by The Film Blogger

Created on: September 26, 2009

The horror genre is a strange beast - for so long it has been content with offering us irritating teenagers, and then serving up excessively violent, brainless kills, most of the time urging us to side with the masked killer rather then the actual victims. The horror genre has largely become a parody of itself these days, but with 1408, an adaptation of a short story written by Stephen King, the genre is brought back to life, kicking and screaming, thanks to assured direction and a knockout performance by lead John Cusack.

Mike Enslin (Cusack) is an author who also happens to be a skeptic of haunted houses and such. Following the death of his daughter, Katie, he spends his time debunking haunted locations that his readers recommend to him. However, he recieves a postcard advertising Dolphin Hotel in New York City, urging him not to venture into room 1408. Of course, ever the skeptic, he attempts to do so, but the hotel won't rent him the room at first. Something foul is afoot - and whilst he eventually gets the room, he is warned by the hotel's manager Gerald Olin (Jackson) that nobody has lasted longer than one single hour in the room. Much to Olin's frustration, Enslin continues with his investigation.

From here, things go from bad to worse, with the room's alarm clock counting down from 60:00, and the door not opening. During this hour, Mike will be put through Hell, and if he's going to survive, he'll have to come up with a genius solution, or be doomed to succumb to the room like all of its previous residents. It may not be too original an idea, but given the state of the horror genre, this is a refreshing outing, largely thanks to the style and lack of reliance on excessive gore - it is more atmospheric - a crazy bag of magic tricks that make the best of impressive visuals and a great turn from Cusack.

King's works adapted to cinema are somewhat hit and miss - he has plenty of greats, such as The Shining, Misery, and The Shawshank Redemption, but also a few duds, like Dreamcatcher. 1408 lands up on the higher end of things thankfully, and again, whilst it's not too original, it is extremely well executed, and although it's not as terrifying as it could have been, it's tense and very atmospheric, as the room tortures Enslin, and makes great use of such a small and confined area.

What's interesting to me is how the room serves as a metaphor - its breakdown reflects the psychological demise of Enslin, as he becomes more and more frenzied as the seemingly

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