Another Stephen King flick | 1408 (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Cusack Soars, Film Sinks | 1408 (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) | John Cusack

DVDs:


	• 1408 (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) John Cusack Weinstein Company, 2007 average customer review:based on 159 reviews view larger image
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King and Cusack Together. What's Not To Love?

I didn't go see 1408 when it was in the theaters. I intended to. Life kept me away and it was gone. So I was really looking forward to it when it came out on DVD. And I ended up putting off watching it immediately.

I think part of the reason was that I really wanted to like it. Stephen King, when he's on (and I think he will be in the upcoming DUMA KEY), can't be beaten in the creep-factor. And John Cusack is just one of those actors that I can watch no matter what he's in (though my personal fave is GROSS POINTE BLANK).

Having them together was just a little bit of heaven. In a hellish, possessed hotel room sort of way. With Samuel L. Jackson playing a hotel manager who might not exactly be on the side of the angels.

Happily, I enjoyed the movie, got my quota of scary moments and John Cusack intensity/one-liner presentations.

There's nothing really new here. King has pulled off bigger scare fests that still manage to touch the heart. And Cusack has certainly performed in roles with more and deeper range. But they definitely landed in fair territory (to use a baseball euphemism that King will appreciate) with this one. You get more runs through base hits than with homeruns. People just remember the homeruns more.

Cusack, likeable as always with a touch of the sardonic and sarcastic, portrays Mike Enslin, a writer of true horror who doesn't believe in the paranormal. Despite his lack of beliefs, his books have done well enough to give him a decent life. However, he's never gotten over losing his young daughter, Katie, to a terminal illness or his own loss of faith. He puts God and ghosts on the same page and filed them all in the circular bin.

Until he reaches Room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. A mysterious postcard arrives and sets Enslin on the trail of the long line of deaths associated with the hotel room. Even though he doesn't want to be, Enslin is captivated by the idea of the room. He decides he needs to stay there for the night for the final chapter in his latest book.

The atmospheric build-up leading to Enslin's checking in at the Dolphin is so much a part of this story. We can see that he's driven and missing a piece of himself, but we don't know what's driving him or what he's missing. Then, as he researches all the deaths, I got hooked on the story.

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for a good ghost story. I love digging into the background of the coming tale, trying to guess what the writer is going to attempt to do to me during my stay. I hadn't read King's short story in the collection EVERYTHING'S EVENTUAL, or if I had, it forgot it. The screenwriter's outdid themselves on this one. An overview of the short story shows that much of what they created for the movie wasn't in the short story, but the whole atmosphere was. That's what King excels at when he's got his A-game.

After Cusack checks into the room, during the last hour of the film or so, 1408 almost becomes a one-man play. Cusack carried the whole load of the movie on his shoulders and totally walked through it like he was out for a Sunday stroll. Cusack nailed every emotion, his own as well as the ones he was trying to elicit from the audience. He played me like a harp, and I've seen enough horror films and read enough Stephen King to stay one step ahead. And I did, but the movie kept me constantly on the move to earn my one step.

The special effects are awesome, but they only work so well because of Cusack's performance and the pacing by the director, Mikael Hafstrom. If the human element and the timing hadn't been there, it wouldn't have mattered how good the special effects were. Audiences believe in character and atmosphere before they believe in cinematics.

As it turned out, because of the holidays, I ended up watching the movie one night, then again the next. It held me captivated both nights, just watching Cusack go through his paces again as I picked up small nuances of the visual cues that I'd missed or neglected to pay as much attention to because I was pumping adrenaline the first time.

The only thing I can fault the movie for was not explaining why Room 1408 was haunted. There's enough of a history there that I bought into the overall story, but usually movies and tales like these always nail down the "origin" story as well. This one didn't and I was irritated enough to mention it. Still, no matter what explanation had been provided, I might have discounted the threat if I'd known what the horror was actually caused by.

If you're a horror fan, there's a lot to like about 1408. And if you want to sit down with the older kids on family night for a little chill and shiver, this movie is definitely one you can do that with because there's no obscenely bad language and the death scenes didn't push it past a PG-13 rating. Good, scary fun.

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Another Stephen King flick

There is nothing in this horror movie that we have not seen before. Film is based on King's short story about haunted room in NYC hotel. It seems anyone who checks into this room does not check out alive. For two hours we watch John Cusack's character get taunted by ghosts who talk to him on the phone and put his thru ordeal of steaming hot room, freezing room, flooded room... It is almost as if writer and film director are trying to find every possible way known to mankind to kill this character. The big premise of the film is actually play of our human psyche. So if you are a parent, loosing a child would be one of the most fearful thought you could have. Therefore, out ghosts in room 1408 play on main character's grief and guilt of not being able to protect his own child Katie of dying. That emotion is the driving force of this film. Adult viewing only. Themes of suicide (i.e. jumping thru the window from the hotel's 14th floor) could be too disturbing for young audiences.

