1408 (Widescreen Edition)
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Movie Reviews of 1408 (Widescreen Edition)
Movie Review: Evil Room
Summary: 4 Stars
Stephen King. What does one think when one hears the name Stephen King? The Master of Horror, a writer of complete schlock that puts the rain forests in danger of extinction, or a mediocre writer who somehow became the world's bestselling writer? As for me, and millions of others, King was my introduction to "adult" fiction when I read The Eyes of the Dragon almost two decades ago. Like many teenagers I went through a major Stephen King period devouring his brick thick books like so many ears of corn. As I grew older and began to read "literary" fiction for the most part I moved away from King's books, but that didn't stop me from reading one or two a year and along with King's books, I have always enjoyed the films, mini-series, and made-for-television films that have been released over the last three decades. Some have been good, some have been bad, and some have been god awful, but they have always had a great entertainment value and sometimes, like his books, they can be truly creepy.
When a friend of mine asked me if I would like to go watch 1408 with him, I knew nothing about the film besides that the room 1408 was located within the Dolphin Hotel which is supposedly homage to the writings of Haruki Murakami. If that is true or not it left me hoping that the film would be more of a psychological horror film than a gore fest. My hopes were answered quite well. 1408 stars John Cusack as Mike Enslin a failed writer of literary fiction who has turned to writing such books as Top Ten Haunted Lighthouses and the like to little acclaim. A bordering alcoholic, Mike does not believe in the supernatural and is more determined to debunk claims of the super natural than anything else. One day after a very unsuccessful book signing, Mike receives an unaddressed post card with the name Dolphin Hotel on it along with the room number 1408. Mike calls the hotel to reserve the room, but is repeatedly turned down. However, supposedly there is a loophole in the law that states that he cannot be turned down to stay in the room, so he is able to make his reservation. There the receptionist directs him to the manager: Gerald Olin portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Mr. Olin informs Mike of the numerous deaths that have occurred in the room from suicides and natural causes. Pestered for the reason why he does not want Mike to enter the room Mr. Olin answers that he does not want to deal with the cleanup and asked what the deal with the room is, Mr. Olin answers, "it's an evil f#cking room!" Mike makes his way up to the room and quickly tries to debunk the room because of its mundane features, but things begin to become odd: mints appear on the pillow, the clock radio begins by itself, windows shut violently on their own, and the heat continues to rise. All is relatively fine until the alarm clock begins ticking down from sixty minutes because no one has ever survived more than sixty minutes in the room.
Earlier in this review I mentioned that the luxury hotel was called the Dolphin Hotel in a supposed homage to Murakami Haruki's novels. Within his novel Dance Dance Dance, the dolphin hotel, the original one at least, houses the narrator's memories. Room 1408 is similar to Murakami's Dolphin Hotel, but instead of only housing Mike's memories it also uses them to attack him. 1408 is a very claustrophobic film. Little of the action takes place outside of Room 1408 and the sense of being entrapped is increased by the muted lighting and creative camera angles. The film works on tension. My body felt as if was made of stone at some points because of the tension created while waiting for something to happen and when something did happen it almost made me jump out of my skin. Many have complained that the film's second half is not as good as the first and that it derails a bit. I thought so also, but after reflecting on the film for the last couple of days, room 1408 might be even more sinister that Mr. Olin's line "it's an evil f#cking room" gives it credit for.
Movie Review: good, but could have been better
Summary: 4 Stars
I can't say I'm as thrilled with 1408 as most people.
The movie did an INCREDIBLE job in the beginning building up suspense that the hotel room the main character wanted to stay in was full of unexplainable evil, and had a dangerous history of countless deaths over the years of the previous visitors that stayed in the room. After all the convincing that the guy should NOT stay in the room from Samuel L. Jackson's character, I was anticipating what kind of danger this room would hold.
The creepy build up as the guy (who was a book writer by the way) was approaching the room while walking down the hotel hallway was quite good too, with an elevator opening by itself, and flies buzzing over the food on the plates that were sitting on a tray outside a hotel room. You could sense an enormous danger right around the corner.
Once the guy entered the room and started experiencing how insane the room really was, this is where the movie started to lose me... but only a little bit.
A nice twist having the Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" constantly playing on the alarm clock radio, haha. I love that song. The history of the band itself was a tragedy, though I don't think the movie directors intended the band to be the focus of the storyline- it was just a random song they chose that was appropriate for the film because of the song title and the beautiful melody of the vocals worked REALLY work in this kind of uncomfortable setting.
Anyway, once the guy started getting comfortable inside the room (or rather, UNcomfortable) strange things began to happen.
Of course this is a horror movie, so the suspense started off slow and builded gradually. Once the guy realized something was terribly wrong (and arrogantly thought beforehand that NOTHING would happen to him) he started having hallucinations. It was a REAL challenge trying to figure out what was real and what was just the guys hallucinations creeping in. Of course the evil in the room was forcing the guy to have hallucinations quite often about his dead daughter and almost drowning in a ocean (and waking up near a beach) but it was REALLY confusing to me what was really happening and what wasn't.
I also feel the movie went a little too far with the creepiness and the hallucinations of the room. Come on, the ENTIRE room turns into a freezer suddenly as the guy almost freezes to death? The ENTIRE room floods with water as he almost drowns? It went WAY too far sometimes and the creepiness went away as a result.
1408 is quite entertaining as far as the action is concerned- one great scene right after another, and the film certainly LOOKS really good.
Well, the film does make more sense in its conclusion. I might give this movie a higher rating the second time I watch it, but as it is, it could have been a classic had some exaggerated scenes never taken place.
