Johnny Depp has only appeared in one Stephen King movie thus far, but the 2004 thriller has proven to be the biggest missed opportunity of both of their careers. Johnny Depp got his start in the mid-’80s in A Nightmare on Elm Street, and would spend a few years appearing in various TV roles to hone his craft.

In the ’90s, Depp would eventually reach superstardom, and his leading roles were known for showcasing diverse sides of the actor. His collaborations with Tim Burton showed his quirky side, but dramas like What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? proved he had bona fide acting chops. By the 2000s, Depp was leading blockbusters like Pirates of the Caribbean.

Stephen King has had an entirely different career, publishing his debut novel in the mid-’70s, and soon becoming one of the bestselling writers of all time. King’s work immediately proved successful on the big screen, with Brian De Palma’s take on Carrie scoring big. Since then, a ton of Stephen King’s books and short stories have become movies and shows.

Depp and King’s paths have only crossed once, but the result was something less-than-spectacular. Plenty of Stephen King movies are bad or even downright laughable, but his collaboration with Depp is perhaps the worst of all because it’s so forgettable. What could have been great ended up being a major missed opportunity.

Secret Window Was An Uninspired Stephen King Movie

Every Part Of The Movie Was Bland & Uninteresting

If there’s one thing that can be said about Stephen King’s books, they’re never boring. Regardless of their overall quality, a King short story or novel is going to make an interesting film, and Hollywood has taken advantage of the writer’s bombastic style. The 2004 adaptation of Secret Window is an exception, and there’s nothing evocative about it at all.

Based on the novella “Secret Window, Secret Garden”, Secret Window stars Depp as an author who is accused of plagiarism by a strange man. Slowly, the author’s life begins to spiral out of control as his accuser harᴀsses him, and eventually tries to frame him for murder. While that idea has intriguing promise, each escalation is predictable and dull.

The mystery fails to find a second gear, and every new complication is more like a pivot than a progression of the story. King’s works are filled with tropes, but Secret Window feels weighed-down by all the King-isms that don’t add much to the overall experience. When the story finally crawls toward its conclusion, the twist is so simple that it leaves the audience expecting another swerve.

King had already done the “crazy” writer thing too many times by 2004, and Secret Window bears a striking resemblance to his novel The Dark Half but without the bonkers supernatural elements. Because the story only focuses on Depp’s character, the audience has no reason to care about what happens to everyone else and the twist feels like a betrayal.

The Story’s Other Endings Aren’t Much Better

The Novella’s Conclusion Still Isn’t Very Good

As is often the case, Secret Window made some changes to the original novella. However, those adjustments didn’t help to improve on an ending that was already pretty poor to begin with. The published version is an even more convoluted mess in which Mort dies, and it’s revealed that his alter-ego, Shooter, has actually somehow manifested into the real world.

Both versions suffer from poor resolutions, with the film and novella guilty of dumping a plethora of information on the audience without revealing it in any clever manner. Mort just realizes he’s created Shooter, and doesn’t come to that conclusion through action. King has always struggled with endings, but never was that more clear than in “Secret Window, Secret Garden”.

The movie also had a slightly altered ending, one in which the bodies of Mort’s wife and her new partner are shown under Mort’s cornfield. It’s for the best that the sH๏τs weren’t used, since it mostly comes off as mean-spirited and unnecessary. Explicitly showing the bodies has no purpose, especially since the supporting characters are so poorly defined.

Secret Window Missed The Opportunity To Improve On Stephen King’s Story

The Movie Should Have Left The Novella Behind

While changes in Stephen King adaptations are always divisive, Secret Window was a case where change was necessary. The movie keeps too much of the novella, and it fails to improve upon the aspects that needed tinkering. A blank slate would likely have resulted in a better film than the half-hearted adaptation that was the final product.

Since the novella was so short compared to a full-length novel, the screenwriter could have built up the world of the story, or found a way to keep some supernatural elements. What the movie really needed was something scary, but the novella offers little in the way of chills.

With an excellent actor like Depp, it’s also a shame that he was given nothing to work with. Mort is such a hollow character in the novella, he could have been reinvented on the big screen. What’s more, the supporting characters could have been given more depth, thus making the audience care about them.

Johnny Depp is a tremendous actor, and Stephen King a brilliant writer, but the deference to the latter hurt the performance of the former. The filmmakers were so focused on preserving King’s vision, that they didn’t allow themselves to interpret the work critically. All the best King movies have put their own spin on his stories.