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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2007 - WaffleMovies.com