SCI FI PI

Released Dec 6

Starring John Cusack, Samuel L Jackson
Director Mikael Håfström
Rating M

There comes a moment in every horror fan’s life where they have to stop for a minute and say, hey, why do I love horror?

If the answer is ‘watching people get drilled in the head’, then perhaps 1408 isn’t for you.

That’s not to say that 1408 doesn’t have the prerequisite sharp pointy bits and nasty gruesome things to look at – it’s just that it’s a ghost story, and ghost stories often happen to be on the warm and fuzzy scale of the horror movie spectrum.

What makes a good ghost story is two things – good, sensible ghosts, and a wonderful back story to explain the ghostliness. In 1408’s case, the ghost isn’t just one dead spirit – it’s a room – “a (euphemistically speaking bad word replaced here) evil room” as debonair hotel manager Samuel L Jackson would have it. He does his best to dissuade hack supernatural writer Mike Enslin (John Cusack) from going into the room, but as Mike’s never ever found real live ghosts before, this one chance is impossible for him to turn down.

Bad choice.

What follows is a rough night, by anyone’s standards. The thrills are built up nicely as the room descends from normality into hell, and the stories and reasons behind the odd activities are clearly structured. The room has a purpose, and poor Mike has to do his best to fight it. Not fair when you can’t get out, but that’s the rules of a good ghost story, and a “.......” evil room. There’s some nice spooky scares and a great deal of set alteration.

A nice personal thread runs through it, so at the end of the film you don’t just feel like you’ve stepped off a roller coaster, you feel like you’ve watched a film, with real characters, who’ve just had a heck of a time – there’s much to discuss at the end of it all.

Cusack as your slimeball/everyman is perfectly cast and Samuel L Jackson is a joy to behold. The special effects are top class and the old school style is something of a break from the recent flood of ‘gorno’. If you want to be cruel to the film, you could say it’s just a very well budgeted Twilight Zone episode, but that was a great show, so that’s not really going to stop old school horror fans from going at all.