1408 (2007)

[tabuno]

Rarely does horror film get an opportunity to be considered among the other more serious movies, but 1408 starring almost exclusively John Cusack incorporates some of the most original horror cinematography in years that rivals The Exorcist for its freshness and great use of camera and sound technique. It richly deserves award nominations in:

Sound Effects Editing
Sound
Cinematography
Writing: Based on material from another medium

Strangely enough while I can't provide my support for nominations in the major award characters, I still feel that this movie is among the best of 2007 for its superior handling of the material and its significant contribution to the horror genre and ranks as one my favorite horror movies.

[Chris Knipp]

Mikael Håfström: 1408 (2007)

Do not stay at a Midtown hotel

Review by Chris Knipp

W A R N I N G: P O S S I B L E S P O I L E R S

Four years ago in 2003 John Cusack starred in a movie about a murder motel where one person after another kept getting killed. In retrospect that was more fun than his new one, 1408, a claustrophobic psychological thriller about a doomed and horrible hotel room in Manhattan where his character is trapped and tormented all alone. The 2003 movie was called Identity, and its payoff was very far-fetched. But it had Rebecca De Mornay, Alfred Molina, Gary Busey's son Jake, Ray Liotta, and Amanda Peet. In room 1408 there is only John Cusack and his demons. And a lot of special effects. Samuel L. Jackson is downstairs in a hotel manager's monkey suit, out of reach.

1408 originated as a short story from the fevered imagination of Stephen King, whose plots often have a reflexive, boxes-within-boxes aspect. It concerns a writer who does books disproving that various locations are magical or haunted. One reviewer calls these "paranormal guidebooks," but the point is he's a rationalist. He thinks he can stay in any haunted rooms without fear because he doesn't believe in ghosts; then he can write about them glibly and entertainingly. Though his aim is to debunk, his books are good for the hostelries' or haunted sites' business and they do a good business for themselves, though he's just a skilled hack and his latest reading is attended by under half a dozen people. What we learn later is that he is haunted himself by the death of a young daughter, and he ran out on his bereaved wife some time back.

Someone tips off Cusack's character, whose name is Mike Enslin, that he should not enter room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel in midtown Manhattan. He decides that this is the perfect finale for his latest book, Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms. So room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel is where Enslin goes and where the action takes place. The hotel has turned down his request to stay in this room. He has used a lawyer and agent to force them to agree. When he arrives he is shunted to the office of the manager, Mr. Olin (Jackson), who repeats the history of the room to him and urges him not to enter it. No one has emerged alive from a night in it.

1408 has been compared to Kubrick's film of The Shining, because both stories are about writers shut up somewhere so claustrophobic it drives them nuts. But with all due respect to the director Mikael Håfström, he's no Kubrick.

In a story like this it's necessary to follow all the signals and suspend disbelief. But puzzles will remain. Supposing there were a hotel room like this where dozens of people had died of both natural and unnatural causes, chiefly suicide. Supposing all that were true. Why then would the hotel maintain the room in working order? If people have been dying horribly here since 1913, and an electrician as we see later refuses even to step into it, how come it has a working TV and clock radio, fully stocked bar, well made bed, up to date plumbing, and so forth? Why not just shut it down? Ostensibly, we're told, because hotels don't like to admit to bad luck just as they don't like to acknowledge having a thirteenth floor.

Let us go back to the fact that this comes from a short story, and note that the original master of such tales was Edgar Allen Poe. In them, the protagonist has some horrific experience, and then discovers--what? That there was some reasonable explanation? That it was a dream? Or not? The irony is that Stephen King invents a writer who debunks the kind of story he banks his own reputation on, and then gives him a very,very hard time, as one would stick pins in a voodoo doll. But due to the loyalty of the society of scriveners, he lets Enslin off in the end. Or does he?

If 1408 comes close to being a superior example of the old fashioned kind of scary movie--not the ramped-up youthful gore-fest that now proliferates but an evisceration-free bit of teasing mental torture--it's because Mr. Håfström is a decent director; but most of all it's because John Cusack is a fine actor, who is capable of making his emotions seem real to us. And though 1408 is very much less pleasant to watch than the haunted murder-fest of Cusack's 2003 Identity, it's also a piece with more class, a mind game, not just a whodunit.

