... But then he receives a postcard warning him about room 1408 at The Dolphin Hotel in New York. He is loath to go back to a city plagued with memories, having lost his young daughter there so many years ago. At the same time he is intrigued and despite the manager's warnings about the fifty-six ... Read review
Production Year: 1980 - Horror - Director: Stanley Kubrick - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Advantages: A handful of decent effects. Disadvantages: Poor direction, unoriginal writing and lame performances.
...postcard warning him about room 1408 at The Dolphin Hotel in New York. He is loath to go back to a city plagued with memories, having lost his young daughter there so many years ago. At the same time he is intrigued and despite the manager's warnings about the fifty-six previous deaths in the room, he is determined to stay there. Apparently nobody lasts more than an hour and it isn't long before Mike discovers why…
Considering Mikael ... ...his native Sweden, it's surprising he hasn't fared better in Hollywood. After the disappointment of last year's "Derailed", I thought a return to straight horror might have yielded something more interesting. But he treats "1408" like an old-fashioned haunted house movie. The biggest problem is that he shoots as though he's on a limited budget, keeping locations to a minimum and failing to connect the dots between plot strands. ... more
Writer Mike Enslin makes his living from reviewing allegedly haunted hotels. After years of doing it he remains convinced that there is no such thing as ghosts. But then he receives a postcard warning him about room 1408 at The Dolphin Hotel in New York. He is loath to go back to a city plagued with memories, having lost his young daughter there so many years ago. At the same time he is intrigued and despite the manager's warnings about the fifty-six previous deaths in the room, he is determined to stay there. Apparently nobody lasts more than an hour and it isn't long before Mike discovers why…
Considering Mikael Håfström had such a promising start to his career in his native Sweden, it's surprising he hasn't fared better in Hollywood. After the disappointment of last year's "Derailed", I thought a return to straight horror might have yielded something more interesting. But he treats "1408" like an old-fashioned haunted house movie. The biggest problem is that he shoots as though he's on a limited budget, keeping locations to a minimum and failing to connect the dots between plot strands. He clearly doesn't care about his lead character because we aren't given the chance to get to know him before he's plunged into paranormal hell by his hotel room. There's a bit of a lead up to him going to the hotel. But it's more about his job as a haunted hotel reviewer and the grisly goings-on in the room than him as a person. There are too many montages and jump-cut scenes to allow you to get to know him on a personal level. Once he's in the suite, things go to hell in a hand-basket very quickly. There's no slow-build of psychological tension as the slight shifts in atmosphere force the character to question his sanity. The closest you get is him talking into his Dictaphone about the room and the discovery of luminescent splatters under UV light that are accompanied by flashes of the bodies they related to.
There are lots of cheap loud + sudden = scary moments that simply aren't creepy enough because they are expected. The film is riddled with clichés; it opens with a stormy night, there are pointless shots of Enslin through a ceiling fan and howling winds at every available opportunity. Håfström's suggestions that everything is happening in Enslin's head are too clumsy, so we see flashes of the ordinary hotel room juxtaposed with what he is experiencing. The room takes on a sickly green caste that is meant to unsettle the viewer. But it isn't enough to give the film a "Turn of the Screw" psychological horror dimension. The lack of character development in the first two-thirds of the film and the sentimentality in the third act, means that anything meant to be emotional is instead melodramatic. In conjunction with the unoriginal script this makes the movie feel like a modern Hammer Horror movie, but without the imagination.
The screenplay by Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski is based on a Stephen King story. Like most of King's "horror" stories that feature inanimate objects or places being possessed by the force of evil, this one feels hackneyed. Part of the problem is the jigsaw narrative - if you've seen the trailer you already know the reason Enslin is trying to find proof of life after death is because he lost his young daughter. But this isn't revealed in the film until about three quarters of the way through. So it's hard to empathise with him because the script paints him as a selfish, cynical misanthrope until that point. If the story were told in linear fashion, it would be easier to care about him. But it isn't, so you don't. He's too willing to believe the weird occurrences are paranormal and his descent into madness is too swift. Everyone else in the movie is a plot device, devoid of personality. Hotel manager Gerald Olin exists only to provide exposition about the room. Enslin's wife Lily is there only to suggest he has something to fight for and his dead daughter is merely a clumsy plot motor.
