Secret Window (2004)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
A struggling writer is terrorized by a mysterious man who claims the writer plagiarized his work.
The story
After catching his wife Amy having an affair with their friend Ted, mystery writer Mort Rainey retreats to his cabin in upstate New York. Six months later, depressed and suffering from writer's block, Mort is visited by a man named John Shooter. Shooter accuses Mort of plagiarizing his short story, "Sowing Season". Mort discovers the manuscript is virtually identical to his own story, "Secret Window", except for the ending. Shooter demands proof and warns Mort against contacting the police, eventually leaving a threatening note after Mort's dog is found dead.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
After catching his wife Amy having an affair with their friend Ted, mystery writer Mort Rainey retreats to his cabin in upstate New York. Six months later, a man named John Shooter arrives and accuses Mort of plagiarizing his short story, "Sowing Season". Mort discovers the manuscript is nearly identical to his own story, "Secret Window", except for the ending. After a series of threats, including the death of Mort's dog, Mort hires a private investigator. Shooter eventually appears and demands Mort revise his story to include Shooter's twist: the protagonist kills his wife. After a fire destroys Amy's house, Mort encounters Ted, who demands he sign divorce papers. Mort later finds Karsch and Greenleaf dead, killed by Shooter for interfering. Mort discovers that Shooter is a figment of his imagination, created to cope with his anger. Mort, taken over by the "Shooter" persona, stabs Amy in the leg and kills Ted. Months later, Mort is shunned by the town for the murders, but he remains indifferent, claiming the ending to his new story is "perfect". It is implied Amy and Ted's bodies are buried in his garden.
- First release year
- 2004
- Runtime (minutes)
- 92
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- David Koepp
- Writers
- David Koepp · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Johnny Depp · Morton "Mort" Rainey; John Turturro · John Shooter; Maria Bello · Amy Rainey; Timothy Hutton · Ted "Teddy" Milner; Len Cariou · Sheriff Dave Newsome; Charles S. Dutton · Private Investigator Ken Karsch; John Dunn-Hill · Tom Greenleaf
- Genres
- thriller
- Themes
- adultery; writer's block; mental illness; dissociative identity disorder; uxoricide
- Tone and mood
- thriller; mysterious
- Premise and plot tags
- unreliable narrator; serial killer; psychological thriller
- Source material / true-story basis
- Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King
- Reception
- The film was a moderate box office success and received mixed reviews from critics.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 46% · review count: 160; Metacritic · score: 46 · scale: 100 · review count: 34; CinemaScore · score: C+ · scale: A+ to F
- Production trivia
- The footage of the ocean scene was extra b-roll footage taken from The Lost World: Jurassic Park.; The film's ending is different from the source novella.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…