Thu, Nov 26 2009
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Published June 22, 2007 07:23 am - By DAVID GERMAIN AP Movie Writer A Stephen King adaptation about a guy alone in a hotel room with some foul presence and a bunch of lost souls sounds like the low-rent version of the author's "The Shining," which had an entire resort hotel in which evil c ... '1408' checks out as fresh, creepy tale Star Beacon By DAVID GERMAIN AP Movie Writer A Stephen King adaptation about a guy alone in a hotel room with some foul presence and a bunch of lost souls sounds like the low-rent version of the author's "The Shining," which had an entire resort hotel in which evil could roam. Yet "1408" generally survives and thrives on the strength of John Cusack's passionate performance as a skeptic of the supernatural who learns that spooks may be real, plus a spirited supporting role by Samuel L. Jackson and some effective chills by director Mikael Hafstrom and his effects crew. Adapted from a King short story, the movie piles on plenty of images and noises done to death in the horror genre, bleeding walls and moaning spirits among them. But Hafstrom (the foreign-language Academy Award nominee "Evil") manages fresh and creepy twists, expanding the story far beyond the confines of a single room to, as "Twilight Zone" ringmaster Rod Serling might have put it, the paranormal playground of the imagination. Much of the story plays out seemingly within the head of Mike Enslin (Cusack), a writer with so much emotional baggage and cynicism that he's an obvious mark for the forces of evil to sink their fangs into. Mike's been in a state of denial for ages - - over murky memories of his dad, over terrible adversity involving his wife (Mary McCormack) and their daughter (Jasmine Jessica Anthony), over his profession as a haunted hack, writing books about hotel ghosts that he does not for a moment believe in. "Nothing would make me happier than to experience a paranormal event, to catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel," Mike says. But Mike's a confirmed disbeliever, a man who advises that Disney's the Haunted Mansion is the best place to see ghosts and that the real value of supernatural stories is to boost business for forgotten little hotels bypassed by the interstates. Then Mike gets a postcard for the Dolphin Hotel in the heart of Manhattan bearing the message, "Don't enter 1408." He figures it's a gimmick, an attempt by a struggling hotel to grab some publicity. Turns out the Dolphin's manager (Jackson, who is pure elegance and efficaciousness in a surprisingly small role) will do anything to keep Mike from staying in the room, from pleading to shock tactics to a bribe of really expensive booze. "I don't want you to check in to 1408 because I don't want to clean up the mess," the manager tells Mike. Over the decades, Mike learns, 56 people have died in room 1408 - - by suicide, heart attack and stroke, even a drowning by chicken soup. One man cut his own throat in the room, then tried to stitch it back together. Still, Mike insists on checking in. Once he gets to room 1408, Cusack spends much of the movie on his own, and it's a grand, fun soliloquy act as he provides running commentary into his little tape recorder and responds with growing terror at the manifestations that beset him. A clock radio keeps clicking on, playing tinnier and tinnier versions of the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun," a wicked choice that becomes cleverer as the terrifying night drags on with no end in sight. 
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