Secret Window

Mark · Mar 10, 2004

Secret Window (the new Johnny Depp vehicle). What have you heard and what do you know?

Jamdin · Mar 10, 2004

The movie is based on "Secret Window, Secret Garden" found in Stephen King's Four Past Midnight. Yes, there is a new paperback version of the book with Johnny Depp on the cover. My mom bought the new version even though she purchased the book the first time it was released in paperback.

WayneLigon · Mar 10, 2004

Someone who's read the book or seen the movie (preferably both):

Is there any real element of the supernatural in the film, as the trailer leads us (or perhaps just me?) to beleive, or is the hero just being stalked by the crazy guy who thinks the hero stole his story?

CrusaderX · Mar 10, 2004

WayneLigon said:
Someone who's read the book or seen the movie (preferably both):

Is there any real element of the supernatural in the film, as the trailer leads us (or perhaps just me?) to beleive, or is the hero just being stalked by the crazy guy who thinks the hero stole his story?

Just to be on the safe side... (Spoilers)

The story had a twist ending ala The Sixth Sense, so I can't really answer this without giving away the ending. Do you really want to know the answer?

The Grumpy Celt · Mar 10, 2004

CrusaderX said:
Just to be on the safe side... (Spoilers)

Do you really want to know the answer?

Yes, please. Althought I think I saw an episode of the new Twilight Zone that sounds like this.

CrusaderX · Mar 10, 2004

The Grumpy Celt said:
Yes, please. Althought I think I saw an episode of the new Twilight Zone that sounds like this.

Ok then. MAJOR SPOILERS: (don't read if you're going to see the film or read the story)

The twist ending reveals that there were supposedly no supernatural elements in the story, and that the crazed stranger is just a hallucination or a split personality that the main character uncounsciously made up in his mind. Though King also presents a second twist ending on the last page of the story where he suggests that the crazed stranger may have been a "real" ghost after all. Now whether or not they changed this for the film I don't know. I can only comment on the short story.

Kahuna Burger · Mar 10, 2004

While

the double endings give a director license to make the story either entirely psychological (the stress of his divorce brings out a long buried guilt of plagury which presents itself in a story about a wife killing and lets him dismantle his old life) or very overty supernatural (a haunting vibe from the begining, and the old guilt only explaining the form it took)

I'm going to guess that the movie version will have little supernatural overtones, simply because they have left King's name off of every ad I've seen for it. (as opposed to Kingdom hospital, which he is prominantly titled in.) This seem to be par for the course with his stories that are done in a more dramatic, less horror way. (or even no horror, man I'm tired of the look people give me when I tell them King wrote the stories for both the Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me...)

Kahuna Burger

Mark · Mar 11, 2004

Thanks for the background info. I get a feeling I will enjoy this in the same vein as The Ninth Gate.

pensiv · Mar 11, 2004

Speaking of Kingdom Hospital, and King's name. I'm slightly upset that all the ads for Kingdom Hospital say something like "this can only come from the imagination of Stephen King," which simply isn't true, since it's based on Lars von Trier's "The Kingdom."

And speaking of "The Ninth Gate," I only know the movie from discussion I've had with friends. I read the book Club Dumas which it is based on, and when I read the book I knew that a lot would be lost in a film adaptation, since the story is so steeped in the nuances of literature.