HORROR; 1hr 44min
STARRING: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson
The living room: Cusack
Author Stephen King is synonymous with high-resolution horror and since it is his 1999 short story on which 1408 is based, the stage is set for a deliriously creepy show. Room 1408 at New York’s Dolphin Hotel is, to quote manager Mr Olin (Jackson), “an evil fucking room” in which scores of people have died terrible deaths. Horror writer Mike Enslin (Cusack) couldn’t care less about this horrific rep: having been burned and callused by life, he doesn’t care much about anything. Enslin is unimpressed upon checking into the conventionally pleasant space as research for his latest populist book, but it isn’t long before the room hurls itself against him with malevolent force.
What follows is a full-bore gift for Cusack, who gets to free-fall through terror to a place so grotesque it must surely be insanity — or is it? King has always understood that the essence of horror lies in the imagination and in this gasp-inducing ordeal he gives free rein to the formidable power of his.