The pacing is uneven. The film starts slowly, showing Enslin's life as a writer, but it is generic series of scenes of him reviewing a hotel, doing a book signing and relaxing at his house in LA. The nearest we get to character development is seeing he has a drink problem. But that's just cinematic shorthand for a man with traumatic issues he can't deal with. A spot of surfing is an excuse for a clunky plot twist later on. But when he gets to The Dolphin, things accelerate. Too much happens too quickly, so you don't have time to absorb what's happening to the character or to calm down before the next thing goes bump in the night. However the lack of emotional involvement with the characters makes the film drag, feeling longer than ninety-four minutes. The dialogue relies on clunky exposition and lots of yelling in feigned madness. So naturalistic it is not.
I really like John Cusack, so I was hoping he'd rise above the movie and make Mike Enslin a likeable lead character. Sadly the paucity of the script is such that he doesn't have enough to build on. He goes from being tired and cynical to unconvincingly mad in the blink of an eye. Consequently there is no strong character arc and it's impossible to empathise with him. Cusack then lets the audience down by resorting to "crazy eyes" acting, instead of imbuing the role with a personality.
Samuel L Jackson's quality control continues to malfunction with the badly underwritten part of hotelier Gerald Olin. It's a role that only requires two of the actor's trademark modes; sternness and belligerence that combine to create a one-dimensional character. He is entirely lacking in presence or depth. Meanwhile Mary McCormack is robbed of the chance to do any acting as Mike's estranged wife Lily by a screenplay that treats her character as an afterthought.
The special effects work isn't strong enough to convince. You see ghosts of previous occupants wandering through the room and jumping out of the window. But they are shot as if on scratchy old film and in black and white or Technicolor depending on when they died. So they feel like they could easily be fake. They don't interact with John Cusack and those that do are poorly accomplished, like the unexplained axe-wielding madman or a dusty figure that chases him through the air ducts. Similarly there's a scene where Enslin finds himself outside on the window ledge, but you can tell it's just a cheap set. There are a couple of decent effects such as a melting telephone handset and the room tearing apart, but they are few and far between. Some supernatural goings-on feel like they are plagiarised from King's other stories. The bleeding walls and taps feel like a watered down version of the lift full of blood in "The Shining".
The music by Gabriel Yared is another aspect of the movie that feels as if it's been borrowed from a Hammer Horror film. It's the persistent use of twangy harpsichord that does it. You keep expecting Vincent Price or Peter Cushing to appear from nowhere with a demonic laugh. Yared throws in every musical horror movie cliché in the hopes some will have an effect. So we get the full gamut of rattling percussion, dark strings, rising brass, creepy synthesizers, music box chimes, melodramatic horns and creepy choruses in various combinations. But it's so predictable that it is in no way scary.
"1408" is a derivative haunted house movie that lacks imagination and finesse. There is nothing new or remotely frightening to be found here, unless you have a fear of clichés. The direction is pedestrian, the characterisation virtually non-existent and the writing hackneyed. Even the usually reliable John Cusack is disappointing (but not as much as the "And it was all a dream…but it wasn't…but it might be…" contrivances of the plot). If you want to see a film that makes hotels scary, go and see "The Shining".
Advantages: Good Performances, Well Orchestrated Disadvantages: Loses steam by end
...comes to adapting King's material. 1408 is based on one of his short stories and was a modest success on release.
