Directed by: David Koepp
Written by: Stephen King (novel)
David Koepp (screenplay)
Produced by: Ezra Swerdlow
Starring: Johnny Depp, John Turturro, Maria Bello, Timothy Hutton, and Charles S. Dutton

The best Stephen King adaptations have little to do with the supernatural. You doubt me? Let’s look at a few shining examples (no pun intended): Shawshank Redemption, The Dead Zone, Stand By Me, Misery, and Green Mile. Any vampires, killer cars, giant rat-bat things, alien invaders, or ghosts in any of these? Not a one. You see…when filmmakers get hold of one of King’s works, you can almost hear them say, “This is our vampire/killer car/giant rat-bat thing/alien invader/ghost movie.” And so they concentrate on whatever the “big bad” is and the characters become cardboard. Whereas if you give a filmmaker a story about people relating to one another, that’s what you get on film. Secret Window—based upon the novella “Secret Window, Secret Garden” from King’s anthology Four Past Midnight—is not in the same league as Shawshank Redemption (one of my favorite films of all time), but I would rank it among the better films made from the words of the Master of Horror.

Morton Rainey (the always amazing Johnny Depp), a lazy yet best-selling suspense writer, discovers his wife Amy (Maria Bello) in a motel bed with another man (Timothy Hutton). Rainey moves out of the couple’s home in the city and takes refuge from the world in a small lakeside cabin. For six months he takes long naps and tries, unsuccessfully, to write a new novel. One day, he opens the door to his retreat and finds John Shooter (John Turturro) standing there. It seems Shooter is a writer who thinks Mort stole his idea for a story. But it’s not just the plagiarism that has him fuming. Oh no. You see, Rainey—Shooter alleges—had the gall to change his original ending, an ending that was perfect as it was. Of course, Mort denies the accusation. His story was published in an issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine a whole two years before Shooter claims to have written it. Shooter’s not buying this alibi, however, and he gives Mort just three days to prove the story wasn’t stolen. At first, Rainey thinks the man is a harmless nut like other harmless nuts before him, but then bad things start to happen.

Chameleon Depp once more inhabits the skin of his character—displaying an unkempt Einstein mane and artistic goatee. He moves easily and believably from anger and frustration with his soon-to-be-ex-wife to absolute fear of a crazy stalker. Turturro is also at the top of his game. With his easy-going southern drawl and Quaker dress, he seems an unlikely villain. One look into his eyes, however, and you will get a sense of real, undeniable menace. When these two actors share the screen, it is simply riveting.

Writer/director David Koepp, who adapted Richard Matheson in the highly underrated Stir of Echoes, does an excellent job of translating King’s prose to the screen. This is every writer’s nightmare given celluloid life. Koepp’s pacing (and an amazing score by Philip Glass of Candyman fame) works to build suspense and a palpable sense of dread. There are several shots—including one where a camera on a crane swoops in to a window, goes through a window, then snakes its way through the house and actually goes into the mirror image—that are breathtaking to behold. There are also nice moments of dark humor sprinkled throughout. The elderly sheriff has taken up cross-stitch to help with his arthritis, and Mort—while watching his wife kiss her lover goodbye in front of the house they once shared—begins to sing The Talking Heads’ “Once in a Lifetime.” The only gripe I have withSecret Window is that I figured out where it was going before it got there. Still, even though I knew what was happening, Depp’s masterful performance kept me glued to the screen until the final unsettling frame.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go. I’ve got me a hankerin’ for some corn on the cob.

3.5 out of 5 stars