is a welcome and refreshing change of pace from the flurry of gore-splattered horror films where blood and guts replace story development that have become the genre s norm. Don t get me wrong, gore has its place and many of the recent batch have been decent movies. But there s also not only room but the need for something much less bloody and much more cerebral and is it.
Michael Enslin s a talented writer who left behind the world of textured fiction to pen a series of pulp books on haunted locations. Currently at work on his latest project, Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms , Enslin (John Cusack) comes across a postcard warning him to stay away from the Dolphin Hotel s room 1408. Curiosity piqued, he begins researching the Dolphin and quickly discovers an unusual number of grisly deaths have occurred in the hotel s suite 1408.
No one is allowed to stay in 1408 by order of the hotel s manager, Gerald Olin (Samuel L Jackson). But Enslin, after much pushing and prodding, gets his way and is handed the room s old-fashioned key (magnetized cards malfunction in 1408 s door spooky ). After settling into the suite, Enslin a non-believer at first tries to make light of the room s quirky little attributes.
But just as he settles in, the room stops playing nice and treats Mr. Enslin to a display of its horrific best. No matter the material John Cusack always manages to completely dissolve into character.
Cusack does it again this time as a tormented writer whose cynical view of the supernatural is put to the ultimate test. Cusack has to spend much of the film alone in a hotel room but he handles the job so well there s not a moment when you don t understand exactly what he s going through, even with limited dialogue. John Cusack in 1408.
Samuel L Jackson s role is small he may have a total of 15 minutes onscreen however it s one of his best. Is the hotel manager a good guy or is he a willing participant in 1408 s activities? Jackson s tone says one thing but his eyes and manner say another.
Olin s a very entertaining and even perplexing character, and Jackson just sinks his teeth in and holds on. Director Mikael Hafstrom and screenwriters Matt Greenberg and Scott Alexander Larry Karaszewski deliver a fully fleshed out central character and let the story develop without rushing along. is a welcome and refreshing change of pace from the flurry of gore-splattered horror films where blood and guts replace story development that have become the genre s norm.
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