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Cusack Soars, Film Sinks

The chief problem with all of 1408 remains the chief problem with most 'ghost'-based films: once you're absolutely certain that you're dealing with a ghost/spirit/evil-presence, etc., how much longer CAN you suspend your disbelief?

Based on a Stephen King short story (could you possibly have been expecting a happy ending?), 1408 revolves around a faithless paranormal author Mike Enslin, played perfectly by John Cusack. Enslin writes books about the alleged 'haunts' across America, spending the night in haunted hotels to debunk the supposed ghostly experience. He's a professional cynic -- a writer who believes in what he can see, not what he's been told -- and he's out to prove, essentially, that there's no such thing as an afterlife. After receiving a bump on the head from a surfing accident, Enslin receives a mysterious postcard from an anonymous fan warning him to avoid staying in Room 1408 of the upscale Dolphin Hotel. Intrigued moreso with the opportunity to debunk yet one more contemporary urban myth, he immediately books the room for one night ... and what a night it turns out to be.

1408 (the room, not the movie) is occupied (not only with weary travelers, but also something far more ominous): 1408 is evil itself, receiving its marching orders from the deepest, darkest fears of the boarders themselves. At first, the room greets Enslin with precisely the antics anyone would expect -- weird noises, weird appearances, and other general weirdness ... but, before his stay is over, evil itself will have looked deep into the writer's heart and soul, bringing to the surface only those memories that can crack an already fragile human psyche.

Where the film excels is the performance of John Cusack. As Mike Enslin, he embodies the writer with a sense of curiosity coupled with hints of disbelief. Cusack's scenes with Samuel L Jackson (the hotel's manager, who primarily serves to set-up the history of the legendary room, no doubt 'sounding' like John Cusack's inner voice at a time when the writer truly believed in what he was reporting) are brilliant; they perfectly draw Enslin (and the viewer) deeper and deeper into the mystery of the Dolphin Hotel, and the verbal banter shows how well Cusack holds his ground as an actor against his learned peers.

Where the film fails (or stumbles, at least) is what I stated in my lead paragraph: once you know what you're dealing with -- that the room is evil, that its peeling back the layers of Enslin's life and darkest tragedies -- at what point can the viewer believe in what he's seeing? The crux of any good ghost story is maintaining the level of interest for the viewer. Things that go bump in the night are only scary for so long, but 1408 is about things that go bump in the M-I-N-D, events that alter one's life, events that inspire despair and longing instead of enforcing hope and humanity. While Cusack's performance lifts the film higher than the typical spook tale, I personally (and it's always a matter of taste) didn't find the story to be a fitting counterpoint. It's a good entry into a rarely effectively explored sub-genre of the ghost story; on that point, the film's worth a viewing.

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A very scary movie about a haunted hotel room

1408 is an adaption from a short story by Stephen King. John Cusack plays Mike Enslin who investigates paranormal events. He hears of a haunted hotel room and checks in even being warned about the room of 1408. There was an evil so powerful that no one has survived an hour in that room. This was a really frightening film especially when you see it in theaters because of all the jump scenes. It feels like a scary twilight zone episode because of the chilling atmosphere. It is also a psychological horror movie. If you get the 2 disc version the first disc has the theatrical release also with the trailer. Then the second disc has the extended directors cut with an alternate ending, commentaries, the secrets of 1408, and deleted scenes. This was one of Stephen Kings best adaption of a short story. It is rated PG-13 for thematic material including disturbing sequences of horror and violence, frightening images and language. Go out and see this movie now.

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The Game goes supernatural

In many ways 1408 reminds me of 1997's "The Game," the Michael Douglas psychological thriller. In both cases, the movies' writers try to cram a maximum number of head fakes into as short amount of time as possible. The two films also put forth the very implausible idea that if you manipulate a person's mind enough, and mentally break him, that somehow that's going to heal him, or at least begin the process of healing. Count me as skeptical on that one.

The two movies do differ on the source of their protagonists' psychological and physical torture. While The Game tries to make a non-supernatural case for psychotic manipulation, 1408 just presents the supernatural as fact. In 1408, causes and motives for the supernatural events are irrelevant, with the minor implication, as presented by Samuel L. Jackson in a refrigerator of all places, that the people who stay in the inhospitable room are somehow guilty of bringing their doom upon themselves.

The DVD provides alternative endings to the movie release. They're just as good in their own ways as the theatrical ending, which has the more palatable theme of restoration, rather than martyrdom. Choose whichever ending suits your predilections.

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