Horror writer Mike Eslin (John Cusack) is a writer growing tired of visiting haunted hotels and trying to write about the bland occurrences within them that pass as horror. But when a postcard shows up in his mail inviting him to Room 1408 at the Dolphin Motel, New York he is intrigued. Especially when the hotel don't seem keen to give ... ...his own life. 1408 is a well-staged horror film with a great central performance from John Cusack who is left to carry the majority of the movie himself as Jackson's appearance is pretty much a glorified cameo. The film has some well-orchestrated moments of fear although it isn't really horrific at any point. It's more a depiction of one persons sanity. Swedish director Mikael Hofstrom makes good use of his hotel room set and manages to keep the ...
utero 09.05.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of 1408 (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: Extremely absorbing - brilliant acting. Disadvantages: The insertion of a useless scene.
...When he books into room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel, his beliefs will be forever changed, his past will come back to haunt him, and he will finally learn the true meaning of terror...
Right from the start the movie grabs a hold of you, drags you through one extraordinarily comprehensive scene after another, until, all of a sudden, out of the blue, you hit an invisible wall. This invisible wall is a totally unexpected and useless scene which serves ... ...As with most of Stephen King's novels, a scene has been inserted that does nothing more than clutter up some really brilliant storytelling. This scene is not only anti-climactic, but it is downright confusing and serves only to draw the viewer from his/her absorption in a movie that was, until that precise moment, absolute.
This additional scene, for all intents and purposes, has flawed the story, and should have been deleted. In fact, the movie ...
GoFigure 09.01.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of 1408 (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: it can be rented and given back Disadvantages: disappointing to those who apreciate good horror
Following the death of his little daughter, horror novelist Mike Enslin no longer believes in anything supernatural or ghostly but only what he can see with his own two eyes. His novels set out only to discredit paranormal events by always writing them based on his own experiences of staying in the most infamous haunted houses and graveyards around the world. He finds no evidence to back up the claims made by owners of the places he has stayed, and ... ...of life means no after life.
Through a mysteriously unsigned postcard address to him his attention is brought to the Dolphin Hotel and more to the point one of its rooms, the infamous room 1408,
Thinking it an ideal location from which to write his latest novel, "Ten Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms." Initially being refused being able to book in the room at the hotel, he seeks legal advice and despite the sinister warnings of the hotel manager, that ...
icklebet 27.12.2007 (28.12.2007)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of 1408 (Director's Cut) (DVD)
...review on the Horror Film 1408 brought out in 2007.
I rented this DVD out last week and i wasnt that fussed on it - i heard good reviews but i still wasnt fussed, but i was forced into it : ) so i watched it.
Mike Enslin is an writer of personal Paranormal Occurances - He Hears of all these haunted places, he goes and spends one night in the room/building and then writes about his experiences.
He recieved a postcard one day telling him about another ... ...where the famous 1408 Comes from - Its in this room that all the paranormal occurances occur.
He believes that 1408 is just a myth perpetuated by stories and rumors that Enslin has collected for his past works. However, hotel manager Mr. Olin has strong objections to Mikes stay and only warns him of possible danger to come. Mike is determined to go anyway. But what Mike Enslin is about to experience is no myth, as 1408 truly is a room where the ...
lesleyanne18 25.02.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of 1408 (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: Some thrills Disadvantages: Not enough!
Directed by Mikael Hafstrom, 1408 is a movie adaptation of the Stephen King short story, which can be found in the collection 'Everything's Eventual'.
As a fan of Stephen King's writing I have been disappointed by many of the film adaptations of his work. Most have been very poor, a few adequate, and only one or two have been exceptional (I'm thinking of 'The Shawshank Redemption' and to a lesser extent 'The Green Mile').
1408 is not amongst the ... ...higher echelons of the films named above. It is a standard horror/thriller, which teenagers who haven't seen many horror films before might find to be really good, but those of us who have seen many will feel that we have 'seen it all before'.
