1408 is based on a short story by Stephen King. Initially published in the audiobook collection Blood and Smoke it eventually made its way onto print form with the short story collection 'Everything's Eventual'. At heart a haunted hotel story, Swedish Director Mikael Hafstrom keeps things simple with only one character on screen for most of its running time. Two if you count room 1408.
Cusack is excellent as Mike Enslin, a character himself haunted with the death of his daughter and the subsequent end of his marriage. This is a catharsis for a grinding ennui as he travels to self-publicised haunted hotspots, where self-serving establishment owners embellish tales of haunted rooms so Enslin can record them in his latest book. A mysterious postcard points him towards the Dolphin Hotel and Room 1408 where his interest is piqued by the apparent reluctance of the hotel manager - a nicely restrained Samuel L Jackson - to allow him to spend the night in 1408. Enslin talks his way in - and from there the fun begins.
In effect 1408 is an extended Twilight Zone episode, but completed with King's deft touch for personal horror, Cusack's energetic turn and an excellent cast (Fans of HBO's The Wire will chuckle at Isiah Whitlock Jr's brief cameo) along with a willingness to remain true to the format of the genre. Cusack's performance alone is worth the price of admission.
1408 tends to tailspin towards the end, the twists thrown up are clunky and obvious, although as a long term reader of Mr King's work I can attest to the fact that whilst King is one of the greatest fiction writers of our generation his endings are a hit and miss affair. Jackson is underused, and disappears for the majority of the movie, a surprise given the dual billing. One wonders - should one be a cynic - if Jackson's bankability is the sole reason for this. The horror, when it comes, is curiously archaic, steeped in the 1950s, its decor similar to room 1408 itself, yet oddly welcome in the day and age where excess gore and shock-torture has become a byword for modern horror.
For that I'm glad 1408 is around.
