1408 DVD Review

"1408" reviews

DVD

1408

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-12-21 15:50:16

Provider

DVD Review

Based on a Stephen King story and starring two actors (Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack) who are still worth watching even if the films aren't, a lot was expected from 1408.

It's essentially a two-hander about a full time supernatural debunker (Cusack) and a hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson) - the latter trying to persuade the former not to stay in room 1408. Because, as Jackson so elegantly puts it, it's "an evil f**ing room".

The set up is excellent. Cusack plays the weary once promising author resigned to staying in supposed haunted rooms and writing about them. He's as cynical as they come - but Cusack's skill has always been his ability to wring the very last bit of charm out of any character. And Jackson has a ball playing the mysterious manager.

It's only when Cusack begins his stay in the room does the film begin to lose its edge. For a film to convey suspense and terror out of one room is not a easy task but Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom begins fine - he even manages to get a jolt out of hotel chocolates lying on the pillow. But the longer Cusack stays in the room the more Hafstrom resorts to shock tactics for scares, and worst of all, he suddenly forgets the claustrophobic setting for a bigger special effects fuelled finale.

And it's attempt at a clever twist ending kind of falls flat because it kills all the pace of a story. It looks great though, and seeing as the production side of things is pretty much the third character in the film there is a fine, if short, featurette on the work involved on the DVD.