A return to form for both King and Cusack

Rating: 8/10 (14 August 2007)

"Stay scared" is a line Mike Enslin (John Cusack) repeats a few times throughout this movie. It doesn't only apply to the people he talks to, but is also a message from director Mikael Håfström to the audience, one it will be hard not to pay attention to: 1408, based on a short story by Stephen King, is one of the scariest films in recent years (even more remarkable if you take into account that it's rated PG-13), and arguably the first good adaptation of the horror master's work since The Green Mile.
As is often the case with King, the protagonist is a writer: more precisely, Enslin specializes in finding "haunted" buildings and spending the night in those places, proving there is no such thing as ghosts or any other supernatural forces. One day he receives a postcard which persuades him to go to a glamorous New York hotel and ask to be given the titular room. The hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson, tries to convince him it is a crazy choice, given 56 people have died in that room over the course of 95 years, and when asked what exactly caused those deaths he sums it up with a short, chilling sentence: "It's an evil f*cking room.". Nonetheless, Enslin decides to stay in 1408, believing all the warnings he has received are merely publicity stunts. But once things start appearing and disappearing, the door gets permanently locked and a watch starts counting down from 60 minutes (the time-frame within which every previous guest died), the cynical author begins to believe he might actually have entered a room that embodies pure evil.
No one has ever lasted more than one hour in 1408, we are told at the beginning. Ironically, that is also how long it takes before the movie starts showing small signs of weakness, mostly plot-related: as long as he relies on psychological tension and thrills deriving from everyday objects, like Kubrick did with The Shining, Håfström has everything under control; it is when he gets to the third act and needs to come up with a satisfying solution that he slightly disappoints, the surreal mid-film twist being way too far-fetched even for a King story (the creepy epilogue, however, is just about enough to forgive that misstep).
Less forgivable is the choice of the supporting actors in what is essentially a one-man show: Jackson, who appears in two scenes, manages to be terrific in the first (see paragraph 2) and border on the ridiculous in the second, while there is no logical explanation for why a fine character actor like Tony Shalhoub accepted to do a 30-second cameo which adds absolutely nothing of value to the film. Only Mary McCormack, playing Mrs. Enslin, is able to partially match the painful intensity that emanates from Cusack.
Which brings us to the real reason to watch this movie: having not appeared in anything of relevance since 2003's Runaway Jury (where he still ended up playing second fiddle to Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman), the Grifters star is finally given the chance to really sink his teeth into quality material, and he turns out to be genuinely shocking in his second King-based role (he previously played Gordie Lachance's dead brother in Stand By Me). The most gratifying aspect of his performance is the fact he doesn't show symptoms of mad despair immediately: it worked for Jack Nicholson in The Shining, but that was Nicholson; Cusack, who has always gone for a subtler approach to his roles, lets the panic out gradually, making his crazier antics in the picture's second half more believable. The same goes for the back-story: normally, a character's tragic past is thrown in right away to make the audience feel sorry, although it generally causes the opposite effect; this movie's three screenwriters, on the other hand, unveil the dramatic subplot slowly, bit by bit, so that by the time it is tied to present events it is actually possible to care for the people involved.
A great premise, consistent suspense and a mesmerizing central performance: those are three valid reasons why lovers of the horror genre should watch 1408. Dodgy "twist" toward the end and largely irrelevant secondary cast aside, this film has enough assets to ensure King fans will, to paraphrase Mike Enslin, stay scared.