MISE-EN-SCENE ~ Annie Wilkes (Misery)

Annie Wilkes is a former nurse and the main antagonist of the 1987 novel, Misery, written by Stephen King, and its film adaptation (directed by Rob Reiner). The character Annie Wilkes has an extremely wayward disposition. Our initial impressions of Annie (played by Kathy Bates) is that she is lonely and a bit of bookworm (towards Paul Sheldon Novels at least), but towards the end of the story we realise that she is dangerously insane and bipolar, who has a history of murders that she committed. 

The setting of Annie’s house is where a majority of the film takes place. The house is old and is decorated by doilies, ceramic animals and antiques, which could remind the viewer of the home of a grandparent. It is possible that Annie’s love of antiques could stem from the Misery novels as it is set in the 1900s. The house itself is placed off in a remote part of the mountains of Colorado, this makes the Annie’s character seem distant, from not only civilisation but also from sanity, this isolation may have added to her mental state towards the end of her life.

Many props in the film are silver; the knife, the typewriter, the gun, Paul’s wheelchair. The colour silver can be associated with feminine power; this can directly correlate with Annie’s character because Annie uses the pills to manipulate Paul and also because Paul is so weak she has power over his life while she nurses him back to health.  The colourless energy of silver can lead to negative feelings of coldness this could be a pathetic fallacy towards the weather that proceeds while Paul is a held captive in Annie’s home.

The lighting often correlates with Annie’s mood swings. When Annie tells Paul she loves him, it’s the night time and raining. Although Annie does not show much violent anger in this scene she says “The rain gives me the blues”, she also pulls a gun from her pockets and says to Paul “Sometimes I think about using”. In this scene there is low-key lighting (a common trait in nearly all horror films).