A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.
- Awards
- 3 nominations total
John Dunn-Hill
- Tom Greenleaf
- (as John Dunn Hill)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
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Featured reviews
Secret Window's tag line "Some windows should never be opened" is so snarkily appropriate in its unintentional damning of this ridiculously overwrought psychothriller that it's a wonder some smart underling at Columbia hasn't leapfrogged up the studio ladder by pointing it out to the powers that be. Their error is the critics' gain, though, and even the presence of Johnny Depp, as novelist Mort Rainey, can't save this film from its own unintended melodramatics. Secret Window lacks a B-movie sucker punch, and by the final reel it degenerates into a hackneyed mishmash of obvious revelations and cheap, ineffective horror theatrics despite Depp's mangy fun. There's no car crash in this one as in his current television project Kingdom Hospital and much of his recent writing King penned it before that wayward van almost took him out of the running forever but the film itself is an effective enough metaphor for out-of-control bs that frankly was part and parcel of King's novella from page one.
I've seen psychological thriller's that try to scare you more than melt your brain, this one I'm proud to say does both. It's a very, very malicious and haunting thrill machine. I t brings the very essence of how horror and Psycho thriller's are suppose to be done, not with over the top gore and CGI, but with old school conventional means.
Secret Window is as sinister as it is smart it rolls along at a very steady pace and brings more to the table than what was required. It shows you what the decent into madness and utter chaos looks like, it shows you the depth and moral ambiguities of a torn man who's lost everything. With that said you can examine the physic of the mind as it cracks under extreme and constant pressure and how your choices do affect who you help, or who you hurt. This film's pace and dark style is meant to reflect horror films of the 40's, 50's, 60's and early 70's before gore became cool but that makes this film such a joy to watch and study. And that makes it a great film, not a good film, a great film.
Johnny Depp( who was fantastic here.) gives a very eccentric and brilliant performance as the conflicted writer Mort Rainey, John Turturro does exceptionally well as the sinister and vicious Shooter and he almost outclasses Depp in this film. Charles S. Dutton does well with the few scenes he's. But the main let down and I think the reason for this film's poor reviews from critics were the bland and very lame performances of Timothy Hutton( he won an Oscar he can do better than this.) and Maria Bello, they really lowered the caliber and class of this film and forced Depp to try harder to make them look good and make there time on screen with him good, but he succeeds and they fail. But Turturro and Depp hold up strong.
Secret Window is a very Keene and captivating psychological/horror thriller that is surefire mind boggling entertainment and out of this world fun. This movie is great rainy day entertainment or any day entertainment for that matter it's just all around a fantastic and mind boggling film that makes you question the sanity of writers and the world they live in ( speaking as one myself.) it brings to question as the thoughts in our mind really our conscious or our selves just speaking out to right the wrongs doe against us It's a film that ask those questions and then you have to answer. All in all Secret Window was a sinister, malicious and thought provoking film that delivers a movie going experience like no other.
Secret Window is as sinister as it is smart it rolls along at a very steady pace and brings more to the table than what was required. It shows you what the decent into madness and utter chaos looks like, it shows you the depth and moral ambiguities of a torn man who's lost everything. With that said you can examine the physic of the mind as it cracks under extreme and constant pressure and how your choices do affect who you help, or who you hurt. This film's pace and dark style is meant to reflect horror films of the 40's, 50's, 60's and early 70's before gore became cool but that makes this film such a joy to watch and study. And that makes it a great film, not a good film, a great film.
Johnny Depp( who was fantastic here.) gives a very eccentric and brilliant performance as the conflicted writer Mort Rainey, John Turturro does exceptionally well as the sinister and vicious Shooter and he almost outclasses Depp in this film. Charles S. Dutton does well with the few scenes he's. But the main let down and I think the reason for this film's poor reviews from critics were the bland and very lame performances of Timothy Hutton( he won an Oscar he can do better than this.) and Maria Bello, they really lowered the caliber and class of this film and forced Depp to try harder to make them look good and make there time on screen with him good, but he succeeds and they fail. But Turturro and Depp hold up strong.
