Not only is Misery the best adaptation of a Stephen King book ever made, it's the only good one ever made. (I kid!)

Horror movies don't often generate Oscar wins, but Kathy Bates was so perfect as Annie Wilkes, the "number one fan" of romance novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan), that it's hard to argue she didn't deserve it. (That year, an oddly weak one for Best Actress, even saw Julia Roberts get a nomination for Pretty Woman.) If you don't know the story it's a real doozy: Former nurse Wilkes rescues Sheldon from an awful car crash in rural Colorado and takes him in to nurse him back to health. What she doesn't know is that Sheldon has killed off her favorite character, a girl named Misery, in his about-to-be-published novel ending the Misery series. Annie freaks, and eventually forces him to write a novel reviving Misery and continuing the series she so desperately loves. Meanwhile, Sheldon is trapped, tortured, and, in one of cinema's most gruesome scenes, hobbled with a sledgehammer to prevent his escape.

Director Rob Reiner deftly mixes terror with humor in the film, with Richard Farnsworth's local sheriff serving as solid comic relief and even Wilkes herself making for the most awkward villain ever. She's so sweet and full of phrases like "cockadoodie" and "heavens to Betsy!"... and then out comes the sledge.

All the praise heaped on Bates (this film continues to define her career) makes it easy to forget Caan, who is pitch perfect in an atypical role for him. The viewer feels complete sympathetic for the hero, bemoaning his sad sack eyes and rooting for him when he tries to escape (repeatedly). I guess you have to make him into a great guy in order to cheer (as I still remember happening in the theater when I originally saw the film) when he attacks Wilkes with a cast iron pig.

The new Collector's Edition DVD includes a bevy of extra features, including two commentary tracks and nearly a dozen featurettes about the making of the film and the world of stalkers.