A psychologically gripping thriller that puts you through the wringer with no remorse, 1408 is easily one of the better Stephen King adaptations to come down the pike in a long, long while. Based on a short story from the audio compilation "Blood & Smoke" and King's latest short story collection, Everything's Eventual, 1408 boasts some superb technical work, a slow-burn mood of dread, and a stellar central performance by John Cusack.
Mike Enslin (Cusack) is a niche writer of quick-read examinations of supposedly haunted places (witness book titles such as 10 Haunted Mansions and 10 Haunted Graveyards, etc.) who wants nothing more than to find an actual paranormal event or location, but hasn't in the time he's been at it. His M.O. is to seek out such places, stay for one night, and write about what he sees, hears and feels. Once a writer of promise, he has turned to these knock-em-out books after his young daughter has died of cancer; he left his wife behind in New York and moved across the country to L.A. where it's easier to bury his head in the sand and ignore his pain.
All that changes when he recieves a card suggesting he check out room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York. Enslin's interest is piqued when he calls the hotel and is told that the room is unavailable, seemingly for the next millenium or so. His publisher's lawyer finds a loophole that will allow him to get the room regardless, and off to New York he goes. Greeting him with a distinct lack of enthusiasm is the manager of the hotel, Olin (Samuel L. Jackson, in a small but quiet, forceful performance), who gives Enslin the lurid history of the room and the 56 people who have died within its walls. Unable to talk Enslin (who assumes all the dire warnings are part of the scary sales pitch) out of staying in 1408, Olin sends Enslin into the room. Shortly thereafter, the fun (if you can call it that) begins.
It's best to keep plot details once Enslin enters the room at a minimum; suffice it to say that if you haven't read King's short story, this will claw at your psyche. Sitting there watching the slow mental torture that Enslin is subjected to, I thought (more than once), "If this is the kind of thing this room puts you through, I think I would kill myself too" - for, as you see, many of the deaths in 1408 are suicide. There's temperature problems, clock radios that turn themselves on at will (and always playing The Carpenter's "We've Only Just Begun" - the horror!), and an ever-escalating series of hallucinations - or are they?
The movie is not at all concerned with gore or shock effects for their own sake (although there ARE a couple of nasty jolts, to be sure); director Mikael Hafstrom is more interested in the atmosphere and the (undeniably high) creep factor. I saw Hafstrom's earlier film Derailed and thought it to be technically competent but a failure, ultimately; here, the man is firing on all cylinders, as are the crew he has assembled. The look of the film, the camera angles and shot selection, the production design, everything services the story and performances beautifully. And said performances are uniformly solid. Mary McCormack, as Cusack's estranged wife, is wonderfully sympathetic and lovely. Jackson, as always, exudes confidence and authority - the scene where he and Cusack verbally spar is a small gem of back and forth acting between two talented pros.
Which leaves Cusack. He's been around for awhile, and watching him as a kid in the likes of Better Off Dead, I never could have imagined that he'd turn into one of our most dependable actors. His innate likeability is indispensible here, as we in the audience are immediately on his side and don't want anything horrible to happen to him, and as the flick goes on, we hope that at least, it doesn't get any worse. . .but of course, it does. Essentially, 1408 is a one-man-show and it's up to Cusack to make the movie work. All the high production values in the world wouldn't be enough to save this movie if the leading man couldn't carry the load, and Cusack is more than up to the challenge. In the beginning, he's got his cynical, slightly neurotic and intelligent vibe going on in full force; by a little over the halfway point, his character is dangerously close to losing his mind completely. We're right at Cusack's side as he sidles down the road into this extreme and he does it with seemingly no effort at all. It's without a doubt one of the best performances I've ever seen the man give.
Genre screenwriting veteran Matt Greenburg (Mimic, Reign of Fire), with an assist from writing partners Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski (Man on the Moon, Ed Wood) do an admirable job of fleshing out King's short story while remaining true to the feeling that made it such a memorable little chunk of nastiness. The additions aren't shoehorned in and don't feel superfluous in any way; in fact, much of the standout scene between Cusack and Jackson is almost verbatim from the story, and the character of Enslin retains the core elements that King provided.
1408 is a refreshing antidote to all these bloated, overhyped big-budget summer movies, offering a thoughtful yet frightening alternative. If you're interested in a well-made flick that caters more to intelligent adults than the masses who just want to turn their brains off this summer (and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that, at least not sometimes), here's one that's guaranteed to satisfy.
