1408

The latest Stephen King text to find its way to the big screen is 1408, an adaptation of the second short story found in the audiobook Blood and Smoke. Director Mikael Hafstrom delivers some genuine chills and pertinent thrills although the overall product warrants its PG-13 rating.

Nice to see John Cusack in a thriller. For a while, I figured Cusack's career would interminably churn out romantic-comedy after romantic-comedy, but, low and behold, the fates stepped in and provided us with 2005's The Ice Harvest, and, now, 1408. The thriller can occasionally till troubled ground for a performer's career, but a script like 1408's gives the actor in question enough room to competently maneuver (if she or he can resiliently respond to its frequent gesticulations). And Cusack sophisticatedly uses every second as disgruntled, sort of married, bitter, writer, Mike Enslin, whose life became a 24 hour misery after the death of his daughter. Enslin works as a travel writer who spends his time visiting hotel rooms that are reputed to be haunted, chronicling his visits in bargain bin novels that keep his surfboard afloat. When he discovers the Dolphin Hotel's fabled room 1408, with over 50 recorded deaths, he sets out for his first real encounter with the terrifying affects of the paranormal.

Which situates 1408 within the fable category of the thriller/horror genre. Rather than horror for horror's sake (see Rob Zombie's Halloween later this summer), 1408 has a moral dimension that its protagonist must face in order to challenge his nightmare. This moral dimension synthesizes well with the tame and frightening drama and allows 1408 to function as a successful introductory fright flick for those curious about the genre. While the ending can be thought of as a more docile version of John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, the ambience established throughout is of the cutesy variety that contains an horrific agenda of its own, depending upon the status of your belief in biblical good and evil, or, the intensity of your faith.