Secret Window (2004)

A writer is accused for plagiarism by a strange man, who then starts haunting him for "justice."

Director:

David Koepp

Writers:

Stephen King (novel), David Koepp (screenplay)

Stars:

Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Johnny Depp	...	Mort Rainey
John Turturro	...	John Shooter
Maria Bello	...	Amy Rainey
Timothy Hutton	...	Ted Milner
Charles S. Dutton	...	Ken Karsch
Len Cariou	...	Sheriff Dave Newsome
Joan Heney	...	Mrs. Garvey
John Dunn-Hill	...	Tom Greenleaf (as John Dunn Hill)
Vlasta Vrana	...	Fire Chief Wickersham
Matt Holland	...	Detective Bradley
Gillian Ferrabee	...	Fran Evans
Bronwen Mantel	...	Greta Bowie
Elizabeth Marleau	...	Juliet Stoker
Kyle Allatt	...	Busboy
Richard Jutras	...	Motel Manager

Storyline

Famed mystery writer, Mort Rainey (Depp) is confronted by a mysterious stranger outside his house. This stranger calls himself John Shooter (Turturro) and claims that Mort has stolen an idea for a story from him. Mort says he can prove he wrote his first, but whilst Mort waits for the evidence to appear, Shooter starts to become more and more violent.

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Plot Keywords:

writer | stranger | divorce | cabin | private investigator | 

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Taglines:

Some windows should never be opened.

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Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, sexual content and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 March 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Secret Window, Secret Garden

Filming Locations:

Bromont Sur Le Lac, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$40,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$766,008 (Japan) (22 October 2004)

Gross:

$2,833,800 (Japan) (12 November 2004)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Grand Slam Productions, Columbia Pictures Corporation, Pariah Entertainment Group

Technical Specs

Runtime:

96 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie's premiere date was moved up a month to ride the coat-tails of Johnny Depp's success in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl which earned him a SAG award and an Oscar nomination.

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Goofs

After 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.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mort: [voiceover] Turn around. Turn around. Turn the car around and get the hell out of here. Right now. Don't go back. Do not go back there.

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Crazy Credits

At the end of the credits Johnny Depp can be briefly heard singing "Shortnin' Bread".

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Connections

Featured in Cinemania: Stephen King: O vasilias tou tromou (2009)

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Soundtracks

"Shortnin' Bread"
Traditional

User Reviews

A very well crafted and skilled psychological thriller

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.