These days, we're seeing a trend in horror films, 'slashers' and ghost stories: the movies have tired formulas that startle the audience with cheap thrills and obvious special effects. Refreshingly, Secret Window isn't keeping up with the trend.
Director and screenwriter David Koepp has assembled crafty actors, Johnny Depp and John Turturro, in a game of nerves that plays out like a twisted chess match. Adapted from a Steven King novella, the film is thematically similar to an earlier King film adaptation, Misery. The plot involves a famous novelist who is trapped and terrorized by a crazed fan.
The novelist in Secret Window is Mort Rainey (Depp). Living in a secluded house, Rainey comes to terms with his wife's infidelity during their divorce. While spending his days napping idly in a torn bathrobe, Rainey is visited
by John Shooter (Turturro). Shooter insists Rainey has plagiarized his story in one of his books. Rainey discounts the man's claims and for the rest of the ride, pays the consequence.
Shooter will do anything to force Rainey into changing the ending to what he calls "my story." Meanwhile, peculiar circumstances prevent Rainey from finding hard evidence that would prove his rightful authorship of the manuscript.
Secret Window
Starring Johnny Depp. Directed by David Koepp. Rated PG-13. Opens in theaters tomorrow.
What really makes the film brilliant is the manuscript is inconsequential. It's a classic example of a Hitchcock "MacGuffin." Hitchcock's MacGuffin is an interchangeable and ominous tool, which acts as the catalyst for suspense. Like the Buddha statue in North By Northwest, the actual manuscript becomes secondary to how it changes the characters and the lengths to which they will go to acquire it.
Turturro, like a mythical fury gone rampant, is terrifying and not because he is a muted mystery in a Halloween mask. In fact, he shares almost equal screen time and dialogue with Depp. Turturro is menacing like DeNiro was in Cape Fear, subjecting his target to a sick, calculated game of slow torment, and the target has no choice but to play along. Coming off of his Oscar nomination for Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp is more subtle as Rainey, but still manages to steal the show from the villain; a rare feat for a film's protagonist.
David Koepp (Stir of Echoes) goes for much more of a cerebral trip than a supernatural one. Secret Window has refreshingly minimal special effects and camera tricks, but is rich with suspense. He maintains a constant atmosphere of uncertainty and genuine worry with simple gimmicks. The film amplifies sounds of ticking clocks and door knocks, playing like fingernails on a chalkboard.
One of the most effective elements of suspense is the haunting musical score. Composed by Phillip Glass, it captures the helpless isolation of Depp's character, while adding savage intensity to Turturro's murderous role. As the film reveals more about John Shooter's motives and why he's terrorizing Rainey, the score becomes increasingly frantic and disorienting. Most importantly, these elements are practically invisible to the audience; Secret Window is frightening because the director manages to construct a world the audience eagerly accepts for the duration of the film.
A few years ago, Director Gus Van Sant remade Hitchcock's Psycho. His gimmick was to preserve Hitchcock's original script, scene list and editing, as a tribute to the original auteur. Instead, the homage became a mockery and Van Sant's career low. The problem
was Hitchcock's films are near perfect. Furthermore, the "Hitchcockian" element of surprise is lost after the first viewing, which makes an updated Psycho predictable and redundant.
Secret Window is not a remake of Hitchcock, nor is it a shameless homage to the man. In fact, it's not even a good, modern film in Hitchcock's style, but perhaps something far more fantastic. To put it boldly, Koepp acted as a human vessel, through which Hitchcock has made a posthumous film. Able to baffle and frighten as effectively as the Hitchcock's Marnie, Vertigo and even Psycho, Koepp's Secret Window becomes the project every horror and suspense buff would die for: The Master of Suspense, directing a story by the 'King' of horror.
Reach the reporter at saman.mehrazar@asu.edu.
