One of the more competent big screen adaptations of a Stephen King novel, 1408 starred John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, who are brought together again for Cell, King’s take on a zombie apocalypse. The idea behind the story is relatively simple; a signal “pulse” is delivered that turns every person using their cell phone at that moment into a mindless courier of violence connected to a sort of hive mind. The trailer features the zombie-like characters incessantly yelling and making the Invasion of the Body Snatchers “You’re not assimilated yet!” face, which should make them much easier to avoid, and yet they keep taking our heroes by surprise.
Ten years have passed since King’s novel was first published, and since then cell phones have only become more ubiquitous. There’s ample terror to be mined from the concept, and the novel is solid (though already a bit dated; if you Google search “2006 cell phones” you’ll see nothing but flips, small screens and an absence of touchscreen). This trailer doesn’t look terribly promising, though. Jackson looks disinterested, Cusack is letting his trusty beanie cap do all of his emoting, and Stacy Keach presumably just signed up to get a check to pay for swimming pool renovations or something. The director, Tod Williams, last worked on Paranormal Activity 2, which looked like it just re-used the footage found from the first installment for all of its least boring parts.
Cell is scheduled to be released on June 10, 2016 through VOD, with a prior to a limited release in theaters on July 8, 2016.
