The Story: A graphic novelist (John Cusack) begins a desperate search for his estranged wife (Clark Sarullo) and son (Ethan Andrew Casto) after a mysterious cellphone signal transforms New Englanders into savage killers.
The novel was a page turner. I could quickly see it as a movie. When I heard it was definitely going to turn into a screen play, I was excited. For a while there was a glut of zombies, and what I liked about Cell (2016) was it’s concept of how these savage “zombies” were created not by a virus, but by cell phone waves restarting evolution.
After watching the film, I see why it never quite made it release in America.
What I liked: The acting is solid. It looks like it tries to honor the book (At least as much as I can remember of it.
What I don’t like: The ending washed around everything that made it decent. The characters we grew to like were ditched, which surprised me, because I don’t believe that’s at all how the book ended.
The third and final act of the film jerked and jumped all over the place, it’s signal was lost. It never fulfilled the promise it was trying to build up to and maybe that’s because the antagonist just wasn’t explained.
Verdict: As a horror fan, I beg you to read the book. The film will only raise your heart rate out of anger. However, support the arts. Cell is available for free on Tubi – which I wish I new because I rented this mess.
Stay ghoulish.
PS. The infamous Samuel Jackson is in this film as well doing the best Samuel Jackson he can. For stans of his work, i don’t believe he says M——-f—-ker once in this film, which is disappointing.