1408
November 4th 2007 07:59
1408
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack.
Directed By: Mikael Hafstrom
Essentially John Cusack versus The Room.
John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer who makes a living from staying in haunted hotel rooms, and giving them a skull rating out of ten, for his haunted hotel travel guides. Long having given up his dreams of being a serious writer, and haunted by tragedies in his past, Mike receives an anonymous postcard from The Dolphin Hotel in his P.O Box, telling him “Don’t enter 1408.” That sentence, incidentally, has 13 characters, and the numbers 1, 4, 0, 8 add up to 13.
Intrigued, Mike rings up the hotel, and asks to book room 1408, only to be told it is “unavailable” despite his not specifying when he wanted to book the room. Mike then does some research on the room, reading about scores of mysterious deaths that have occurred there since the 1920’s. Knowing that this will be the ultimate challenge, and a great final chapter for his book, Mike gets his publisher to do some legal wrangling to allow him to stay in 1408. On arrival at The Dolphin, the hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), does his best to persuade Mike not to stay there, telling him: “No one ever survives past the first hour,” and “it is just evil fucking room.”
By this time we are well and truly spooked, as the build up to Mike’s entering the room has created a palpable sense of tension. Mike’s walking down the hallway (on the thirteenth floor no less) armed with a dossier of gory photos that Gerald has given him of deaths in the room, is tense enough. Therefore it is actually a relief when Mike enters 1408 to find that it is just an ordinary hotel room with floral wallpaper. One of the highlights of the film is when he is taking the piss out of the paintings on the room’s walls, as he describes the room’s décor, while waiting for spooky things to happen.
And, as this room is evil, spooky things do happen. Mike actually gets scared quite quickly as he cannot rationalise how anyone could have gotten into the room in order to put mints on his pillow. As he says, “finally a ghost that can provide decent room service.” The room also chooses to torment him with The Carpenters, which I am sure many people will find frightening, as the clock radio spontaneously starts playing “We’ve only just begun…..”, and the clock begins to count down from 60 minutes.
The haunting that follows basically happens in real time, as Mike is tormented various ways over the course of an hour. Although not all the haunting techniques are original, the room at least provides a tailor made haunting experience, making much of the haunting specific to issues from Mike’s past, using the spirit of his dead daughter, his unresolved Daddy issues, and split from his wife, in order to break his spirit.
As adaptations of Stephen King stories are either really good, or really bad, it is fortunate that this falls into the good category. I think it helps that this was adapted from a King short story, rather than a novel, so large tracts of storyline did not have to be omitted for brevity’s sake. John Cusack knows this film is his show, and delivers a nice line in sarcastic washed-up writer, as well as looking genuinely terrified at what the room throws at him. Recommended for fans of ghost films, and other King adaptations such as The Shining and Secret Window.
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack.
Directed By: Mikael Hafstrom
Essentially John Cusack versus The Room.
John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer who makes a living from staying in haunted hotel rooms, and giving them a skull rating out of ten, for his haunted hotel travel guides. Long having given up his dreams of being a serious writer, and haunted by tragedies in his past, Mike receives an anonymous postcard from The Dolphin Hotel in his P.O Box, telling him “Don’t enter 1408.” That sentence, incidentally, has 13 characters, and the numbers 1, 4, 0, 8 add up to 13.
Intrigued, Mike rings up the hotel, and asks to book room 1408, only to be told it is “unavailable” despite his not specifying when he wanted to book the room. Mike then does some research on the room, reading about scores of mysterious deaths that have occurred there since the 1920’s. Knowing that this will be the ultimate challenge, and a great final chapter for his book, Mike gets his publisher to do some legal wrangling to allow him to stay in 1408. On arrival at The Dolphin, the hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), does his best to persuade Mike not to stay there, telling him: “No one ever survives past the first hour,” and “it is just evil fucking room.”
By this time we are well and truly spooked, as the build up to Mike’s entering the room has created a palpable sense of tension. Mike’s walking down the hallway (on the thirteenth floor no less) armed with a dossier of gory photos that Gerald has given him of deaths in the room, is tense enough. Therefore it is actually a relief when Mike enters 1408 to find that it is just an ordinary hotel room with floral wallpaper. One of the highlights of the film is when he is taking the piss out of the paintings on the room’s walls, as he describes the room’s décor, while waiting for spooky things to happen.
And, as this room is evil, spooky things do happen. Mike actually gets scared quite quickly as he cannot rationalise how anyone could have gotten into the room in order to put mints on his pillow. As he says, “finally a ghost that can provide decent room service.” The room also chooses to torment him with The Carpenters, which I am sure many people will find frightening, as the clock radio spontaneously starts playing “We’ve only just begun…..”, and the clock begins to count down from 60 minutes.
The haunting that follows basically happens in real time, as Mike is tormented various ways over the course of an hour. Although not all the haunting techniques are original, the room at least provides a tailor made haunting experience, making much of the haunting specific to issues from Mike’s past, using the spirit of his dead daughter, his unresolved Daddy issues, and split from his wife, in order to break his spirit.
As adaptations of Stephen King stories are either really good, or really bad, it is fortunate that this falls into the good category. I think it helps that this was adapted from a King short story, rather than a novel, so large tracts of storyline did not have to be omitted for brevity’s sake. John Cusack knows this film is his show, and delivers a nice line in sarcastic washed-up writer, as well as looking genuinely terrified at what the room throws at him. Recommended for fans of ghost films, and other King adaptations such as The Shining and Secret Window.
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