The middle section is the best, with quite a few 'thrills' but I'd recommend finding a way of seeing the film for nothing (i.e. wait until it is on broadcast TV) rather than paying for the pleasure by buying ...
phurren2006 18.12.2007
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of 1408 (Director's Cut) (DVD)
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Advantages: Engaging and Distrubing Halloween treat Disadvantages: Too jumpy or goes too far for some viewers
hair-raising places to begin with, and I honestly thought that King had fully extracted that concept as I read "The Shining". I was pleasantly surprised to find "1408" still had some fresh surprises for me.
Extras:
I viewed the Widescreen Director's Cut edition DVD. The 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen- Images were crisp and vivid throughout, excellent for many of the fine details of the film. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack never exceeded an appropriately aggressive level during tense moments, nor did it sink to inaudibility during the quieter moments, a welcome relief in a horror film! Sound effects were wonderfully clear, adding to several key moments in the film
Optional commentary from the Director and Writers on the film and on the deleted scenes makes for some interesting points for viewers interested in the development of the story ...
Advantages: good acting, unpredictable Disadvantages: bit long
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Overall, I'd recommend this film to anyone looking for a bit of a scare and a film to pass the time. It was a good film and it concluded in a way which wasn't completely unrealistic but I think it could have been cut a bit.
The film is not yet out on DVD region 2 but you can buy region 1 on http://www.cd-wow.co.uk for £14.99.
The official website for the film is http://www.1408-themovie.com/ and on this website you can view the trailer. ...
Advantages: Good storyline, great cast, leaves a lot of questions to ponder Disadvantages: Far too many "jumpy moments", had more potential
stays true to the story and main characters up until Mike enters room 1408. From there the scary moments differ from the one in the movie. They seem more psychological, eerie and creepy rather than typical Hollywood scares.
John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson play great roles in this film. They do seem to work well together, particularly in bringing the antagonism between them. It's a shame we didn't get to see more of Jackon's character but that was obviously just how the story was written.
One of the best aspects of this film, however, is that it does affect the mind. It does have you leaving the cinema still pondering some unanswered questions such as the ending and the significance of the alarm clock. I'll say no more because I'm not one to spoil things for others.
It did have more potential than the director allowed and (as ...
Contains strong sustained terrorisation and psychological horror
Video Category
Feature Film
Country Of Origin
United States of America
Release details
DVD Region
DVD
Studio(s)
PARAMOUNT HOME ENTERTAINMENT; TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTION SERVICES
Languages
Main Language
English
Technical information
Special Features
Interactive menu
Sound
Dolby Digital
Professional reviews
Review
It's a deft Stephen King freak-out... What happens to Cusack is a roller coaster of a head trip (Entertainment Weekly, 19/09/2007)
Directed by Mikael Hafstrom with old-fashioned restraint and a stylish use of close-ups (New York Times, 19/09/2007)
This movie scared the living daylights out of me (People, 23/11/2007)
DVD Description
The 15 rating given to 1408 belies this film's truly terrifying effects on its audience. Though it's far less gory than its peers, it has frightening moments and a creepy mood throughout. John Cusack (IDENTITY) plays Mike Enslin, a gifted writer who has turned his talents to paranormal travel books. His stays in haunted hotels never shake him, but he's intrigued by New York's Dolphin Hotel. Room 1408 has been the site of dozens of deaths, and this is a selling point for the sceptic in Mike. Despite the warnings of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson, BLACK SNAKE MOAN), Mike resolves to stay in the haunted room. No one has lasted more than an hour in 1408, and Mike has his work cut out for him. Though Cusack got his acting pedigree in comedies, he proves he's able to adeptly carry a horror film. He occupies practically every frame of the film, often alone, and he's great at making the audience share in his fear. This is the second English-language film from director Mikael Hafstrom (DERAILED), and he does a good job of establishing tension. A lot of the credit is due to the film's sound crew, whose detailed work goes far in giving 1408 its unsettling feeling. Like THE SHINING, this is based on the writing of horror maestro Stephen King, and it's a similarly creepy tale set in a hotel. But in its execution, 1408 is far more indebted to classic horror films such as the original 1963 version of THE HAUNTING.
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