"You dirty birdie..."

            I’ll be the first to admit that my response to this prompt may seem unexciting but I’m not ashamed to latch on to the excuse that I do everything I can to steer clear of horror films, thus resulting in my lack of monster knowledge. When I first started to think about who is the best monster of all time, I immediately thought of an unfortunate memory I have of joining my parents in the T.V room right as Annie Wilkes was demonstrating to Paul Sheldon what “hobbling” is. The graphic image of Annie smashing in Paul’s ankles made my stomach sink and I left the room because of it. Years later while channel surfing I was greeted with Annie’s seemingly kind face, and decided to watch Misery start to finish. Misery, a story written by Stephen King, follows Paul Sheldon, an author who gets into a car accident during a blizzard. He is miraculously saved by his, "number one fan" Annie Wilkes. The blizzard causes Paul to be stuck under the care of Annie. As she nurses him back to health her story unravels, and Paul finds that she is obsessed with not only him, but his character Misery Chastain. The idea may seem hokie, but Kathy Bates turned Annie Wilkes into the scariest monster I have ever seen. Her kind face, neighborly accent and ironically placed cross around her neck is the meanest trick she possesses. You first notice that there is something off about Annie when she becomes enraged with the profanity Paul uses in his new book. The switch that goes off in Annie, and the terrifying spark in her eyes showed her instability. In my opinion that instability, and mental behavior is what makes a monster scary. What topped it off for me was Annie’s bone chilling stares towards Paul as she told him she loves him. The lengths she goes to keep Paul trapped in her house and her ability to over power him because he is injured was truly frightening to me. Her odd behavior, creepy haircut, and obsessive nature made her the scariest monster I have ever seen in a film.