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.
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen King(novella "Four Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden")
- David Koepp(screenplay)
- Stars
Top credits
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen King(novella "Four Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden")
- David Koepp(screenplay)
- Stars
- Awards
- 3 nominations
Videos3
John Dunn-Hill
- Tom Greenleafas Tom Greenleaf
- (as John Dunn Hill)
- Director
- Writers
- Stephen King(novella "Four Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden")
- David Koepp(screenplay)
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
- All cast & crew
Storyline
Mort Rainey is a successful writer going through a rather unfriendly divorce from his wife of ten years, Amy. Alone and bitter in his cabin, he continues to work on his writing when a stranger named John Shooter shows up on his doorstep, claiming Rainey stole his story. Mort says he can prove the story belongs to him and not Shooter, but while Mort digs around for the magazine which published the story in question years ago, things begin to happen around Shooter. Mort's dog dies, people begin to die, and his divorce proceedings with Amy continue to get uglier. It seems that Shooter has Mort over a barrel, but perhaps Mort has his own ideas on how to resolve all the problems that plague him lately. —Anthony Pereyra {hypersonic91@yahoo.com}
- Taglines
- The most important part of a story is the ending.
- Genres
- Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
- Rated PG-13 for violence/terror, sexual content and language
- Parents guide
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.
- GoofsWhen the UPS van drives away after delivering the package, camera and crew are reflection in the side of the van.
- 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
Top review
overrated ridiculously overwrought psychothriller
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.
helpful•4538
- DUKEJBM
- Apr 6, 2004
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
- Runtime1 hour 36 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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