Movie I Saw: 1408

1408 is a horror/suspense film - a genre I don't typically enjoy. I suppose I stay away from horror flicks primarily because they freak me out and leave me lying in bed at night trying to think of anything other than bleeding walls, mutant cave dwellers or shadowy witches. But I also tend to dislike them because they aren't usually built around characters. I like a nice developmental arc and some snappy banter in my movies, but it's a rare horror-movie character who learns more than "I shouldn't have gone in there." during the course of their screen-time, and dialogue usually trends more towards "desperate" than "snappy".

Spoilers ahead.

The film-makers behind 1408 addressed all my concerns without even talking to me first. Based on a story by Stephen King, the movie is built very simply, with only one major character and one major location. John Cusask plays Mike Enslin, the author of a series of books on famously-haunted places. Mike is estranged from his wife following the cancer-related death of his young daughter a few years earlier. When Mike hears of room 1408 at NYC's Dolphin Hotel, a room in which dozens of guests have died - some horribly - he insists upon staying a night inside it. As the Dolphin's manager, Samuel L. Jackson adamantly refuses Mike's request, sharing stories of over 56 deaths and other gruesome events from within 1408.

Mike doesn't believe in the supernatural, having never encountered any signs during all his previous research, and eventually talks the room key out of the manager. Dictating into his ever-present voice recorder, Mike starts the night by touring the 3-room suite, and everything seems perfectly mundane. As any reader can guess, things go quickly to hell, and Mike begins to experience a number of horrors, trapped within the room. These sequences are quite shocking and exciting in the traditional horror-film way, but the real meat of the movie is in the flashbacks to Mike's history with his family.

Fundamentally, Mike is a skeptic. He believes in what he can see and touch, and has never been able to accept supernatural ideas like ghosts, life-after-death or God. In one scene we see him attempting to comfort his dying daughter with stories of Heaven, clearly skeptical himself. Mike experiences quite a lot that he cannot explain within room 1408, and tries hard to convince himself of a rational explanation. But eventually he accepts the reality of the room's supernatural nature and becomes the first person to escape it.

Convinced that he has just encountered something truly from beyond realm of human understanding - with proof, in fact - Mike is able to acknowledge other supernatural possibilities, including heaven, and finds a measure of peace in thoughts of his daughter.

Spoilers end.

The best thing about 1408, in my mind, is the subtext of Mike's search for the supernatural. It isn't discussed explicitly within the movie, but I found it clear nonetheless. The story is classic Stephen King, with every element of the story tied to same emotional core, and it works as well in 1408 as it did in The Stand or Stand By Me. John Cusack is alone on screen for about 85% of the film, but his performance holds up easily, by turns sardonic and frantic. Samuel L. Jackson's role is really a cameo, but he embodies it perfectly and he and Cusack provide the tight, darkly comic banter I long for.

All-in-all, 1408 is a suspenseful horror with smarts and significance. I recommend it equally for adrenaline junkies and fans of human drama.