Salt Lake Tribune Review
Who says you need buckets of blood and gory disembowelings to scare the bejeebers out of a movie audience?
Not the makers of “1408,” a smartly sharp supernatural thriller, adapted from a
Stephen King short story, that serves as a bracing antidote to such “torture porn” titles as “Hostel” and “Saw.” This movie's delivery system for scares isn't gore or overt violence, but the increasingly terrorized face of star
John Cusack.
Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer whose specialty is debunking haunted houses, ghostly hotels and other supernatural stuff. He trusts science and his cynicism, not faith or God, for reasons that become clear when he checks into room 1408 of New York's Dolphin Hotel.
The room, hotel manager Gerald Olin (played by
Samuel L. Jackson) explains, has seen 56 deaths - some natural, some horrifically violent. Olin tries to dissuade Enslin from checking into 1408 because, “frankly, I don't want to clean up the mess.” This scene is a master class in film acting and screenwriting, as Cusack and Jackson trade juicy dialogue from a script by
Matt Greenberg (“Reign of Fire”) and rewritten by
Scott Alexander and
Larry Karaszewski (longtime collaborators who wrote “Man on the Moon” and “Ed Wood”).
But Cusack's best work begins once Enslin enters the room. Alone, talking fast into his tape recorder, Enslin must face the surprises, tricks and personal demons the room and Swedish director Mikael Håfström (who made the
Jennifer Aniston thriller “Derailed”) can throw at him.
Some of the twists are outlandish, some just plain don't make sense, but Cusack rides them all like an expert surfer negotiating a wave. The ability of “1408” to raise goosebumps relies on Cusack's skill in making even the doubting Enslin appear genuinely terrified.
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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at movies@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this review to livingeditor@sltrib.com.
The rundown: John Cusack's streamlined performance, playing an author trying to debunk the ghost stories of a haunted hotel, brings the chills in this smart thriller. 100 minutes. (S.P.M.)
Synopsis: Renowned horror novelist Mike Enslin believes only in what he can see with his own two eyes. But after a string of best-sellers, discrediting paranormal events in the most infamous haunted houses and graveyards around the world, he has no real proof of the after-life. But Enslin''s phantom-free run of long and lonely nights is about to change forever when he checks into suite 1408 of the notorious Dolphin Hotel for his latest project, Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms. Defying the warnings of the hotel manager, the author is the first person in years to stay in the reputedly haunted room. Another best-seller may be imminent, but first he must go from skeptic to true believer--and ultimately survive the night.
