14o8 (based off of Stephen King's story of same title)

1408 Starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson How can I express how much I enjoy this film? This psychological horror has so many turns and twists it makes your head spin. It has little nods to the horror king Alfred Hitchcock, with obvious Easter Eggs like “Psycho 1” written on the arm of the lead character Mike’s wetsuit in the beginning and end of the film to more subtle hints like Mike looking through the hotel window to see other people in the building across from him, in a voyeuristic film-noir style. The plot is based off of the short story by Stephen King, who is one of my personal favorite writers for horror and suspense, and arguably the most successful writer of the genre, with maybe Poe topping King. 14o8 is a terrifying journey through the lead character’s psyche as he confronts his own demons and dark secrets. The lead, Mike, is a writer who has had some success writing stories about haunted places. His books are well known and are practically travel guides for ghost hunters. Even though he is successful with the genre, he is jaded and believes none of it. It is just a good cash cow for him. Knowing Stephen King, the lead may have been based on autobiographical moments...especially when the writer meets fans and is told that they like his books, but his first book was his best one. I like the writer angle because the character Mike acts as if he knows it all and has seen and done it all, so when he crosses the threshold of room 14o8 he thinks it’s all a sham. This is a perfect set up for the hell he experiences …. Because he is totally underprepared and caught off guard. I can’t really go through all the details since it has so many twists, but some details I liked set the audience up to feel uneasy from the beginning. Like… 1408 itself, Mike figures out that it is a number problem: 1+4+0+8= 13. The unlucky number 13. Mike sits in a cafe and scoffs at the idea that the cursed hotel room is real, but it’s his job and someone in a postcard warned him not to go there, so… he sees it as a dare to go there. Then, he tries to book the room, for any date, and is told over the phone it is unavailable…. indefinitely. This ups the ante, and now he HAS to go to this room. He hops the plane from Cali to NY to go to this mysterious hotel, the Dolphin Hotel. Then, when he gets to the hotel, the room, we find out, is technically on the 13th floor that is labeled the 14th floor. Most hotels skip the number 13 when numbering floors. It is considered bad luck. So the room is the “13”th room on the 13th floor, but labeled something else, just to keep visitors from being alarmed or… too curious. Additionally, when Mike enters the lobby, everything has an odd historical feel to it. The lounge chairs seem way too old fashioned, even in a classy hotel. There is a woman, dressed all in white with a baby that will not stop crying, and the stroller she has is something out of the 1930s. It’s all very disturbing… then it gets worse from there. The hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson does everything in his power to discourage Mike from spending the night in the hotel…. He tries to upgrade Mike’s room, then he goes for the scare factor by showing crime scene photos of all the murders, suicides, and suspicious deaths, or incidents that occurred in the room. Mike is relentless, and still wants to stay in 14o8. With one final warning, the manager says “Most people do not last more than one hour”. If it were me, I’d be like “can I take pictures of the room and stay somewhere else?”, but not Mike… he goes for it. He thinks there is nothing but a ploy to get more customers to the hotel. He is very wrong….the room starts playing games with him shortly after he arrives. The first few minutes nothing happens. But, when the radio started to play by itself, teasing Mike with “We’ve only just begun”, I knew shit was about to get weird. Most of what happens to Mike is more like torture than actual horror. It is the suspense that gets to him, and to the viewer. Then, there’s that thing in the air vent… I won't tell you if you want to see it, but it’s scary. I have seen this movie twice, once when it came out and today on DVD and all the jumpscares still work. I actually didn’t remember much because there is so much that happens in a short time in the film. The room itself creates an environment where Mike has to confront the bad stuff he has done in his life, and come to terms with it, if it doesn’t actually kill him first. Then, when the viewer is sufficiently on edge and confused, the film has a plot twist to make the viewer wonder… what really was real and what was in his mind? To me, that’s suspense, because it leaves the audience to wonder… What is perception? What is reality? We all eventually need to face our dark side, and stuff we’ve gotten wrong…. And 14o8 makes the audience think about what we need to get right before it’s too late.