Review

Right, so this is a Stephen King story. Which means it has an 80% chance of sucking the wind out of the atmosphere. I don't say that because I hate King, I actually love his writing. I say that because his film adaptations have only a 1 in 5 chance of not being shit-soufflé. For every good King adaptation, I can name 4 other crappy ones. It's roughly about that number. Mind you I have no historical data to back this up, but I encourage you to rent from the King section at your local Blockbuster and try to prove me wrong.

See, Stephen King writes very SPECIFIC to himself. When you read his or Richard Bachman's books, you know who the writer is without seeing it in print. The way he illustrates a story is his own style and that uniqueness is what keeps him popular even today. But unfortunately, not many of his film peers have any ounce of idea on what to do with his material.

The truly funny thing is, if you really look hard at his film adaptations, you will notice that the majority of the really GOOD King films have been based on his short stories, not his actual books. Silver Bullet (I loved it and don't give a rat's ass what you thought), Stand By Me, Shawshank Redemption, etc. A hefty portion of his good film adaptations are from these small, articulately crafted stories. The reason being, I would imagine, is that his books have tons of detail and most filmmakers try to capture the entire thing instead of focusing on the essence of the work. Short stories have just a basic story and it gives filmmakers room to incorporate their own solid vision as well. 1408 is just such a film.

Prior to catching this, I found the short story of 1408 and read it - stopping just short of the ending (endings in books are almost always stronger so I preferred to not taint the film). The story was fairly intense but very quick and like most of King's best writing, it told a ton of detail in a very limited amount of pages. That said, the film captured the gist of it and even threw a few touches from print to screen exactly. This was a solid film adaptation of King's work and one of the better ones to come out based on his material in the last decade.

John Cusack stars as Michael Enslin, a writer whose specialty is debunking paranormal activity - ghost sightings and occurrences. He has shitty fashion sense (a tattered Hawaiian shirt is his fashion choice), but is a keen intellectual in terms of what's really 'out there'. Enslin is simply not a believer in this crazy shit and is similar to that rude jackass that shut the Ghostbusters down in 1984. Bastard.

1408 was simply one of the best horror movies of the year and brought kudos back to the genre

Anyway, Enslin goes from town to town, hotel to hotel, finding the alleged haunted locations that occur all over the country. He spends an evening in the room and so far, has found not one single piece of truth to any of these mysteries or legends. He is convinced ghosts do not exist and continues to crush this belief because if he can prove there are no such things, it is one step closer to proving that God doesn't exist. I actually like this aspect because it runs to the heart of a true sceptic.

One day Enslin gets a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel with nothing more than a number on it - 1408 (which if you are clever enough, adds up to 13). Enslin becomes curious and begins his research. Apparently there have been numerous deaths in this room, all with no real explanation. Curiosity peaked; Enslin travels to New York to spend a night in the infamous room.

Samuel 'Mutha Fin' Jackson does a nicely reserved turn as the Hotel Manager for the Dolphin, desperate to talk Michael out of his eventual stay. He tells Enslin the facts: no one has lasted an hour in that room, the maids can't even clean the room without the door open and being supervised personally by him, and there have been 22 more deaths in that room then have been reported, (natural deaths don't make the papers). Basically I was scared shitless of this room before they even showed the damn thing.

Nevertheless, Michael insists and begins his increasingly maddening venture into 1408. Things start out small; toilet paper restocked, new chocolates on the pillows. It would be simple enough for the hotel to be perpetrating this in order to keep their hotel stocked. But then it slowly begins to get more intense and more dangerous, eventually even bringing back the daughter Enslin lost to disease years ago. Anything more would be spoiler-central and I'm not ruining it for you.

So let me say this: I don't get scared in horror movies. Rarely ever. I've seen so many of them that I am simply jaded and numb to the whole thing. This torture porn craze as of late has really turned me off since that, to me, is the laziest of filmmaking. 1408 was a trip back to the psychological horror of my youth. Films like The Shining or Poltergeist. Flicks that built real suspense and didn't need music cues, lower intestines, or black cats jumping out randomly to make you tinkle in your Dockers. It made me jump at least 3 times, and that my friend is a miracle in itself.

Cusack is finally back to form and he smokes his role like a pack of Kools. It is very hard for a film to remain riveting when almost the entire film is on the shoulders of one actor (the only other time I've seen this work is Castaway and to be fair, Tom Hanks had that fucking volleyball to react to). Cusack takes a very difficult role and sells it on every front. I bought that this guy didn't believe in any of this shit and that his daughter's death also cost him his belief in God or anything spiritual. I also bought his gradual insanity at the events occurring to him in that room. This is Cusack's best role since High Fidelity and will hopefully bring him back to par with the other actors he constantly excels next to, yet never has seemed to reach their popularity.

Sam Jackson is one reserved mutha fucker. And he also gets the films best line and the only use of the F bomb allowed (of course he's gonna get it, he's Sam 'mo fo' Jackson!). That said, his role is nothing more than a glorified cameo. The direction by Mikael Hafstrom is top notch and he handles the style, suspense and action of the film with ease. I was also pleased with how the film played out because at one point I was convinced they were going to take the pansiest route possible and they surprised me by NOT doing that. I already give credit just for not wussing out completely. But let's be honest, this film belongs to Cusack and he more than holds the flick together.

Look, it's been a truly shitty year for horror as nothing has been worth a damn so far this year. Nothing has scared my grandmother, let alone any of us true horror fans. This is not a flick that will gore you out, but it will freak you out in several places. It is a horror flick that will make you jump, but is safe enough to take your dumbass girlfriend that whines about this shit (by the way, dump her already). There is no gore; the only scares are earned, not created because of that stupid 'ewwwwwwwww' factor.

If you see one horror flick this summer, skip Hostel Part II and Captivity and make it 1408. But when you get home, you just might want to keep that night light on.