(out of 4) Usually when the supernatural comes to the movie screens it just means a bunch of a bogus special effects tricks will flood the screen, but the new film 1408 has a way of goosing your perceptions. The latest Stephen King short story to be adapted onto the big screen, this claustrophobic chiller is fairly reminiscent of some of the author s other work. Once again, the prototypical King protagonist is a writer that goes mad inside a very claustrophobic space a haunted hotel room and although we ve seen this before in the form of Jack Nicholson going from writer-to-murderer in the horror classic The Shining or James Caan confronting abusive caretaking from Kathy Bates in Misery, it s now John Cusack s turn to go bonkers.
Any hesitation to accept this new King concept is understandable, but once the film gets its hooks in you its hard to turn away. Consider this: Cusack is Mike Enslin, an author of travelogue books to the world s most famous haunted houses. He finds his way to research the Dolphin Hotel in New York to finish the final chapter of his latest book, where many guests of room 1408 have met with mortality or bizarre accidents.
In one case, a hotel maid gouged her own eyes out. Enslin receives explicit warnings by hotel manager Olin (Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo that sizzles with foreboding), but insists his right to spend the night in the room of ghastly omens.
Enslin, a rationalist that scoffs at the thought of ghosts even though he s made a living off of perforating their legends, sees upon his check-in entrance absolutely nothing in the initial ten minutes or so of his stay. Then the oddest things start happening. The clock radio seems obsessed with The Carpenters We ve Only Just Begun, the television acts up, and a ghost of the past or a vision appears in a quick, flickering moment.
Now that you know the set-up it s consideration that this is only a cock and bull ghost story, right? This may sound unlikely, but the more preposterous the film gets the more you want to believe in it. But it s not the demons in the room it turns out that preside over the film s sense of terror, it s the demons inside Enslin.
The paranormal activity starts coming from everywhere even the helter skelter thermostat but we start to believe that it s possible that this is all inside Enslin s head. Before long, Enslin can t shake the vision of his dead daughter coming back to haunt him. 1408 makes art out of manipulation.
The film is elegantly paced and photographed in a way that makes Enslin vulnerable and isolated within the looming space of the surroundings. The room looks bigger in wideshot angles, the lighting lends the environment a depressing morgue temperature, and there are subtle changes in d cor arrangement that makes us as viewers see that Enslin s perception of what s around him is changing. Once the filmmakers have raised the notch, we start getting fuller shots of ghosts passing through the room.
We even see the former guests that jumped out of the windows to their deaths. Enslin is seen talking to himself, daring himself to follow out that window down fourteen stories because he thinks that is possibly a way of exit from a very bad dream. If you can allow yourself to be manipulated, 1408 will play you in the same way that it plays with its protagonist.
But it certainly helps that an actor as astute as Cusack is tearing his way through this performance with utmost conviction. Cusack s hell-bent spiral with his character is certainly appreciated when lesser actors would just do a standard gawk in the presence of supernatural. Possibly the film works so creepily because it jacks the nervous system by presenting a normal and conventional hotel room that somehow might plausibly be hellraising (the repellant wallpaper touches is an indication).
The more isolated you feel in such an uninviting room, the more susceptible you might be to start seeing things that aren t really there. The film for the sake of grandeur does go off the deep end the room turns into an arctic ice locker but the steady escalations in the script earn the rights of such metaphysical transformations. Original content articles 1997-2006 by Cinema Confidential.
All images, trademarks, and other film-related material are property of their respective studio. Cinema Confidential is an online fansite. For questions or comments,, please send an e-mail to: (out of 4) 9.
4766- (out of 4) Usually when the supernatural comes to the movie screens it just means a bunch of a bogus special effects tricks will flood the screen, but the new film 1408 has a way of goosing your perceptions. The latest Stephen King short story to be adapted onto the big screen, this claustrophobic chiller is fairly reminiscent of some of the author s other work. Once again, the prototypical King protagonist is a writer that goes mad inside a very claustrophobic space a haunted hotel room and although we ve seen this before in the form of Jack Nicholson going from writer-to-murderer in the horror classic The Shining or James Caan confronting abusive caretaking from Kathy Bates in Misery, it s now John Cusack s turn to go bonkers.
Any hesitation to accept this new King concept is understandable, but once the film gets its hooks in you its hard to turn away. Consider this: Cusack is Mike Enslin, an author of travelogue books to the world s most famous haunted houses. He finds his way to research the Dolphin Hotel in New York to finish the final chapter of his latest book, where many guests of room 1408 have met with mortality or bizarre accidents.
In one case, a hotel maid gouged her own eyes out. Enslin receives explicit warnings by hotel manager Olin (Samuel L. Jackson in a cameo that sizzles with foreboding), but insists his right to spend the night in the room of ghastly omens.
Enslin, a rationalist that scoffs at the thought of ghosts even though he s made a living off of perforating their legends, sees upon his check-in entrance absolutely nothing in the initial ten minutes or so of his stay. Then the oddest things start happening. The clock radio seems obsessed with The Carpenters We ve Only Just Begun, the television acts up, and a ghost of the past or a vision appears in a quick, flickering moment.
Now that you know the set-up it s consideration that this is only a cock and bull ghost story, right? This may sound unlikely, but the more preposterous the film gets the more you want to believe in it. But it s not the demons in the room it turns out that preside over the film s sense of terror, it s the demons inside Enslin.
The paranormal activity starts coming from everywhere even the helter skelter thermostat but we start to believe that it s possible that this is all inside Enslin s head. Before long, Enslin can t shake the vision of his dead daughter coming back to haunt him. 1408 makes art out of manipulation.
The film is elegantly paced and photographed in a way that makes Enslin vulnerable and isolated within the looming space of the surroundings. The room looks bigger in wideshot angles, the lighting lends the environment a depressing morgue temperature, and there are subtle changes in d cor arrangement that makes us as viewers see that Enslin s perception of what s around him is changing. Once the filmmakers have raised the notch, we start getting fuller shots of ghosts passing through the room.
We even see the former guests that jumped out of the windows to their deaths. Enslin is seen talking to himself, daring himself to follow out that window down fourteen stories because he thinks that is possibly a way of exit from a very bad dream. If you can allow yourself to be manipulated, 1408 will play you in the same way that it plays with its protagonist.
But it certainly helps that an actor as astute as Cusack is tearing his way through this performance with utmost conviction. Cusack s hell-bent spiral with his character is certainly appreciated when lesser actors would just do a standard gawk in the presence of supernatural. Possibly the film works so creepily because it jacks the nervous system by presenting a normal and conventional hotel room that somehow might plausibly be hellraising (the repellant wallpaper touches is an indication).
The more isolated you feel in such an uninviting room, the more susceptible you might be to start seeing things that aren t really there. The film for the sake of grandeur does go off the deep end the room turns into an arctic ice locker but the steady escalations in the script earn the rights of such metaphysical transformations. Original content articles 1997-2006 by Cinema Confidential.
All images, trademarks, and other film-related material are property of their respective studio. Cinema Confidential is an online fansite.
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