Erratically for a Stephen King chiller, this one is a waste of time. 1408 is an embarrassment to the tales of spook by the master of horror, taking the novella from King’s EVERYTHING’S EVENTUAL collection of short stories and slamming it into the wall in an illogical, fabricated mess. We understand King’s a prodigy of surreal imaginations (as though he grew up as a kid who had gazillions of childhood nightmares that he lived until now writing all of it), but it’s the transformation of the material into a film which was a bit overblown in certain ‘horror-film’ levels. It’s not scary; it offers minor frights, less chill, and a nonsense type, eyebrow-raising tale of a paranormal writer experiencing his most frightening night of his life in the Dolphin Hotel, Room 1408, while we watch him go mad by himself as we nearly dose half to death. Oh, eyebrow still on the rise.


It seemed the Swedish director Mikael Hafsrom had liberated himself to do some touches on 1408, focusing on the central, must be the pivotal as well, character, the paranormal researcher/writer Mike Enslin, whose writing career about ghosts and haunted hotels had gone completely downhill that even his book signing event was nearly deserted, that even the bloke in the bookstore didn’t recognise him at all. The tale zooms so much on Mike, as the film tries to encapsulate the whole atmosphere in one room and this one man who’s grappling for his sanity, battling dementia and dissolution in the haunted room, while he faces unseen enemies and his haunted past as well. Sounds familiar? 1408 is nowhere near to the greatness of THE SHINING by Stanley Kubrick, also a masterpiece of Stephen King (probably one of the most frightening films I’ve ever seen), and Dolphin Hotel is miles away from the disturbance the Overlook Hotel could offer. 1408 is another hotel story from Stephen King, but we just can’t ignore the fact that he’s trying to revive THE SHINING’s creepiness.


Of the actors today in our midst, I have great respect to John Cusack. This man has proved himself in so many genres already and gave his passion to act, may it be comedy, drama, light indie, suspense, and now horror. A bit thankful really he didn’t go berserk like some bloke out there jumping on Oprah’s couch – but his role in 1408 is actually a good one, acting chops a bit sharpened; but unfortunately, a performance overshadowed a mostly flawed film of mediocrity. Same with Samuel Jackson as the hotel manager, in which almost all his films do gather some respect (except for SNAKES ON A PLANE); his effort is plainly wasted.


There were so much gratuitous effects at the middle that you could think they could cut the film in half but still severely suffers the ineptitude of the story. They didn’t even bother to expound more of the backstory of the murders in the room. It’s just all Mike Enslin alone, daring his own self to get out of the room alive after a night, while the frustration of the death of his daughter comes back to him like pestering knives.


All I know now is that I wouldn’t go near 1408; I wouldn’t even bother to imagine it. Sometimes disappointment comes in a heavy stroke that ignoring a thing would be the best way possible. If they settled on for more sense, and less tacky fake frights, this could have been a better film. But what’s done is done.




RATING: D