Cell (2016)

Directed by Tod Williams. Starring John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Owen Teague, Stacy Keach, Anthony Reynolds, Clark Sarullo, Erin Elizabeth Burns, Catherine Dyer. [R]

Embarrassing adaptation of Stephen King’s apocalyptic horror novel where a cell phone signal is transmitted around the world that turns everyone that can hear it into mindless, ghoulish killers. Survivor Cusack, joined by Jackson and others, wanders the collapsing world trying to reach his teenage son. The book may have predated M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, but the filmmakers apparently believe that’s the blueprint to follow, throwing in bits of Pulse, The Road, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and more as they go along. The actors show no faith in the material (though they deserve some credit for keeping a straight face), and it’s a long, miserable slog to reach the harebrained ending, which co-screenwriter King changed from the one in his book. Could almost be classified as a “zom-com” (zombie-comedy), except that these aren’t actual zombies, and it’s not intentionally funny. Proof that sometimes a concept that seems creative, even prescient, at one time can look hysterically naïve and obsolescent just a decade later.

24/100