IHdb

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - March 12th

"SECRET WINDOW" released in 2004

A reclusive writer is accused of plagiarism by a strange man, who then starts haunting him for "justice", in David Koepps adaptation of Stephen King's novella, Secret Window!

Don't miss out on future blogs, trailers, and clips IHdb has coming up
by Following IHdb's Facebook page above

Following the break-up with his wife Amy Rainey (Maria Bello), successful writer Mort Rainey (Johnny Depp) lives in a secluded cabin on the shores of Tashmore Lake in upstate New York. Their break-up was due to Amy having an affair with her now fiancé Ted Milner (Timothy Hutton), although Amy and Ted assert that Amy and Mort's marriage was long over before Ted entered the picture, and although Mort and Amy have no qualms with the division of assets, Mort is hesitating signing the final divorce papers. One day, Mort is visited at his cabin by a man calling himself Shooter (John Turturro), who accuses Mort of plagiarizing his story "Sowing Season". Upon reading Shooter's manuscript, he discovers its resemblance to his own story "Secret Window" - except for the ending - and gives Mort a three day ultimatum of providing proof that he did indeed write the story. Although oddly, Shooter does not seem as concerned about the authorship as he does about Mort not "getting the ending right". To protect himself against the seemingly violent Shooter, Mort hires a private investigator named Ken Karsch (Charles S. Ditton), who Mort hopes will be able to subdue and neutralize Shooter. As Karsch investigates, a later incident makes Mort believe that Shooter was hired by Ted to harass him - but as time goes on, Shooter's true nature comes to light as does Mort's decreasing grasp on reality! 

TRIVIA:   This is the second film adapted from a Stephen King work that Timothy Hutton features in. Co-incidentally, both films are about a writer tormented by his alter ego. The first was The Dark Half (1993) adapted from the King novel of the same name, where Hutton played the dual roles of the writer as well as his alter ego.

Top:   Mort is visited by a malevolent stranger, John Shooter (John Turturro);

Above:   The arrival of Mort's soon-to-be ex-wife Amy (Maria Bello) complicates matters!

Adapted from the novella Secret Garden, Secret Window from author Stephen King's collection Four Past Midnight, writer/director David Koepp began developing the screenplay after Columbia Pictures secured the film rights from King; King apparently traded the rights to Secret Window for the rights to Lars von Trier's The Kingdom, which King later developed into a 12-episode mini series for ABC, Kingdom Hospital. Koepp then cast star Johnny Depp in the lead role of author Mort Rainey, with Maria Bella cast as his soon-to-be ex-wife Amy, and Timothy Hutton as Amy's new fiance Ted (this would make Hutton's second appearance in a Stephen King movie, having previously starred in The Dark Half, directed by George A. Romero). Ving Rhames was offered the role of Ken Karsch, but turned it down due to a scheduling conflict. The part was then played by Charles S. Dutton (who had previosuly worked with star Depp in Nick of Time). Legendary character-actor John Turturro was then added to the cast as the malevolent John Shooter, having decided to accept the role in the movie because his son, a big fan of King, convinced him to.

With part of Secret Window being filmed in the town of North Hatley, Quebec in the Eastern Townships (approximately two hours south east of Montreal), other filming locations included Lake Massawippi, Lake Sacacomie, Lake Gale and the village of Bromont, Quebec. In the scene where Depp bursts in on Bello and Hutton in the motel, Koepp wanted Bello and Hutton to look shocked and scared - so, he made them both lie in the bed for 15 minutes before Depp rushed in, not knowing that the production crew had set up large speakers that blared static noise when the script called for them to be scared, with the lights in the room rigged to go on when Depp opened the door, startling the actors further! Later in the plot, when Mort's conscience is revealing the real situation to him at the end of the movie, Mort begins to yell, "Rah! Rah! Rah!" Johnny Depp took this from his son, who was pre-verbal and expressed his confusion by saying "Rah!" Depp felt that Mort would be so confused at that point that he would not know what to say to convey what was happening that he would become pre-verbal again. 

[last lines]
Mort: [voiceover] "I know I can do it," Todd Downey said, helping himself to another ear of corn from the steaming bowl. "I'm sure that in time, every bit of her will be gone and her death will be a mystery... even to me."

Top and Above:   As Shooter continues to threaten him, Mort's (Johnny Depp) starts to lose his fragile grip on reality!

Secret Window's premiere date was moved up a month to capitalize on Depp's success in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (which earned him a SAG award and an Oscar nomination), and was released on March 12th, 2004. Despite the publicity, Secret Window was a moderate success, grossing a little over $90 million at the box office, and received mostly mixed reviews. Roger Ebert awarded it three stars out of a possible four, stating that "[Secret Window] could add up to a straight-faced thriller about things that go boo in the night, but Johnny Depp and director David Koepp ... have too much style to let that happen." He continues by noting that "the story is more entertaining as it rolls along than it is when it gets to the finish line. But at least King uses his imagination right up to the end, and spares us the obligatory violent showdown that a lesser storyteller would have settled for." On the other hand, Ian Nathan from Empire magazine only awarded the film 2 stars out of a possible 5, stating that "The presence of the sublime Depp will be enough to get Secret Window noticed, but even his latest set of rattling eccentricities is not enough to energise this deadbeat parlour trick."

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE:   46%

_____________________________________________