1408

I'm not a huge fan of John Cusack but I have to say that I thought he was exellent in this....he plays a small time cult writer Mike Enslin who spends much of his time staying in various hotels or places that are rumoured to be haunted in order to make reference to them in his books...his previous books are basically studies on the haunted premise of the buildings and he writes with pure scepticism on the paranormal...advertising the locations...yes... but also debunking their ghostly claims too. Enslin speaks throughout on his tape recorder, and early on you can see he is obsessed with his work so when he gets a strange postcard amongst other haunted Hotel invites saying 'Don't enter room 1408' he just can't resist. Cue the appearance of Samuel L Jackson the manager of the hotel who goes to great extent to persuade Cusack not to stay in the room but to no avail and he enters.........Jackson although billed as a major actor even joining Cusack on the cover of posters, covers, etc really has a very small part in the movie, granted its a good one though.... The film builds up extremely well while you follow Enslin's analytical mind deduce early on that the room is just like any other he has stayed at..... that is until of course things start happening that his logic seems unable to reason with...It is after this that we get much more of an insight into the character's past along with watching his assured self control dwindle away......... You can tell immediately that it is a Stephen King short and as a fan of King I love the way he builds up an atmosphere and also his character developments...I actually noticed alot of different subtle referrences to other stories of his in this one......The fact its in a hotel automatically points to The Shining.......one of the first victims of the room was named Grady ......Grady was a character in "The Shining, ..Enslin also has the superstitious habits of a writer reminiscent of Paul Sheldon in Misery (Of course I'm also aware that King could be using himself as a template when creating characters that are writers and thats where the similarity lies) and there is a scene very similar to that end sequence in Misery where Paul thinks he sees Annie Wilkes serving at the restaurant. The movie gives its fair amount of shocks too and there is a real claustrobic feel as soon as he enters 1408, I think part of the reason I liked the movie is because I could identify somewhat with the Enslin character or at least his scepticism although he was a bit more extreme in that regard than me and the first sign of trouble and I would have been out of there....no truthfully after Jackson's warnings I would never have even entered it in the first place . Mikael Hafstrom does a good directing job too constantly keeping the intensity up moving to each notch pushing us the audience with it revealing more of the character's story...which is very much what the movie is all about...

Anyway a good entertaining Horror, not King's best by a long shot but still very much an enjoyable creepy ride...

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