cusack thrills from 1408
Bob RossJohn Cusack carries baggage into claustrophobic meltdown.
1408
(PG-13; 102 minutes)
I’m a big John Cusack fan. Versatile and underrated, he can help turn an average Stephen King mind-bender into an entertaining psychological terror trip. That’s what he does in “1408,” which is only his second fright flick (after ”Identity” in ‘03) out of more than 40 films.
Named for a haunted hotel room, “1408″ is a supernatural fear-monger about Mike Enslin, a cynical author who specializes in tourist-attraction ghost stories. He visits places with scary legends behind them and writes them up even though he doesn’t believe any of the tales.
Room 1408 in New York’s fictional Dolphin Hotel is destined to change his mind. Like a roach in a TV commercial, Enslin checks in but he can’t quite check out. Despite the pleadings of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson in a relatively brief appearance), Enslin vows to spend a night in the off-limits room so he can write a chapter about it. Sinister signals start sprouting immediately. You know the type. Strange sounds, moving walls, vanishing visions — and that’s just for openers.
As the insanity escalates, so does Enslin’s panic level. This is where Cusack is such a valuable player. He’s the focus of almost every scene, and we’re talking claustrophobic closeups. The accursed hotel room becomes his co-star — a burning, melting, shape-shifting prison from which there is no apparent escape.
As Enslin starts to realize that his own inner demons are somehow connected to this madhouse of bizarre visions, Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom (”Derailed”) takes him (and us) on a hallucinatory roller-coaster ride. The filmmaker reminds us that we can be scared and tickled at the same time, and that it can be done without flesh-shredding gore. The film’s PG-13 rating makes sense.
The secrets of “1408″ aren’t exactly ground-breaking, but Cusack keeps our attention as his fate unreels. The ultimate revelation might get a groan as you leave the theater, but by then we’ve enjoyed a few thrills, which is what this lightweight shocker is meant to provide.
We give it a B-.
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