is running out of time.

But Sheldon underestimates her attention to detail indicating she has OCD. She notices one of penguins is facing the wrong direction and that he has been out of his room. To prevent it from happening again and to ensure the book is finished, comes one of the most horrible scenes in movie history. This is the one that cemented Misery’s place in the audience’s minds and still makes us wince to this day.

Bates is so matter of fact about what she is about to do as she gives her speech. It is as if this is the most normal thing in the world and necessary to write the book. She gives him a history lesson on hobbling, something done to thieves in the Kimberley diamond mines. If you smashed their ankles they could still work but not be able to steal and run. You know what is coming and the tension makes everyone cringe even before the hammer swings. Director Rob Reiner does not hold back as Annie swings and both ankles twist inhumanly leaving the strapped down Caan screaming in agony. Once done the camera goes to close up on Annie. It is almost as if she has just had an orgasm as she breathes, “God,I love you.”

He is desperate to escape especially when Annie murders the local Sheriff who discovers her secret. She guns him down and is about to commit murder suicide on her and Sheldon. He desperately pleads with her to let him finish the book so at least the world will have Misery back after they’re gone. But he turns the tables when he burns the book in front of her robbing her of reading it. They fight and Sheldon stuffs burnt paper in her mouth before battering her to death with his typewriter. However Sheldon is forever haunted by the ghost of Annie Wilkes.

Mental illness is more prevalent these days than ever before and with Annie any sympathy you may have after the gun scene is lost when you remember she is a baby killer. Her behaviour stems back to her childhood as she felt cheated by the old classic serials where each epsiode ended with the hero dying then at the start of the following one showed them surviving. Annie hated the fakeness and screamed it out in the middle of the cinema. Does her equating Liberace to romance mean her concept of love was determined by something when she was younger? Did she enter marriage on a fairytale notion of how it would be?

She used a position of love and trust to murder and went off the grid when the trial collapsed so never received any treatment or help. We never learned why her marriage ended so it may be the charges ended it. If it wasn’t that then maybe Annie was displaying symptoms of irrational behaviour like her temper tantrums so her husband left. Having moved to the outskirts of Silver Creek, Annie’s isolation would only have amplified her thought processes making something like Misery her reason to live. You see it all the time with obsessed fans who spend every minute watching their favourite shows and spending money that they don’t have on memorabilia. They don’t have healthy relationships and the boundaries between fact and fiction erode away to nothing. I once remeber going to a Star Trek convention where a fan stood up and said he lived and breathed the show every day. I’ve seen people take on the very body language and traits of a fictional character.

Annie Wilkes is a timeless lesson that fantasy has its place but should never take the place of people or love. While real life can sometimes send us there, we must fight to keep it separate.