Back Shelf Beauties
by Willie Waffle

1408 

When a horror film is done right, it is fantastic.  Get ready for a fantastic 1408. 

John Cusack stars as Mike Enslin – a horror writer who likes to debunk the haunted places he writes about.  After his latest book comes out, Mike receives a mysterious postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in Manhattan.  While most of his mail begs him to visit the haunted hotels and feature their creepy stories in ways that will spur more business, this postcard warns him not to stay in the dreaded and dangerous room 1408 (a bit of reverse psychology?).  It turns out 56 previous guests have checked into the room, and didn’t exactly check out by turning in their keys at the front desk.  Mike isn’t willing to believe the stories until he sees it, so he will do anything to be a guest, and find out what this terrifying room with a tumultuous past has in store for him.    

Will Mike be victim number 57?

1408 is one of the best horror movies I have seen in a few years, and a film that makes me feel like the genre has hope when in the hands of the right filmmakers, writers and actors.  Director Mikael Hafstrom makes the movie the way I like it with scares based on shock, a creepy tone, getting inside of your head, and making the frights pop up out of nowhere instead of delivering a bloody, gross movie full of gratuitous gore.  1408 is about the hair on the back of your neck rising up as Mike walks down the dark hallway, or those moments you realize people around him are acting kind of weird. 

Most people who go into 1408 probably are looking forward to seeing Samuel L. Jackson, but you’ll be surprised to find out he is not in much of the movie. When he is, Jackson sets an awesome tone of foreboding and danger, but this movie is all about Cusack, and that’s not a bad thing.  He is captivating as Mike questions his own sanity, faces an evil we all would fear, has his past emotionally thrown in his face, and even uses a wisecracking attitude to win over the audience.  As an actor, he has engaged in a battle of wills with an unforeseen combatant, and made it as real as if he was fighting with Jackson.         

Hafstrom and the writing team (working from a Stephen King short story) do a good job making us wonder what is behind all of this craziness, and provide a super tense, super scary and super shocking movie, but it feels like the audience gets two endings, and it’s a bit longer than needed.  However, you will have had such a good time it won’t matter much. 

3 ½ Waffles (Out of 4)

1408 is rated PG-13 for thematic material including disturbing sequences of terror, violence, frightening images and language. 

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