1408 – 2007
Mike Enslin (John Cusack) writes books about supernatural phenomena and hauntings. During his research into haunted hotels and guesthouses, he comes across a warning not to stay in room 1408 in one of New York’s finer hotels. This naturally catches his interest, as he has previously had more experience with small country hotels in his investigations. However, spending a night in the infamous room turns out to be easier said than done, as the hotel management, more or less, forbids anyone from staying there.
With the help of a little-used law, he heads to New York determined to stay in the infamous room. The hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) continues to be reluctant, but ultimately has no choice, despite strong warnings, to allow the author to stay overnight. Mike soon realizes that the warnings were not exaggerated and that he is inside a sinister room. A room that does everything to kill him…
When I first heard about this film, I almost expected an intensified film version of the miniseries The Lost Room, which revolves around a hotel room that is a kind of portal between two dimensions. When I then started reading about the film and discovered that it is actually about a haunted hotel room, my expectations changed somewhat. Add to this that, to my horror, during this time I also discovered that it is based on a short story by Stephen King. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the man, or perhaps above all his work. No, that is actually not exactly true either, rather it is about the film adaptations of his works which, in my opinion, usually tend to be quite substandard films.
Well, having preconceived ideas is not unusual, everyone does. The difficult thing is, and I think I have mastered the art to some extent, to be aware of them and possibly be able to ignore them, in order to be able to give the most adequate judgment possible. John Cusack is a very talented actor who carries almost the entire film himself. Not only because he is almost the only one who is in large parts of the film, but also because his brilliance shines around him. It is the acting of the small means and often it does not take more than a look or a comment to understand exactly what emotion he wants to convey.
He is also accompanied by Samuel L. Jackson, who also makes a very impressive impression. He is admittedly much more limited to what he can do in and with the character he plays, but he is charismatic like few others and it is a joy to watch him act. You almost wish there were more scenes with him. Although this would certainly damage the tension the film builds. It is very intense and sometimes the scare effects follow one another in a continuous flow. However, I would like to have kept the film at that level throughout and not tried to mix in a lot of metaphors from Mike Enslin’s life as a kind of explanation for the events. It feels as if they are looking for a reason and Mike Enslin’s own references to Dante’s descent through the nine circles of hell make this philosophy even clearer.
In addition, I feel that there are a couple of twists too many that lowers the rating and make the film seem a bit messy. However, it should be said that the Director’s Cut version, in this context, is significantly better and also that the ending of the film is completely different (and better) in this version. The very basic idea, which plants doubts in the viewer whether it is really haunted or if everything is moving in the main character’s head, is recognizable from earlier Stephen King film adaptations. This is most evident in Stanley Kubrick’s version of The Shining. This is of course closely connected to the visions and the attempts at rational explanation of events that I wrote about in the paragraph above. The visions that Mike Enslin sees after having been in the room for a while. Flashbacks to important events, all rooted in the grief for his lost daughter.
Is he going crazy or not? – Decide for yourself!
Translation of a review I wrote many years ago in Swedish
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