"Its an evil fucking room...."

Mes Amis

There are many things that are great about 1408*, the latest Stephen King adaptation to hit the big screen.

Number one is: Its a King adpatation that (mostly) works. And those are rare. I mean, The Shining** and IT*** aside, there's not many others that actually come close to King at his best.

Number two is: John Cusack. Cusack is one of those actors who makes you want to like him. I mean, even when he's in a duff performance (step up America's Sweethearts) you really want him to be good in it. And here, he carries this whole damn thing on his shoulders - - seventy percent of the time its just Cusack. In a room. Brilliant.

Number three is: When was the last time Samuel L Jackson didn't spend a whole film shouting? Seriously... here he's a little restrained and works well for it. He's still Sam, but he isn't trying to be the baddest motherfucker in the room and that's such a great change of pace.

Number four is: The first three quarters of the film are excellent. First quarter is character, which works great. Next two quarters are Cusack falling apart as the room plays tricks on him (check out the intensely unsettling sequence where he tries to wave to someone in a window opposite his hotel room).

Number five: When the film works, you actually get spooked. I had hairs stand up on the back of my neck. That doesn't happen often, my friends.

But....

Three quarters of the way through, it all falls apart. Like, they had to find a way to stretch the film beyond its own boundaries. There's a fifteen minute sequence that just goes nowhere... that could have been done in three... and that dissipates all the tension there was in the film.

Honestly, with that cut... you could have had one of the best supernatural thrillers in years. Low budget, simple (and effective) scares, an amazing performance from Cusack and yet... we dissipate the tension and remove any fear from the climax because we have to build up the terror again and there's no way to do that... because the room has showed us everything it needs to.

Its a shame, because 1408 is almost one of the best horror films I've seen in years. And yet it trips over itself at the final hurdle.

But credit to Cusack who holds the whole damn thing together.

Flawed, but fascinating - - and probably best seen in the cinema. In the dark. Before going back to a hotel room.

One that Samuel L Jackson tries to dissuade you from booking into.

Au revoir

Russel

*Here's the premise - - John Cusack is a burnt out writer who pens cheap supernatural guides. Checks into the supposedly haunted room 1408 at this NY hotel run by Sam Jackson. Cusack is freaked the fuck out by what happens there - - this room is evil.

*I know King doesn't like it, but Kubrick's film - Nicholson's hilarious madness at the end aside - is actually damned unsettling, and far better than King's attempt to adapt his own material for TV a few years back.

**Made for TV, I know, but remarkably impressive - - except for the spider at the very end which falls a bit flat.