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Directed By
Mikael Håfström
Written By:
Matt Greenberg, Larry Karaszewski, Stephen King, Scott Alexander
Cast:
John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Andrew Lee Potts, Kim Thomson, Len Cariou, Drew Powell, Noah Lee Margetts, Tyler Nilson, Jessica Cail, Thomas A. McMahon, Peter Conboy, Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Peter Conboy, Chris Carey, Walter Lewis, Ike Ononye
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1408 (2007)
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Movie Review by Matthew 
June 28th, 2007
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A big surprise
Mike Enslin (John Cusack) writes books about haunted places. He doesn't really believe in the whole idea, but it helps pay the bills and allows him to live in Hermosa Beach and catch an occasional wave on his surfboard. His books sell well, but his celebrity is dwindling, so as he looks for a subject to end his current book, he receives a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. "Do Not Enter Room 1408" the postcard reads. Mike's research reveals a number of deaths have occurred throughout the years in this room, room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel. He calls to make a reservation and the room seems to be permanently booked. All of this naturally piques the interest of the disbeliever. He talks to his publisher (Tony Shalhoub) and the publisher's lawyer agrees to help. When Mike arrives, the manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) tries to bribe, plead, threaten, scare and entice Mike to cancel his planned stay in room 1408. "That room is evil" he tells the writer. "No one has stayed in there for more than an hour." Mike won't have any of it and heads upstairs. As soon as he is in the room, Mike starts dictating his thoughts and notes for the book. Then, some strange things start to happen.
"1408" is based on a Stephen King short story and it does something that few 'horror' films do today. It is actually scary. The current trend in horror films, thrillers, what ever word you want to use to classify them, is to make them as gory and bloody as possible. "1408" builds a fair amount of psychological horror, scares that occur in Mike's mind, allowing our thoughts to fill in the details. This type of horror is always more scary than simply watching a bunch of knives, some blood, gory murders, the like.
Director Mikael Hafstrom, whose last film was my least favorite film of 2005, "Derailed", does a really good job of establishing Mike's character, his background, his current animosity towards his line of work, everything that would make him a skeptic. So when Mike enters room 1408, we almost believe what he believes, that he won't see anything, nothing will happen.
But then, there would be no need to pay $11 to see a movie called "1408" if that were the case, right?
The screenwriters, Mike Greenberg and Scott Alexander (Alexander worked on the screenplays for "The People Vs. Larry Flynt" and "Man on the Moon" among others) deserve credit for adapting the short story by Stephen King into a fairly well rounded feature length film. They add a lot of back story for Mike, help establish his skepticism by showing us a visit he makes to another haunted inn, and much more. They have filled in a lot of the details King only hinted at in the original story.
This is basically John Cusack's film. There are brief moments with Samuel L. Jackson, Tony Shalhoub, Mary McCormack and others, but once Cusack's Mike enters that room, everything is about what happens to his character and what his character does in response.
So it is important for the details of Mike's character to be established ahead of time. Hafstrom and the screenwriters have done a lot of this work, but without Cusack's performance, the film would fail.
Let's talk about John Cusack for a moment. Cusack is a remarkably underrated actor. Not an A-lister, he is, nonetheless, remarkably good. Sure, he has his share of missteps ("Must Love Dogs", "The Ice Harvest" anyone?) but when he is in a film, I can almost always count on at least an interesting film which has been elevated by his performance. Yet in most of his films, Cusack's performance adds significantly to the overall quality of the film, delivering some quirky, excellent, memorable films. "Grosse Point Blank", "High Fidelity", "Say Anything", "Being John Malkovich" all contain a unique, quirky performance from Cusack that helps to elevate the film.
In "1408", Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer of books about haunted places. Throughout the film, we get further hints about Mike's past, his dreams, his failures, and these all help to contribute to his character. These moments aren't superfluous; they all mean something and add to the horror he later experiences. For instance, Mike doesn't really believe in haunted places, but the books he writes pay the bills, so he feigns interest and belief. Also, he once had dreams of being a great writer, and is surprised when a woman comes to a book signing with his lone fiction title, a much dog eared paperback that she wants him to autograph. The book's appearance is like a knife in his heart.
It won't fit. Please read the full review at thornhillatthemovies.com
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