Stephen
King has so many of his novels and short stories made into films
he must due for some kind of award. Certainly he has achieved
a huge following with his ‘things that go bump in the
night’ literature. Some screen adaptions have been exceptional
like The Shining, The Shawshank Redemption
and The Green Mile, some have not fared so well off
the written page.
1408, like The Shawshank Redemption, is based
on one of his short stories and while not up to King’s
best screen adaptations it’s certainly not a clunker.
A short story is a tale, getting you hooked in a few lines and
without elaborate character development or sub plots it takes
you to straight to the heart of the matter often with a twist
in the ending. To make a full length movie from such material
it needs fleshing out. So a team of script writers Matt Greenberg,
Scott Alexander, and Larry Karaszewski have elaborated considerably
on King’s story here to provide a more visual version
of events for the screen. Although true to the spirit (no pun
intended) of the original it differs in some aspects which might
surprise King himself.
Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a modesty successful writer of
ghost debunking books becoming cynical after his daughter Katie
dies of leukaemia. While investigating all manner of haunted
buildings he has yet to meet a true ghost. Things are about
to change in a big way. Receiving an anonymous post card telling
of a haunted room 1408 in the grand old Dolphin Hotel in New
York he insists on staying the night there. Despite deep protestations
from the hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) who warns
him that many people have died frightening deaths in that room.
Hence its been shut up for years. Nobody has ever stayed in
the room for more than 60 minutes coming out either dead or
a shattered wreck. Olin tells him it’s a totally evil
room. Not in the least dismayed Mike sets himself up in the
apparently very ordinary room dictating into a small recorder
the details for his book. But suddenly the silence is shattered
by the clock radio blasting out 'We’ve Only Just Begun'.
From then on the room is in full nightmare mode, a true outreach
of Hell.
Stephen
King likes to place ordinary people we can relate to in extraordinary
situations. Enslin finds normal objects like the clock radio,
telephone, and pictures on the wall take on a frightening life
of their own. He becomes imprisoned in the room and the horrors
mount. The ghost of Katie being not the least of these. There
are some impressive moments, the cliffhanger sequence on the
window ledge, the clever demolition “dream” scene
which was not in the short story as were not the Katie subplot
and the ambiguous last scene lacking the simplicity of the original
ending.
Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (Derailed) wisely uses the
first twenty minutes or so to quietly set the scene for the
dramatic events that follow. In lulls you into a false sense
of security which is quickly shattered once the nasties take
over. However the horrors are stretched a little too much for
their own good, while effective for a time one wearies of the
constant onslaught of often destructive supernatural skulduggery.
Sometimes in horror films less is best. Samuel L. Jackson (Black
Snake Moan) gets appearance money but really has a small part
which he sails through. It’s a pity he couldn’t
be used more effectively. It’s John Cusack (Runaway Jury)
who is the strength of the film. He battles the special effects
department with determination and conviction. It’s a good
performance above the usual associated with the genre.
While not breaking new ground and derivative of previous excursions
into the haunted room syndrome like Polanski’s Repulsion,
the shocks are put together with some aplomb in what becomes
a better than average psychological chiller. Stephen King has
an affinity for haunted hotels, we are in The Shining
territory again, albeit not as effectively this trip.
