1408

Ah, the soothing, soulless sounds of The Carpenters — I defy you not to be able to hum along to at least one of their empty-calorie 70s A.M. ditties. In room 1408 of the haunted Dolphin Hotel, the most-requested tune is "We've Only Just Begun". Yeah, I know the subversive use of sugary pop songs in horror movies has been done to death, but it still works like a charm for me. When hotel guest Mike Enslin (played with aplomb by John Cusack) first hears that song emanating from the tiny speaker of his clock radio and things start to wrong, it elicits genuine shivers.

Enslin is a writer of horror, and a debunker of myth — kind of like The Amazing Randy of Stephen Kings. In fact, 1408 is based upon a King short story, which was first released as part of an audio book collection in 2004. (Read Horror.com's review of Blood & Smoke here) Enslin doesn't really believe in the haunted places he visits and writes about for his terror travelogues, but since the loss of his young daughter, he fervently wants to. He keeps going from place to place, cynicism firmly in place… but secretly hoping.

When Enslin gets a mysterious postcard warning him about spooky suite 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, he packs his toothbrush, recorder and notebook and heads to New York City. He has some trouble checking in, so the hotel's manager Gerald Olin (a small role turned into a showcase by Samuel L. Jackson) steps up. Not to help, but to hinder: hurling every admonition of doom and gloom he can muster, Olin does his level best to save Enslin's life. But in the end, he can't deny a paying guest any certain room. So, the space that's lain dormant for the past several years welcomes a new occupant.

When I first heard the short story on audio book, and then read it in print after seeing the movie, I could definitely see a master surrealist director like Darren Aronofsky, Ken Russell, or Danny Boyle doing more than just perfunctory maid service on this story. The source material is like a fever dream, but the film follows the good old three-act structure practically to the letter. New characters are added, and a more "heart-wrenching" drama is created. Ho-hum. Considering, director Mikael Håfström (Derailed, also based on a book that was better than the movie) does a decent job of wringing out all he can of the PG-13 priced frights.

The hotel room is definitely more menacing in this version of the story. In the King tale, only a dozen people died, and most of them were of unexplained illnesses or vaguely-described suicides. Here Olin has a death dossier, complete with photos, of all the ghastly casualties that have occurred within the walls of suite 1408. Less is left to the imagination in other ways, as well: for instance, in the original story Enslin picks up the phone in his room and a voice says things like, "This is ten! Ten! We have killed your friends." Creepy, but it doesn't make any sense. In the film, a cheery-yet-eerie hotel operator's voice asks Enslin if he'd like to use the Dolphin's "express checkout service" – Bingo! Creepy, and it makes sense.

While I personally thought the movie fell apart about halfway through and I did not like the added subplots at all, I still recommend 1408 for some real scares and really good acting. Jackson is a gem as always, and Cusack is the key as he truly carries this film from start to finish, believably portraying everything from skeptic to scared-to-death.

Overall 1408 is just a light turndown in the Stephen King film scheme, but don't worry: it will disturb!

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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson

See Horror.com's interviews with the cast of 1408 here.