Worst Stephen King movie, according to Rotten Tomatoes

In 2006, Stephen King wrote a harrowing horror novel that turned the metaphor of infection into something extraordinary. While zombies are front and center in this paranoia-filled story, these creatures are not reanimated corpses that have mutated beyond recognition; Similar to the infected in “The Last of Us”. Instead, these zombies are former cell phone users who were transformed after sending out a global network signal called The Pulse, turning them into rabid killers. This novel, “The Cell,” captures the unprecedented chaos caused by this unexpected situation, as a struggling artist named Clayton serves as an entry point into this world on the brink of collapse.

It is noteworthy that King wrote “The Cell” at a time when cell phones were not as readily available as they are today (to the point that they had evolved into a necessity), offering a technologically cautious perspective on a phenomenon that had not yet occurred. This pessimistic outlook serves the purpose of fleshing out the horror premise fairly well, and as expected from King, “Cell” is an enjoyable, fast-paced read about the end of humanity. However, the experience is average compared to most of King’s sprawling oeuvre, with the second half of the novel stumbling to suspend disbelief and offer a worthwhile resolution. It doesn’t have any The intense richness of the “situation” — which dabbles in post-apocalyptic themes — because it’s not meant to unravel like a complex epic. “Cell” unfolds fast and dirty, as the thrilling smoothness of the initial chapters turns into a bumpy, uneven race to the finish.

Despite the novel’s flaws, it is no It deserves a bad mod like 2016’s “Cell” (not to be confused with Tarsem Singh’s experimental surreal film ‘The Cell’), any Sport 11% on tomatoes. Does the movie really deserve such a bad rating? Let’s find out.

The following contains light Spoilers For the 2016 film “The Cell”.

Immediately after King’s novel was released in 2006, Dimension Films purchased the film rights and attached Eli Roth (“Cabin Fever,” “Hostel”) to direct. Roth’s vision for “The Cell” was somewhat ambitious, as he intended to focus on the implications of the apocalypse, extending beyond King’s suspenseful ending (which itself is intended to evoke both hope and despair). However, Roth withdrew from the project in 2009 after citing creative differences with the studio, and King himself ended up writing the script that same year. It wasn’t until 2012, that director Todd Williams (Paranormal Activity 2) came on board and took “Cell” across the finish line.

In Williams’ “The Cell,” artist Clay (John Cusack) pursues his dream of writing and publishing a graphic novel at the cost of deliberately abandoning his wife and son. A year later, when Clay (unashamedly) calls home to tell him about his success, he witnesses The Pulse wreaking havoc throughout Boston after fleeing to a subway station for safety. Planes collide in midair, some subway stations are destroyed, and train conductor Tom (Samuel L. Jackson) warns Clay that they must evacuate and make way for the tunnels if they want a chance at survival. The infected zombies, called “Foners”, have been seen killing people while moving like a hive mind and emitting static sounds from their open mouths. Although that last part He should It produced an unnerving effect, but that is not the case.

Instead, “The Cell” strips away all the fun of King’s novel and repackages it into dull tropes that are neither scary nor interesting at all. It’s hard to know what went wrong; Williams has shown a talent not only for creating suspenseful horror (His “Paranormal Activity 2” is more than serviceable), but also to create grounded and complex characters, as seen in his 2004 film The Door in the Floor. Likewise, both Cusack and Jackson are generally convincing actors, but they fail to leave an impression within a story that gives their characters very little dynamism . The film is certainly not completely unwatchable, but it comes pretty close at some points. Unfortunately, everything else is tasteless.