Stephen King tales are some of the most notoriously difficult stories to translate from print to screen. The only ones that seem to consistently work as movies are his short stories, having produced such films as Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. 1408 is another one of King's short stories turned motion picture, and while it doesn't hit the heights of either of the aforementioned, it does work relatively well for most of its run time, and could probably be placed in the upper echelon of King adaptations.Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a paranormal researcher who writes books about the most haunted places in America. The only problem is he has found no real proof of an afterlife, and finds the idea of paranormal activity to be silly. So when he receives an anonymous postcard from the Dolphin Hotel warning him to stay away from room 1408, he takes it as a challenge. In spite of the warnings of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson in a glorified cameo), Enslin shacks up for the night, only to discover that things may be more dangerous than he believed.
1408 is a throwback to the days when horror movies actually tried to scare you instead of shock you or gross you out. There is little violence, and no real blood or gore. Instead the film builds up suspense, bursting every so often with a good scare. Moments such as Enslin seeing a mirror of himself in the adjacent building's window are quite unsettling. Adding to the air of foreboding is the well-integrated flashbacks to the death of Enslin's young daughter. These moments ground the character in reality, as well as open up possible interpretations as to what exactly might be causing the increasingly disturbing occurrences in the room. The film also dwells quite a bit on some strong themes, notably coping with death. It gets pretty heavy for a horror movie, but fans of King will know this is par for the course in his writing. It blends well with the horror aspects, and makes the film feel more full as a result.
Cusack does a very good job of acting by himself for most of the run time. While he does overact a bit (his hissyfit with the refrigerator was a little too much), for the most part he makes you forget that he's the only real actor on screen. He's funny, sarcastic, frightened, angry, and seemingly every other emotion on the spectrum at some point. It's kind of a shame, then, that the film never quite knows what to do with him or his situation. For a good hour we are pretty engrossed in what is happening, but slowly it becomes apparent that the film just has a list of things it wants to show us, but no real idea of what to do with those things. The whole film just kind of sputters to an ending, with no real resolution or sense of closure. And for a second you almost think the film is going to go for the ultimate cop-out ending, but thankfully it avoids it.
Folks looking for some good scares won't be disappointed, and they might even be surprised at how deep the character of Enslin is. Yet in spite of some strong thematic material, the film fails to present us with any real feeling of direction. It just needed something more to make it all gel together better, some sort of overarching sense of purpose. Still, it's better than most horror films out these days, and any fans of Stephen King's works will likely be happy with this more intelligent translation of his writing than the majority of his adaptations.
