Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago here.
I remember my first exposure to the Stephen King short story "1408," on which the new John Cusack film is based. Most fairly faithful fans of King's fiction first read it as part of his "Everything's Eventual" collection of short stories, but I remember so clearly reading the first chapter in his non-fiction instructional manual "On Writing," in which he gave readers (students?) the unedited version of that first chapter and then showed how he went back and edited his own work. As a writer, the book was indispensable, but that small sample of unreleased material was my personal Holy Grail for many years. Then came the King book-on-tape "Blood and Smoke," four stories never put in one of his books to that point (most, if not all, ended up in "Everything's Eventual"). With King reading this story on the tape, I nearly shit myself listening to this tale of a man in an evil hotel room.
On the surface, the story of 1408 doesn't lend itself to being made into a feature film. Nearly all of the major "action" takes place in the mind of writer Mike Enslin, played by Cusack in a return to greatness. With the exception of THE ICE HARVEST, I haven't been too impressed with much of what this gifted actor has given us in recent years, but I think 2007 is looking to be one of his finest, especially if what I'm hearing about GRACE IS GONE is true. Cusack's gift for maximum sarcasm and skepticism is exactly what Enslin needs as a once serious writer who has cheapened his talents by writing about supposedly haunted houses and hotels. For his latest work, an investigation of 10 well-known spook-occupied hotels (he tends to debunk every claim of supernatural activity in these establishments), Mike wants his final chapter to be on the Dolphin Hotel New York, which has seen dozens of deaths in Room 1408 since its opening in the 1930s. In fact, no resident of that room has lasted more than an hour.
Upon walking into the hallowed halls of the esteemed hotel, Enslin is met by hotel manager Gerald Olin (a nicely subdued Samuel L. Jackson), who plies the writer with expensive spirits and offers of access to information about all of the previous deaths if Mike will simply not stay in the room. Mike is convinced this is all part of the "sell," just a way to make nervous and easily spooked in the room. Olin does his best to explain the nature of the evil in the room, but Enslin simply isn't buying it.
It's within the confines of Room 1408 that we, too, begin to understand how things work. There are no ghosts or spirits in the room already, only the ones that you bring in with you. We soon see in a series of flashbacks ripped from Mike's mind by the room that he and his wife (Mary McCormack) once had a daughter (Jasmine Jessica Anthony) who died young, and whose passing caused Mike to leave his wife in New York and move to California, far away from his pain. 1408 is not a film with cheap scares or cats jumping out of closest punctuated by loud music (unless you count The Carpenters tune that is the recurring theme song of the film). This is a movie that earns the fear that it generates, and plunges deep into the darkest corners of Mike's soul to find out what scares him the most and what events in his life he would least like to relive. Don't go looking for any kind of explanation why Room 1408 is the way it is. Perhaps it's just a place where a person's ghosts are amplified and guilt is exploited to the point where many past residents ended their own lives as a means of escape.
I hope I'm wrong, but 1408 is almost too smart for mainstream audiences. Most of the crowd with whom I saw this film was restless early, and the film is barely 90 minutes long. This is a tense and thrilling art film disguised as a scare movie. It's a psychological profile of a tortured artist dealing unsuccessfully with grief. Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (DERAILED) has crafted a near-perfect character study and Cusack makes it look easy. He's not afraid to look tired and older than we've seen him look before. This is not the typical man-ish boy that he's played in the past (and even recently). He's a grown man with a grown man's troubles. That doesn't mean he doesn't have fun with the role, especially early on when we see him visit one of many haunted hotels. But when it's time to rip out his heart with a chainsaw and crowbar, he doesn't flinch. 1408 is a smart, stylish, and gripping drama encased in horror show wrapping that works on both levels. The movie dares to have an artistry about it, while not forgetting to be entertaining and poignant.
Capone