Movie Review: Psychological Horror Film Largely Works, Deserves an R Rating
Summary: 4 Stars
Imagine being in a creepy room that you can't escape from and it's scaring you because it's touching deep psychological nerves of fear. Then you wake up and you think that it was a dream, but then you find out that you're waking up really was the dream and you are still in the room. And it goes on and on .... This is one of the most psychologically disturbing parts of this film ... the idea of being trapped in a nightmare unable to escape an unbearable situation. (Remember the TV series from the '60s, The Prisoner? Touched a similar nerve, but much less so.)
Then you start seeing your Daughter, who died of cancer, and she's telling you "Daddy, I'm scared, I'm cold ...... " indicating of course that your little daughter is facing the cold, lonely, malevolent "afterworld" without the comfort of you, her Mother, any Angels or benevolent deities. Once again, it deeply touches the "disturbing" nerve. And you can see your wife over a screen but she has no idea where you are or that you're in danger. And it just gets more & more unbearable until you are tempted to end it all.
OK, that's the basic idea of this movie. Lots of psychological horror in lieu of outright violence and gore. I think that it deserves an R rating because of that (as well as Hollywood starting to drop F-bombs in supposed PG-13 movies -- if they're going to do that, they should accept an R rating).
I had the same opinion of the Ring. IF you follow along with it, then you get to a point where you are despairing and feeling lost, with the Nihilistic message. But at least there is redemption in the end in "1408" (in the version that we watched! I hear there's another ending out there that's much more depressing.) Some hard-core horror fans may not find the movie compelling, but I did, because I generally do not watch the hard-core stuff and so I'm not so calloused yet.
Actually the "room" is a metaphor for life's seemingly inescapable traps, such as massive depression or drug addiction. That the main character gets out of it in the end, could be inspiration to someone going through a real-life "Room 1408."
I liked the acting job of John Cusack, who carried most of the movie as the originally cynical ghost hunter who gets trapped in the room/nightmare and tries to get out. Also, Samuel Jackson makes the most of his supporting role, as a forceful & charismatic Hotel Manager. You never know if he's on Cusack's side, or he's part of the conspiracy to trap people in that bleeping room!
BTW I give this movie 3.5 stars but since Amazon doesn't have half-points, I'd rather round it up to a "4" than down to a "3."
Movie Review: "It's an evil f**king room." -Gerald Olin, Manager, Dolphin Hotel
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on Stephen King's short horror story, "1408" keeps us guessing whether the horror lives in the room or in the mind of its aggrieved, alcoholic protagonist. Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a novelist whose creative energies have seen better days. Now he churns out guidebooks to purportedly haunted locales and tours the country in search of paranormal activity that he never finds. Mike wants to investigate Room 1408 in New York's Dolphin Hotel. But the hotel's manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) does everything he can to dissuade Mike from entering the room, where 56 guests have died in the hotel's 95-year history. Mike scoffs at the claim that no one lasts more than an hour, and insists on spending the night in Room 1408.
We spend that hour with Mike in real time. The build-up to the hour of horrors introduces us to Mike's state of mind, to the legend of Room 1408, and to the imposing, intriguing hotel manager Olin. Mike's conversation with Olin is a lot of fun before we enter the maelstrom. The action in the Room runs out of steam after a while, but it recovers and succeeds largely because we're never quite sure what the source of Mike's ordeal is. At times, I thought "1408" was no more than a minor reworking of "The Shining", but the film doesn't linger long on any one rationalization. I can't say that I was scared, but I was entertained by Mike's cynicism, Olin's frankness, and that Room that forces its occupants to confront -and perish by- their own demons.
The DVD (Weinstein Company single disc 2007): The single disc DVD contains the theatrical release version of the film, not the director's cut. Bonus features are 2 "webisodes", which are brief promo spots, and a theatrical trailer. In "John Cusack on 1408: A Webisode" (2 ½ min), Cusack talks a little about the story and Samuel L. Jackson talks about the room. "Inside Room 1408: A Webisode" (2 min) features actors commenting on the room, and the special effects supervisor explains some of the effects. Subtitles are available for the film in English SDH and Spanish. Dubbing available in French.
Movie Review: I'm In A Stephen King Kinda Mood
Summary: 4 Stars
The scare factor was high--but not to the point where you'll be uncomfortable sleeping alone for a week, which is too much in my humble opinion--and was enough to please those looking for a thrill. The story had enough emotional impact for those looking for a bit more. A few scenes could have been cut here and there to make it a tighter film, but overall it was a very good, atmospheric film experience.
It's not one of those movies where you can automatically guess what happens. Actually, one of the tricks of this film--now this is interesting--is that there are many points where viewers will think they've got it figured out. Well, all those assumptions will be blown away by the end of this movie, which I thought was rather clever. As things started to wrap up, I thought the end was going to be a big downer (as in depressing, not disappointment), but again--my assumptions were wrong.
One thing I didn't like about this movie was the use of music. Good music--like good acting and writing--is invisible, because it adds to the overall mood of the story. However, music that tells the audience what to feel by being too loud, overly dramatic, or sappy has no place in the world of film, and there were a few instances in this film where I felt that the music was doing just that. I'm not referring to the use of the song "We've Only Just Begun," which was bone-chillingly effective, but the actual score of the movie.
Overall, 1408 is a vast improvement over the brainless gore-fests of torture porn trying to pass as horror these days. 1408, though it isn't perfect, is an example of what horror flicks should aspire to be.
8/10