Usually, the movies that you watch either teach you morals, help you improve your life, make you think about setting things right or just make you happy. Some even qualify as good brainless timepass. But what do you do when a movie becomes not just pointless, but also extremely uncomfortable and disturbing?
1408 falls neatly into this category. Granted, the movie is based on one of Stephen King’s lesser known novels.
But that does nothing to improve the quality of the film. At the most, the narrative is smooth, flows well and puts the trademark King fear of mental disorders in you. But on the whole, the plot and the execution are very wannabe.
The film follows Mike Enslin (Cusack), a writer who has dedicated his life to debunking urban legends and ghost stories. When he gets a mysterious postcard to check out the haunted room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel, he accepts the invitation. Hotel manager Olin (Jackson) tells him that whoever checked into the room didn’t last an hour there, but Mike pooh-poohs him.
Once in the room, a weird countdown clock comes to life and the horror slowly begins. Mind you, this is no blood gushing, gore-filled monster/serial killer attack type of horror.
It’s all purely psychological. Mike gets tormented by images of his dead daughter, and she even starts speaking to him. Bit by bit, the evil that is in the room tries to drive Mike to suicide, and he must use all his resources — like banging on the walls and trying to connect to his estranged wife through video-chat on the Internet — to get out of the room alive.
Inspite of the makes-no-sense weird story, blink-and-miss performances by Samuel L Jackson and Tony Shalhoub, there are two things that prop the film up. One — the horror. Image after disturbing image will make you want to throw up, run screaming or curl up in a fetal position. All the time, the room tries to torture its occupant with all the ghosts of his past, all his wrongs, all the things he feared and all the things he tred to escape from. So its not surprising when you hear that past occupants of the room gouged out their eyes, drowned in their chicken soup or slit their throats and then tried to stitch it back up.
Two — John Cusack gives a stellar performance as a non-believer conflicted between the truth in front of him and the tricks his mind is playing.
All said, if you don’t want to attempt the same kind of things, stay away. If you can boast of a highly stable nervous system, take on the movie as a challenge.
