John Cusack's One Man Show in a House of Horrors

Rating: 7/10 (28 June 2007)

In a world where film goers actually cough up $9.50 to see blood and guts for movies like "Hostel" and "Saw 4," the horror genre seems dead in the water by now. "Psycho" and "Jaws" seem like an urban legend, where imagination and true terror of the unknown reigned. People would rather watch basically a gruesome 90-minute episode of "Fear Factor" than to have a cold hand slowly massage your neck while breaking it at the same time, never really revealing the enemy and therefore making the (almost) loneliness unbearable. While "1408" will probably not become a classic like the Hitchcock or the Spielberg films and clearly invites comparison to the classic "The Shining," it does what very few horror films have done in years: given chills with the fewest of gore and blood. And then it goes where no horror film has gone before: it genuinely breaks your heart.
Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a paperback author who debunks "haunted" houses. When he receives a postcard warning him not to go in the eponymous room number, that only intrigues him even more. At the Dolphin Hotel, his interest is only raised when Mr. Olin (Samuel L. Jackson in a small role but, as always, stealing every scene he graces) tries ANYTHING to get him from going into that room, including bribes and revealing information about the room even the newspapers have never reported. But Enslin is even more stubborn than Olin, and gets the key to the room. Though initially cynical (aren't all writers?) and pessimistic about finding anything haunting about that room, he is soon proved wrong. A clock radio blasts a Carpenters song without any button pushed. Then it starts counting down from 1 hour. Just when Mike's realized he wants out of the room, he's trapped in his own hell in a room that would make the saloon of Satre's "No Exit" look like a cocktail party in Holly Golightly's apartment.
To talk about the twists and spoilers would only ruin the effectiveness on-screen...and believe me, there are plenty, even if a handful are given away in the trailer for the film.
The amazing glory of "1408" is that the amount of thrills are more than made up for in emotion. Though the trailer and poster advertise the Gothic tone and hellish roller coaster ride of the movie, the film will surprise you with the tears as often as the screams. We see through flashbacks/torture devices that at one point, Enslin wasn't always alone in a room. He once had a family, a wife and a daughter. He had promise as a novelist, as we see at a book signing. But then his young beloved daughter died and shattered his existence. Separated from his wife, Enslin is an emotionally closed-off human being. Instead of slowing down the pace of the story, it enhances it, in the way that "Batman Begins" nearly LOST its momentum when Bruce Wayne put on his costume and became Batman. The character development is nearly as interesting as the action.
Everything I wrote above would mean nothing and produce no love or emotion had it not been in the hands of such an amazing actor as John Cusack, who has to carry the movie almost entirely on his back. Much as I adore Cusack ("Say Anything..." was my all-time favorite movie as a teenager), I haven't been impressed with his recent movies--I know he has to pay the water bills, but did we have to sit through a boring and clichéd 1/2 hour sitcom achingly stretched out to 90 minutes and then call it "Must Love Dogs"? But here he delivers far and away his best performance since "High Fidelity." Cusack literally screams and cries, but never once does it feel hammy or contrived. The nuances, subtleties and reactions of Enslin feel improvised and fresh. Cusack demands our attention, and boy does he earn it. He shows a versatility and a rainbow of emotions that he has never shown before, and finally is given a character with so many dimensions. There is a scene that I'm sure will be talked about, when he sees his daughter and has to re-experience her demise. Every angle of his face is full of pain, his body weak with longing and uncertainty. It's amazing to note that Cusack in real life is not a father. How could he have known?...
Mikael Hafstrom made some amazing movies in Europe before, inevitably, making English films. His American debut "Derailed" would be forgettable had Jennifer Aniston not floundered in her first dramatic role. But he's a director to watch--his tone and atmosphere is dark, and somewhere Edgar Allen Poe must be smiling. He keeps his story moving at a nice pace. There is never a dull or predictable moment in "1408."
You may walk into the theater and be expected to scream. You'll walk out scratching your head in confusion, with a screaming pulse, and just maybe a broken heart. That's something only an amazing movie can accomplish.