1408

1408 (2007)

Directed by: Mikael Håfström
Written by: Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, based on the short story by The King
Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Tony Shalhoub

You could say that some movies have a shine to them. "New" Stephen King adaptation about a haunted hotel.

This one's about a guy who goes around proving that houses aren't haunted. A real sarcastic bastard (my kind of guy), grieving over his dead daughter. And then he finds a hotel room that really is haunted. Ha ha.

There's a nigh unbearable sense of doom throughout the whole thing. Waiting for whatever's going to happen to happen. A gradual build-up of atmosphere. Climactic dread.

The room was freaky as hell, with mirrors in unexpected places, and it was all shot really well. Also, my God is John Cusack looking old. He looks like my grandma. That alone was totally horrifying. Poor guy, he used to be so adorable.

Anyway, the dread sort of fizzles out once they start fucking around, and by the end of the movie I couldn't trust them at all. I just accepted that the guy was dead, still trapped in the room, whatever. Freaky shit, but it really pissed me off. I don't like people messing with me like that (the main reason why I got mad at Shyamalan. Bastard).

So other than that (bastards), the script was pretty good, the room was spooky as anything, the whole thing shone like the sun, Sammy Jackson got his obligatory Sammy Jackson line ("It's an evil fucking room").

Something I was wondering about though: If you add the numbers of 1408, you get 13 (I didn't work that out, they said so in the movie. I'm not that smart, God), so does 1246 have the same problem? Okay, 1246 doesn't have the misfortune of being on the 13th floor. How about 1453? Or 1471? I know, I know, it actually doesn't matter. The room's haunted because it is, this is just what I think about in the wee hours of the morning.

So yeah, not a bad movie, one of the better Stephen King movies I've seen lately (horror movies, anyway). Pretty... tense, I suppose. Laden with Kingisms, but, hey, can't argue with that (I have my own set of clichés I use in everything I write, I should really leave him alone). But still. It bugs me. Not as much as some of his other ones. The Tommyknockers for example. Actually, I shouldn't really give him a hard time anyway seeing as he had wasn't exactly involved with the production team on that one. I don't think.

Yeah yeah. Leave Steve alone. Okay. Just shut up about it. Yeah yeah.

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