Sunday, March 16, 2025

Misery at 30: a terrifying look at the toxicity of fandom

-

Rob Reiner’s entertaining adaptation of Stephen King’s darkly funny novel remains horribly effective thanks in large part to a never-better Kathy Bates

“I’m your number one fan.”

Innocent compliment or deranged admission? Thanks to Annie Wilkes, the wild-eyed, romantic potboiler-loving villain of Misery, the expression will always come off a bit creepy. Perhaps that’s unavoidable these days given the rise of toxic fandoms, yet before internet echo chambers bred hyper-obsessives en masse, Rob Reiner’s 1990 adaptation of the Stephen King novel plumbed the horrors of unhinged celebrity worship.

Continue reading…