‘It’s an evil fucking room...’
When one thinks of Stephen King and a haunted hotel, it is invariably The Shining that comes to mind. There is another. 1408, a critical and commercial hit upon release back in 2007, will forever be in the shadow of The Overlook Hotel, but the story upon which it is based (originally published in the short story collection Everything’s Eventual in 2002) is one of King’s finest shorter works and this ensures that this film adaptation just about stands up on its own two feet…
Mike Enslin, a writer of books titled things like Top 10 Scariest Hotels in America, is a jaded cynic still hurting from the death of his daughter. His contempt for both the subjects of his work and his readers is matched only by his contempt for himself. He is intrigued, however, upon the receipt of a mysterious postcard that points him to the titular room 1408 at the fictional Dolphin Hotel in downtown New York. Upon arrival, he is met by Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), the hotel manager, who vehemently attempts to persuade Enslin to go home. Alas, our hapless protagonist is resolute, and so he gets what he wanted. A never-ending night in room 1408.
I first saw this film at the cinema in the summer of 2007. It was a hot day, the sun was shining outside, and yet, for 104 terrifying minutes, the packed cinema I was in fell into some kind of deep hypnotic state of horror. Everyone was locked into this thing in a way that I’ve never seen before or since. What’s weird about that is that while 1408 is hauntingly effective throughout, it’s not the scariest film out there. But for some reason, on that day, in that cinema, it just worked.
Watching it back for the fourth time recently and I must admit it is nowhere near as powerful as that first unforgettable viewing, but Cusack’s performance is still excellent, Mikael Håfström’s direction is mostly inventive and effective (there are a few sequences that haven’t aged particularly well), and the room itself exudes menace in all the right ways. It takes a special actor to carry a film pretty much singlehandedly (although Sam Jackson is also tremendous in the small amount of time he is given), but Cusack, working at something close to his peak, gives one of his best performances here. It remains the best thing about the film and the main reason why it has endured at all.
1408 is not The Shining, that much is clear. But then, it isn’t trying to be. This is a pulpy, campy, unapologetically nasty psychological horror, and while it doesn’t recapture the macabre power of King’s short story, it’s still a very serviceable mainstream horror movie.
