The Good

An interesting movie that is actually more than a typical horror film.

The Bad

Did this movie really need a two disc set? It needs better extras.

1408 is the tightly woven tale of Mike Enslin (John Cusack). This is a man who has made a career out of going against the grain. He takes paranormal experiences and tries to prove how false they are. A victim of his own good press he decides to stay in room 1408 he Dolphin Hotel. Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) the hotel's manager, warns him against doing this but Enslin doesn't heed this warning. Ignoring the fact that nobody has ever spent more than one hour in this room and survived, he soon plants himself within its walls and proceeds to lose his mind. What follows is a journey into into his psyche where everything, whether real or imagined, soon becomes its own private hell.

1408 is the kind of film that cannot help but draw in casual movie-watchers and horror fans alike. It manages to prey upon our fears and just when we think we have a handle on the situation, like Mike Enslin, we realize just how wrong we are.

Features

Disc One

John Cusack on 1408 and Inside Room 1408

I grouped these two webisodes together because they basically serve the same function. These are quite short EPK-styled looks at John Cusack's character and the room that is featured in the title. Cusack calls the story a mind-bender, while the 1408 webisode gives us the producers, actors and FX people talking about making film.

Disc Two

Extended Director's Cut with Alternate Ending and Feature Length Commentary Track

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary

They have put 5 deleted scenes on this release. They have titles like "I Warned You About 1408" and overall they seemed to be of pretty good quality. Given to us in their widescreen format, these scenes seemed to take the ideas and themes in this film and just flesh them out a little bit more. While these deleted scenes obviously didn't go through the process of making them look as pristine as the actual film, overall they did look pretty darn solid.

The Secrets of 1408

Video

Widescreen Version. Presented in a "letterbox" widescreen format preserving the scope aspect ratio of it's original theatrical exhibition. Enhanced for widescreen TVs. Director Mikael Hafstrom has given this film a really solid and harsh look. All the colors on screen are very vibrant and even though it's only on Standard DVD, I can only imagine how strong this movie might look in one of the high definition formats. While this movie does employ some music video-type approaches, overall it does play things pretty close to the vest.

Audio

Dolby Digital. I thought the audio for this release was good. At times I think it sunk a little heavily into allowing the sound to create the scares, but for the most part I thought that it did a good job of underscoring the action. Gabriel Yared's score has a way of creeping up on you and it truly is haunting. I think what is probably the best thing about the sound is how, for the most part, it doesn't beat viewers over the head.

Package

John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson are presented together wit the key to room 1408 touching both of their heads. The back cover gives us three images from the film, a breakdown of what is contained in this 2-disc set, a description of the movie, a credits list and technical specs. They have stored both of the discs in this set in one amaray case, and they've also given fans collector's postcards showcasing characters and scenes from the film.

Final Word

Overall, I was really impressed with 1408. Based on how this film was promoted I expected this to feature John Cusack in a slickster performance. In some ways it did showcase this but in others this movie got a lot more cerebral. In forcing the character of Mike Enslin to step back and look at his life (in a very brutal and harsh way), it really seemed to be casting a light on who this person was. There was a richness to the way this story handled all the horror, action and somber moments and I was left really impressed with what this movie presented. Also, the acting on the part of Cusack, Jackson and the rest of the cast was also really strong. At times, before the movie turned things up a notch, I forgot that I was even watching a horror movie.

I think that 1408 gives viewers a lot more to think about than it ever really showcased in its promotions. This is a rich, powerful story about the life of one man and how he is forced to take stock of who and what he is. Call it a horrific version of A Christmas Carol.