Although Stephen King movies like Firestarter and It rely on pyrokinesis and ancient Eldritch monsters for their scares, Gerald’s Game has a more realistic premise — although this doesn’t make the movie any less upsetting.
Gerald’s Game sees its heroine Jessie left in a dire life-or-death situation when her abusive husband handcuffs her to a bed in a remote cabin, then dies before he can remove her restraints. That is the entire conceit of the novel and its movie adaptation, with King and director Mike Flanagan mining the idea for all the tension it is worth. However, despite Gerald’s Game not featuring many explicitly supernatural plot points, the movie adaptation does add a sly nod to The Dark Tower series which has dark ramifications for the story.
Although The Dark Tower received a movie adaptation (that Stephen King hated) in 2017, not everyone watching Gerald’s Game would be familiar with the novel series. As such, when the film version of Gerald’s Game features the Dark Tower’s recurring “All things serve the beam” phrase, this could easily be written off as just another weird thing that a hallucination says to the movie’s heroine. For those who are familiar with King’s Dark Tower series, however, the line suggests the idea that the events that are happening to Jessie are on some level supernatural, and the machinations of larger forces at work. This is a pretty worrying discovery since the Dark Tower universe includes the iconic Stephen King villain Pennywise, The Stand’s demonic Randall Flagg, and Dandelo, another being that feeds off the fear of others.
Both the book and Gerald’s Game movie allude to supernatural happenings by connecting Jessie to Dolores Claiborne via what seems like unexplained telepathy. However, this connection is decidedly less unsettling. Jessie’s communication with Dolores has a positive effect on both women, as the two abuse survivors can find strength and solidarity in their shared trauma. In contrast, the creepy line “all things serve the beam” implies that much like Dolores and Jessie can each other in times of need through paranormal means, the monstrous supernatural forces at work in King’s universe are also able to converge when there is human fear to feed on.
Fortunately for Jessie, she doesn’t encounter It’s child-eating Pennywise, Flagg, or Dandelo during her ordeal. She does come across the terrifying Raymond Andrew Joubert, dubbed the “man made of moonlight" in the movie's version of the story. However, as intimidating a figure as he is, Joubert is very much mortal and human, with Jessie even meeting the Stephen King villain in court during the ending of Gerald’s Game and being surprised to discover he is just a person. Thus, the Stephen King Easter egg that implies Gerald’s Game involves some supernatural evil remains just a tease, but it’s still a deeply creepy touch that makes the adaptation all the scarier.
