Annie Wilks is a true blue loony-toon complete with a psychotic stalking tendency and a scrapbook full of her murder memoirs. So when her recent obsession, novelist Paul Sheldon, crashes his car in the middle of nowhere mountain (where she lives), Annie has the opportunity of 'rescuing' him. She is after all, his Number One Fan and using her degree in nursing to get him back to health is the least she can do for her favorite character's writer...that is, until she reads his latest book and doesn't like how it ends.
This 1990 Stephen King novel-adapted movie is typical King material. Creepy, weird but somehow you find yourself thinking it just may be plausible. Bates is phenomenal as a lightning tempered, crazy Annie Wilks. She puts on that good girl persona so well that whenever she cracks it sends shivers right up that spinal cord you know she'd snap if you made her mad. This one had us jumping in our seats, nervously giggling and glancing around suspiciously at our movie watching partners. Not to even mention all the new non-curse word phrases we learned. You dirty bird!!
Motherly Advice: Up until the last twenty minutes of the film I would have said this was one for anyone in the mood for a spook that wouldn't creep you right out of sleep. Anyone as young as even 14. However, towards the end there was a surprising amount of violence crammed in there. Starting with (and there will be spoilers here in order to fully educate you on what to expect) Buster getting shot in the back by a shot gun. This wasn't gory at all, you see the shot explode out of his chest but there isn't any nasty blood spray, and to be perfectly honest, it was more traumatic for me cause I couldn't get passed him as Matthew from Anne of Green Gables. Then the climactic scene has a hand to hand, body to body fight scene between Wilks and Sheldon that gets Sheldon shot in the shoulder (again no goriness) and Wilks' face pretty bloodied up. While the bloody makeup is really cheaply done and easy to tell how fake it is, the scene is still pretty intense and violent. Sheldon hits her in the face with something hard and she hits her head on several things that make you cringe. In the end, goodness overcomes evil but it's a messy achievement. With this last scene in mind I'm going to say keep this one with the older teens 17 and up.
Danielle'- ClearPlay's Number One Fan
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