The trouble with 1408 is that even if $25 million isn't a big budget for Hollywood, it will buy you a lot of special effects if you're just working in a couple of rooms; and at some point the special effects grab the stage from Cusack: the hotel room is flooded or frozen over with snow or crumbling to pieces and covered with plaster dust. You're not inside Mike Enslin's head any more but on a film set the F/X people are having a ball with. It's a relief to know it's just a movie and you can get off the edge of your seat. But that's not what's supposed to happen, of course. You're supposed to stay on the edge till the end. Seeing John Cusack in this kind of movie makes me miss those great youth pictures of the Eighties in which he was a key participant. He's still a terrific actor, with greatly more well-developed chops. But he's in a losing battle with the plaster and fake snow, and that's a shame.

[tabuno]

One point that Chris Knipps has trouble with 1408 is regards his difficulty in accepting the need for the room 1408 to be periodically maintained instead of left in a state of disrepair that for him remains a puzzle that for some reason intrudes on his ability to enjoy the movie it appears even though he himself indicates that in movies like this it's necessary to "suspend disbelief." For me, I actually thought the idea of the need to maintain this room was a good one, especially if the owners wanted to keep the hotel viable. Personally I would think that a room in disrepair over many years could in fact be a health and safety problem that could severely impact the neighboring rooms. If plumbing and electric wiring were allowed to deteriorate and dust and mold allowed to accumulate, insects, allergens, and possible fire hazards could be created if left unattended. There appears to be no puzzle in this regard.



Chris Knipp comments: If 1408 comes close to being a superior example of the old fashioned kind of scary movie--not the ramped-up youthful gore-fest that now proliferates but an evisceration-free bit of teasing mental torture--it's because Mr. Håfström is a decent director; but most of all it's because John Cusack is a fine actor, who is capable of making his emotions seem real to us. And though 1408 is very much less pleasant to watch than the haunted murder-fest of Cusack's 2003 Identity, it's also a piece with more class, a mind game, not just a whodunit.

Chris Knipp's commentary here seems to actually support how good this movie really is instead of being a reason to devalue it.


However, Chris Knipp's major point seems to rely on the fact that John Cusack's earlier movie Identity as more fun and implies, in part, that this movie had more live actors while 1408 was restricted to Mr. Cusack and his demons. This being so, Chris Knipp then offers the argument that the liberal use of special effects somehow so intrudes on the audience that it takes away from somehow being in Mr. Cusack's mind and experiencing his emotions. What is great about this movie, in my mind, is that this is not the "old fashioned kind of scary movie" that Chris Knipp is apparently judging this movie on but a new kind of scary movie that allows the audience to experience not Mr. Cusack along with his interaction with a lot of other actors as in Identity but we get to experience Mr. Cusack along with the special effects as an entity in itself! It is the interaction between Mr. Cusack the environment like the classic struggles of man vs. nature that the audience gets to enjoy in his new form of horror thriller. Personally, I was appreciative not having to be so focused on Mr. Cusack and his mind as much as the totality of the experience myself - the special effects as if I were having to experience the effects myself. The brilliance of this movie which is one of my personal favorites of the year is that like Jaws it sets a "new" standard for employing a mind-twisting, thrill ride experience along with the determination of a great actor as John Cusack in this role. The continuity, the consistent attractive compulsion of neverending, ripping roaring special effect horror and Mr. Cusack's slow deterioration as well as our own makes this movie one of the most underrated movies, in my mind, this year.

[Chris Knipp]

I was just being honest in saying that for me, when the special effects became dominant, I stopped being scared, because it became for me "just a movie." I granted that Cusack is a very good actor.

As for the room, after all if you can grant that there are such rooms, I don't know what the management would do with them, but since they wouldn't let anybody stay there, keeping it in rentable shape is hard to understand. Why not simply empty it out and shut it completely?

I can't argue with you if you enjoyed the special effects. I find that there's a disconnect between the internal mental turmoil of the story and the elaborate external effects.

Though I knew you wouldn't be happy about my criticisms, you should understand that I am not saying this is a "bad" movie. It is excellent of its kind; but there are better. I mentioned The Shining because others have too in this context, and I think it's obvious that achieves a more powerful effect with greater artistry--Kubrick is one of the great ones--and with a more restrained and judicious use of F/X.

Better US movies I've seen in theatrical release so far this year: The Lookout, Zodiac, Grindhouse; The Namesake . I can understand your considering 1408 one of your personal favorites of the year, though, especially if you like this kind of movie.