It’s always interesting to see an older movie inexplicably find new life on the 1,000 streaming platforms we have at our disposal (and that’s an approximate number). Whether it’s an ’80s action flick or a 2000s rom-com, streamers have opened the door for new audiences to discover less accessible content.
‘Secret Window’ Has Achieved a New Streaming Milestone
The latest to take flight on the streaming charts is the 2004 psychological thriller, Secret Window. The Johnny Depp-led film began its chart ascent on Oct. 24 and is currently No. 6 on HBO Max’s global Top 10, per FlixPatrol, beating out more recent flicks like The Northman, The Beast Within, and 40 Acres.
As an analytics platform, FlixPatrol aggregates data from all the major streamers. It takes a streamer’s daily Top 10 for movies and TV shows and converts them into a points system. FlixPatrol doesn’t factor in actual viewership numbers into the equation; it focuses on popularity rankings.
About ‘Secret Window’
For the uninitiated, Secret Window follows Mort Rainey, a troubled author navigating an ongoing divorce while a threatening stranger accuses him of plagiarism. It adapts Stephen King‘s 1990 novella, Secret Window, Secret Garden.
The thriller stars Depp as Mort, Maria Bello as Amy Rainey, John Turturro as John Shooter, Timothy Hutton as Ted Milner, and Charles S. Dutton as Ken Karsch. David Koepp directed from his own script.
Secret Window premiered on March 12, 2004. Critics’ reviews were largely negative at the time of its release. Surprisingly, Roger Ebert gave it three out of four stars, commending King for not relying on “the obligatory violent showdown that a lesser storyteller would have settled for.” BBC’s review was harsher, writing that “even Johnny Depp in quirk-overdrive can’t save it, his slyly insincere performance eventually irritating as much as the sincerely stupid movie he’s stuck in.”
The adaptation boasts 46% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer and 65% on the Popcornmeter. It’s certainly not the lowest-rated King adaptation (it sits at No. 35 on a list of 68 King adaptations ranked by Tomatometer), but Carrie, it is not.
That said, don’t let the poor reviews deter you from giving Secret Window a whirl, which you can watch on HBO Max and Pluto TV.
