Thursday, October 19, 2017

31 Days of Horror- Day 19: 1408 (2007)

(dir. Mikael Hafstrom)

Dimension Films
A paranormal guidebook writer who doesn’t believe in ghosts hopes to revive his career by checking into the Dolphin Hotel’s infamous Room 1408, where he experiences a lifetime of terror all within an hour’s time.

Stephen King novels, and adaptations, are filled with protagonists who are writers. It’s become an expected, though welcome trope of his work. 1408 once again gives us a protagonist who’s a writer, but because he’s not a fiction writer, but rather the author of the kind of non-fiction America’s greatest haunts book, he and the way he reacts to genuine horror feels unique. John Cusack’s performance as Mike Enslin is masterful and this movie wouldn’t be nearly as impactful as it is without his cynical turn as a washed up writer and atheist. I think what makes this King adaptation one of the stronger ones is how complete Enslin feels as a character, right down do his horrible fashion sense (a sports coat over a Hawaiian shirt? Please leave). Cusack has the guy pegged down, from the way he enters a room with a vague, undeserved arrogance, to the way he records notes for his books with a needlesome pretension. No, Enslin isn’t likeable, but he feels so much like a real person rather than a forced performance of unlikability, which ultimately makes him a bit endearing or at least someone we can empathize with.

The room, 1408, is plagued by a history of horrible suicides which the hotel’s manager, Olin, given both ominous charm and menace by Samuel L. Jackson, describes in great detail. No one has ever survived in 1408 more than an hour, he intones. The film really plays with the elemental forces at work within the supernatural. There are ghostly apparitions, that appear perversely illuminated like TV images, but there’s also the matter of the thermostat which takes the room from an inferno to a blizzard, and a faucet that floods the whole room in an attempt to drown Enslin. For a film primarily set in one location, Hafstrom really allows the film’s production design to put Enslin through the ringer. Ultimately, these visions, and painful accidents that Enslin goes through while within the room serve as an attempt by supernatural forces to drive him mad, and push him to the edge of rational sense. But Enslin has already been driven to the edge by the death of his young daughter, and thus the confrontation plays out like a battle of wills between the physical world and the supernatural, providing a small chance for Enslin to possible regain his faith. While the ending doesn’t hit the mark it needed to, there’s still some powerful concepts at play here, handled in a visually clever way.

Scare Factor: 2/5 1408 is a really strong modern ghost story that’s more spooky than horrific, but it feels like the perfect October film to watch on a chilly night.

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