1408

1408 ***

Directed by Mikael Håfström
Written by Matt Greenberg and Scott Alexander, based on the short story by Stephan King

Starring:
John Cusack as Mike Enslin
Mary McCormack as Lily Enslin
Jasmine Jessica Anthony as Katie
Tony Shalhoub as Sam Farrell
Samuel L. Jackson as Gerald Olin
Len Cariou as Father

94 Minutes(Rated PG-13 for thematic material including disturbing sequences of violence and terror, frightening images and language. )
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"1408" is an extremely pleasant surprise and certainly one of the best "horror" films that I have seen in a long while on the Hollywood circuit. Two points of note. I say Hollywood circuit because there is an amazing horror film somewhere out there called "The Poughkeepsie Tapes," and that it strictly indie. And I put the word horror in quotation marks because I don't know if I would call "1408" a sole horror film. It uses the supernatural as more of a backdrop for a psychological character story, even though it is proven that the events in the film did indeed actually happen to the these characters and even if their are some jumps and scares and creepy things floating around. Centralized by a great performance by John Cusack, who is pretty much in every single scene somewhere, "1408" is a great night out and for once you can actually be scared at a horror film.

"1408" starts off with Mike Enslin (Cusack) going to yet another hotel and spending a night there with nothing bad happening to him. This is significant because Enslin is a writer who has drifted away from the fiction circuit and has turned off a leaf towards hunting out ghosts and other supernatural events. But he has yet to see one, and his failed belief in God has only made him more and more close to the fact that there are no ghosts at all. And then he gets a postcard with a picture of the Dolphin Hotel, and a message saying "Don't Enter 1408." So of course, he takes a trip to New York to go visit 1408. He is surprised by the manager who refuses to let him in because there have been fifty six deaths in that room, and the manager refuses to clean up yet another dead body. No one has lasted more than an hour in Room 1408. By law, he is forced to hand Enslin the key, and once he closes that door there is no turning back. It takes time before he begins to accept the strange things that are happening are more than just hotel staff screwing with him head, and pretty soon the clock sets itself to a countdown-60:00.

While there are some supporting characters popping up every now and then-Sam Jackson as the hotel guard (who does offer the films only curse word, of course,) Mary McCormack as Cusack's wife who he walked out on, Len Cariou as Cusack's father as a hotel demon, and lastly Tony Shalhoub who pops up for a minute as Cusack's publisher, but this is certainly The Cusack Show. Using that nice guy mentality that he showcases at the start it is impossible not to like the guy in any role he's in. Hell, even in "The Ice Harvest" he kills people and does everything for himself, yet there is something so likable in that personality. So he manages to create a character that we could care about as he lives with the demons of the room. There isn't much dialogue during the hotel scenes, and the device used to get him to open his mouth is a tape recorder which Cusack dictates to for research on his next book. "1408" may be the only horror film I can think of in recent memory that offers subtle character backgrounds, and while it is not laid out directly, charting Enslin's writing career correlates to what has happened in his family life. There is always a reason why he is writing what he is writing. Note the brief mention of the father, and the secret of why he walks out on his wife, which I don't reveal even if it is in the films trailers and television commercials.

And then lastly I'll speak of the ending. There is a moment, where I actually thought that this film was going to cop out on me and disappoint me in the third act. And then it takes a twist upon the twist and impressed me more. "1408" was a fun time. There was audience interaction-people "awwing" whenever something bad was happening, or because jumping up whenever some kind of a demon popped it's head out. It was fun to watch, and did not rely on excessive gore to effectively scare a crowd or even make something frightening. On the heels of the more gritty and physical intense "Vacancy" which also managed a good script on top of the scares, "1408" is probably a better film with more a more dense character arc. And with an ending that leaves it open to a viewer interpretation, I left the theater grinning and proud that I could be creeped out a bit by something Hollywood has to offer.