Macabre…ish Horror Review: A Good Marriage

A Good Marriage, 2014/ 1 hr 42 min

When Darcy’s (Joan Allen) husband, Bob (Anthony LaPaglia), of 20 years is off on a trip, she found his secret stash of bondage magazines and in a hidden compartment she finds cards, belonging to different women. After looking up the notorious killer from the news, Beadie, she recognizes her earrings on one of the victims. She sees her life unravelling before her eyes.

When her husband calls home, he sniffs out that something’s wrong, even though Darcy tries to play it off.

When he returns home he knows, that she knows. In part because he looked for evidence and he was right. And leaves it up to her to turn him in or give him another chance.  He convinces her that she’s safe, that he’d never let Beadie hurt her. He manipulates and guilts her and she agrees but he has to stop killing, never talk about it again and get rid of all the evidence but no sending the last victim’s ID to the cops.

Later upon deeper introspection she understands the kind of monster he is. All the gifts that he’s given her that were trophies. All those were trips that coincided with victim’s locations. He’s the perfect husband, father, businessman and everyone loves him. But it’s all just a cover. A cover for what he really is.

And what he is capable of, so she begins to plot. They have go out and have an amazing night after finding 2 coveted rare coins and when they return home, Darcy sees her chance to end Beadie’s reign of terror once and for all, and takes it. Bob looks like he died from an accident.

Meanwhile, a retired detective, Holt Ramsay (Stephen Lang), that has been on Beadie’s trail for years has been around, he has always thought Bob was a good suspect he also thought Darcy was involved. But he just couldn’t prove it. He visit’s the new widow, he finally hopes to get answers. He doesn’t get the answers that day but when she visits him in the hospital.

This movie was directed by Peter Askin based on the short story by Stephen King of the same name from the book, Full Dark, No Stars. This movie is pretty close to the short story but different enough to make a difference in tone. Good cast and pacing. Other movies based on stories from the same book are Big Driver and 1922. The only one missing is Fair Extension!