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1408 / Mikael Håfström (2007)

June 21st, 2007 by Scott Marks

John Cusack

1408 (2007)

Directed by: Mikael Håfström

Written by: Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski

Cast: John Cusack, Mary McCormick, Samuel L. Jackson & Len Cariou,

Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Tony Shaloub, Paul Birchard, Margot Leicester, Walter Lewis, Eric Meyers, David Nicholson, Alexandra Silber, Johann Urb, Andrew Lee Potts, Emily Harvey, William Armstrong, Kim Thomson, Drew Powell, Noah Lee Margetts

Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1

Genres: Horror, Thriller

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Once again Stephen King entombs an author in a hotel of horrors, this time to less than shining results.

SoCal scribe Mike Enslin (John Cusack) specializes in tour guides to ghostly hotels. Book sales must be up (he was commissioned to pen a fourth book), but you’d be hard pressed to notice given the abysmal turnout for his most recent in-store appearance.

Siphoning through the junk mail and bills, Mike spots a postcard from New York’s Dolphin Hotel with a chilling challenge scrawled across the reverse: “Don’t Enter 1408!” So long Hermosa Beach, Hello Big Bloodcurdling Apple!

One can’t accuse Dolphin manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) of deceptive advertising when he admits up front, “It’s an evil fucking room.” With a record of 56 kills, Olin is delighted to keep the room in a permanent state of “No Vacancy.” With a little coaxing from Mike’s attorney, by law if a room sits unoccupied the hotelier is bound to rent it, Olin grants the author a one-night stay in the soured suite.

Instead of spooks, an initial scan of the room with an ultra-violet lightsaber uncovers little more than a cluster of horrifying bed stains. Mike wonders whether the reason most occupants don’t last more than sixty-minutes is because they succumb from boredom.

At the stroke of 8, the clock radio transforms into an LCD stopwatch and begins counting down Mike’s final hour. Even that doesn’t seem to fluster him. Nor do numerous floating apparitions (including a specter wearing a Steven Wright mask), a return appearance from dear dead dad (Len Cariou) or most unnerving of all, the incessant sound of a closed-circuit broadcast of The Carpenter’s We’ve Only Just Begun on the radio.

Long before we even begin to reach an explanation, director Mikael Håfström has already hammered us with cheap techniques, most noticeably placing his camera where it doesn’t belong (i.e., inside Mike’s P.O. Box or behind a microfiche viewer). The paranormal highjinx and cinematic trickery can only carry so much of the story and movies like this are generally made or broken in the last half hour.

The shocks are rapidly replaced by cheap sentimentality. Instead of maintaining a state of heightened psychological surrealism, schlockmeister Stephen King resorts to mushy melodrama. It’s another family in hell with guilt-ridden Mike, his estranged wife (Mary McCormick) and the ghost of their dead daughter Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony). One nice touch has dad receiving little Katie’s dress via fax machine.

Cusack and Jackson are always a pleasure to watch. Too bad the script called for just one scene between them. If you missed Vacancy and Bug and find yourself in dire need of a horror fix, this will do for the moment.

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Filed Under Reviews, Theatrical