Depois de terminar seu mais novo manuscrito, o escritor de sucesso, Paul Sheldon, decide sair para comemorar. O problema é que está nevando demais e Paul acaba sofrendo um terrível acidente. Ele é salvo e abrigado por uma ex-enfermeira chamada Annie Wilkes, que se auto-intitula sua fã número um. Aparentemente uma simpática e doce senhora, Annie, aos poucos, vai se revelando uma sádica psicótica, que começa a torturar Paul quando descobre que ele matou sua personagem favorita em seu último livro publicado. Agora, Paul Sheldon terá de usar suas artimanhas de escritor para ganhar tempo, enganar Annie e, com sorte, escapar deste pesadelo.
In a wintery Colorado, acclaimed author “Sheldon” (James Caan) comes off the road only to be luckily (we think!) saved by the timely intervention of “Annie” (Kathy Bates) who just happens to be a nurse. More than that, she’s a superfan of his work and so makes it clear that his care is a labour of love she is well prepared to carry out. Gradually, though, he begins to realise that she isn’t quite the woman she’s claiming to be. He is locked in and isolated, and when she begins to suggest that he reactivate one of the lapsed characters from his novels - well let’s just say she has some fairly unique methods of persuasion at her disposal. With him her “guest”, his publisher “Marcia” (Lauren Bacall) is starting to worry and so a quick call to the local sheriff sees “Buster” (Richard Farnsworth) become the bear in the air as he tries to track him down. With “Sheldon” trapped and fed a diet of sedatives and torment, it’s becoming quite a race to see if anyone can ever find him, let alone rescue him from his increasingly obsessive host. Some of Caan’s facial expressions are super here, especially towards the end - but it’s the menacingly angelic effort from Bates that steals the show here and makes this quite possibly my favourite adaptation of a Stephen King novel. Those, I usually found, were rarely the most substantial of stories, but here he has provided some personas for both to sink their teeth into, and it also delivers one of those scenes that will live in cinema history for ever. The bleakness of their surroundings adds an extra degree of chill and Rob Reiner manages to build then sustain quite a degree of peril from pretty early on in the proceedings. It’s really not for the squeamish, nor probably for anyone who has ever written-out a popular literal character, either!
