1408
Now it's only right that on what is allegedly the most frightening night of the year (check your Celtic mythology and you'll realise that it's really nothing more than a harvest celebration and the start of the 'dark year') that we celebrate it by doing something that gives us the heebie jeebies. Sensible people that we are, we tend not to walk around graveyards inhabited by crack heads looking for their next mugging victim in order to score a new fix, we decide that it's far better to stay in the warm with a nice, cosy, scary film in order to get our "scare quota" back to where it should be. So what was the choice tonight? Well, there were several on TV (if you have Sky) but I managed to "acquire" 1408 on DVD and I have to say that it's one of the creepiest films I have ever had the joy to watch! Cusack, once again, is sublime. He manages to portray someone who is seriously terrified, completely at his wits end but without becoming a screaming, hysterical mess. Let's start at the very beginning (a very good place to start). Cusack is a hack writer, one who at one stage showed real talent but has since become a writer for money. He produces books that have a core audience, but who take no pleasure from his writing, but from the scare he can give them. He writes about haunted hotels/mansions etc. the kind of thing that the tabloid audience adore. However, and a very big however, he doesn't believe it himself. He knows the 'haunted' story is very good for hotels that have lost trade thanks to a new Interstate, he keeps them happy by writing up their stories of maids who have hung themselves, word of mouth speculation confirming that yes this dive of a place has indeed a ghostie that walks the night, keeping guests awake. Personally, a hotel that prides itself on its patrons not being able to sleep at night is a place I wouldn't go to, but that's just me. Cusack has his mail delivered to a mail box, in the usual bumph he finds a postcard depicting the Dolphin Hotel (bearing in mind that this film is adapted from a King short story, we can only assume the Dolphin is a cousin hotel to the Overlook) and a warning to not enter room 1408. Nobody stays longer than an hour in room 1408 and frankly it's easy to see why! The room is fucking scary! From mysteriously appearing mints on the pillow to alarm clocks that switch themselves on (you'll never hear The Carpenters in the same light again) to windows that like to close themselves and taps that spurt scalding water; this room is not conducive to having a good night's sleep. Samuel L Jackson is remarkably understated in this as the hotel manager. Not one "motherfucking" in any of it. He plays his role and actually seems to be enjoying himself, something I haven't noticed with Jackson since Snakes on a Plane. He's calm, self assured and is very anti Cusack going into room 1408. The room takes Cusack through a nightmare where he relives various moments of his life that he would truly wish to put behind him. At times it's very harsh and unforgiving. Any person would crumble with what the room puts him through but his investigatory side won't let him give in. I'm not certain as to what it is that's missing, but something certainly is from this film. It's creepy as hell, I warn you about that now, be prepared to jump, but the ending lets it down somehow. it goes from very dark and foreboding to foregone conclusion with the cliched "am I really in this situation?" scene that's almost reminiscent of the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Any jaded horror fan (I count myself in this bracket) is waiting for certain things to happen and, well whaddya know? they do. It IS good though and well worth a watch. Expect the usual camera trickery with the lens zooming out to give you a false perspective, the usual wife being supportive despite not actually having a reason to have and the staff being wary of the room itself. 1408 has all the hallmarks of being a classic spinechiller, and in places it does, but there is that all consuming, undefinable thing missing. Brilliant, but expect to be non-plussed.

Like you, I also aquired this film on DVD (although I only borrowed it for the night) and I tend to share your opinion of it. I actually really enjoyed it and found it more creepy than scary. Apparently the ending is different to the one that was originally shot and, after reading what the original was intended to be, I think it works better as it is. Actually the very last scene was the one that gave me the shivers more than most of the rest of the film.

Yeah absolutely! There's a few scenes in it that really are very creepy but that last one is the clincher.

A WTF moment, it had me spurting out multiple scenarios to what was happening...

Yeah, I really did get the shivers in that last scene. If I had any complaint at all about the film it would only be that it does fluctuate between originality and predictability. There are some scenes (I won't spoil it with details in case anyone else wants to see it) that you think are very clever and they seem to be followed by others where you can see what is going to happen minutes before it does. This is only a minor complaint as you take the film for what it is and Cusack is good enough to make you not mind so much.

I thought most of the predictability of the film was there for a reason. Cusack is obviously looking for the real thing and predicts the things that are going to happen. He just doesn't want it to happen when it does. I got the impression that you're meant to feel just as jaded as Enslin so just as freaked out when the stuff really does happen. Throwing in that bit more originality was just to make it worse. Maybe I'm reading into it too much and it was just blatantly predictable in places!

I don't know, I didn't really look at it like that. I was thinking more of scenes like the one with Cusack on the outside ledge with the wall, I kind of guessed the scenario before he even climbed out of the window.

Definitely, I know which bit you're talking about *spoiler text below He mentions when he goes into the room that he's waiting for the walls to bleed and for the room to disorient him

Great review Aura. Looking forward to seeing this now. :D

Aside from John Cusack being the god that he is I wasn't overly fussed on this film, to be honest it felt like and extened episode of The Twilight Zone.

Wasn't utterly bowled over by this myself...Cusack was good I guess... What we need is someone to make a totally creepy-ass version of Salem's Lot for the big screen...

Another excellent horror thriller... it helps that Cusack is ace in it, aswell as Sam Jackson delivering the films best line... but it was also very creepy and jumpy plus the ending(s) were excellent :D