Secret Window is a very Keene and captivating psychological/horror thriller that is surefire mind boggling entertainment and out of this world fun. This movie is great rainy day entertainment or any day entertainment for that matter it's just all around a fantastic and mind boggling film that makes you question the sanity of writers and the world they live in ( speaking as one myself.) it brings to question as the thoughts in our mind really our conscious or our selves just speaking out to right the wrongs doe against us It's a film that ask those questions and then you have to answer. All in all Secret Window was a sinister, malicious and thought provoking film that delivers a movie going experience like no other.
80U
This movie should be paying huge debts to much better psychological thrillers like PSYCHO or MISERY (coincidentally, the latter is another Stephen King book adaptation), but nevertheless, SECRET WINDOW is creepy, disturbing and haunting. Not to mention it benefits from a strong performance from Johnny Depp.
Mort Rainey, a successful writer received an unwanted visitor one day, Mr Shooter, who accuses him of plagiarism, Mort's life spirals out if control.
I have to be honest, I absolutely loved it, I'd class it as a real classic, it had a touch of everything, horror, thriller, psychological drama, I thought it was great.
'The only thing that matters is the ending.' Never a truer word has been spoken, it built and built, it developed pace and momentum, and peaked with a tremendous conclusion, the best bit of the film.
Johnny Depp, what can you say, absolutely incredible here, he's outstanding.
I loved it, 9/10.
I have to be honest, I absolutely loved it, I'd class it as a real classic, it had a touch of everything, horror, thriller, psychological drama, I thought it was great.
'The only thing that matters is the ending.' Never a truer word has been spoken, it built and built, it developed pace and momentum, and peaked with a tremendous conclusion, the best bit of the film.
Johnny Depp, what can you say, absolutely incredible here, he's outstanding.
I loved it, 9/10.
Secret window is a quite entertaining movie with an intrigue story line. From the very beginning, you feel engaged and wonder what will happen next. However, the ending is very very cliché and a big let down. A promising suspense movie that blows it at the finale. I wish they worked out the ending and come up with a better one. If you noticed, the lead actress here was playing in the "pay back". There she was the lover of the hero who was betrayed by his wife. Here she plays the betrayer. A twist of faith. If nothing, Secret Window is worth watching just for Depp. Also I like Charless Dutton as always, although his role here is limited. (I don't know what is with this guy, he is so sympathetic and fills every role he is in)
Stephen King Movie Adaptations, Ranked
Stephen King Movie Adaptations, Ranked
See how every feature film adaptation of Stephen King's work stacks up, according to IMDb ratings.
Did you know
- TriviaIn the scene where Johnny Depp bursts in on Maria Bello and Timothy Hutton in the motel, David Koepp wanted Bello and Hutton to look shocked and scared. He made them both lie in the bed for fifteen minutes before Depp rushed in. The production crew set up large speakers that blared static noise when the script called for them to be scared. The lights in the room were also rigged to go on when Johnny Depp opened the door, startling the actors further. No one knew exactly how to act.
- GoofsAfter Mort gets out of his car to confront his wife and her lover at the motel, he closes the car door. It is both heard and can be seen in the rear view mirror. When he returns to leave a moment later, the car door is open.
- Crazy creditsAt the end of the credits Johnny Depp can be briefly heard singing "Shortnin' Bread".
- Alternate versionsThe camera pans down to the garden, fading to black when it reaches the dirt. The alternate ending continues underground to the roots of the cornstalks, where Ted and Amy's bodies lay.
- ConnectionsEdited from The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
- SoundtracksChico and the Man
Written by José Feliciano
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $40,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $48,022,900
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $18,237,568
- Mar 14, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $92,913,171
- Runtime
- 1h 36m(96 min)
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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