1408

Posted by Paige MacGregor (paige@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 1, 2007

If there were ever a film that was ruined by its trailer, director Mikael H¥fstr¶m’s latest film, 1408, the cinematic adaptation of a short horror story written by Stephen King, is certainly it. Although trailers are a necessary evil in attracting audiences to the movie theater, the promotion team for 1408 went completely overboard, revealing a number of scenes that could be much more effective in the film with regard to shock value had they not been included in the trailer. 1408, a horror/thriller film that delivers a riveting storyline (as any good adaptation of Stephen King’s work should) in which novelist Mike Enslin, played by an obviously aging John Cusack, travels the country searching out, debunking and then documenting in writing claims of the supernatural.

Unfortunately for audience members who have seen the film’s promotional trailer, the first twenty minutes of 1408 serve merely as a long, drawn out and ultimately unnecessary introduction that establishes some of Enslin’s back story as a novelist declining in both popularity and respect and details one the writer’s less than frightening stays in yet another “haunted” hotel. Since the trailer has already divulged images of John Cusack being tortured in numerous different ways in what we are forced to assume is room 1408 at the Dolphin, and since the scene in which Enslin’s daughter, Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony), tells her father that “Everyone dies” while seated in a hospital bed is also included in the trailer, audiences already know that the protagonist has a dead daughter and travels the country searching for “real” paranormal events, rendering the entire first segment of the film completely superfluous.

Once the film moves past these unnecessary scenes, including one in which Cusack’s character takes a blow to the head during a surfing accident, and Enslin is taunted into taking an interest in room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in New York City by a mysterious postcard and telephone conversations with vague and disgruntled hotel staff, 1408 truly begins. At this point Samuel L. Jackson finally enters the diegesis as Mr. Gerald Olin, manager at the Dolphin Hotel, who not only succeeds in delivering the best line of the entire film (“It’s an evil fucking room.”), but a superior performance as well, overpowering Cusack’s finely constructed big-screen version of Stephen King’s character in the scenes in which the two actors appear together and interact. One pleasant surprise for Samuel L. Jackson fans: the film’s trailer, despite revealing far too much that should’ve been kept under wraps, failed to do justice for Jackson’s role in the film, which, although short, is longer than one might initially suspect.

1408 employs excellent cinematography, creating a diegetic world that the viewer is unable to leave even for a moment, despite the knowledge that everything he or she is viewing is an illusion of light and sound. Arguably many of the films released this summer will be just as entertaining on a 27” television as on the big screen—Knocked Up, Ocean’s 13, or Shrek The Third, for example—1408 is a film that should be viewed at least once on a theater-sized screen. The overwhelming size of images presented on such a screen allows viewers to be completely enveloped in both the visual and auditory stimuli of the film, forcing audiences to identify so vividly with Enslin’s experiences in room 1408 that you may just find yourself wishing halfway through that the movie would end.

Altogether, 1408’s excellent cinematography—thanks to French cinematographer Benoit Delhomme, whose work includes the 2006 Anthony Minghella film Breaking and Entering—and gripping storyline, combine to create what could be hailed as one of the better of the myriad Stephen King adaptations that have appeared over the years. The film’s cast delivers strong and believable performances, the majority of the plot is far from predictable, and sound and image are expertly combined for the maximum thrill.

Conclusion: Highly recommended.

Read more articles by Paige MacGregor