LogFAQs > #946324799

30. 1408 (film) (20.5 points)
Nominated by: Cavedweller2000 (2/5 remaining)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIASqPZqnhs

Importance: 3
Fear: 8
Snake: 9.5

1408 is a film I have always adored. It's one of my top 5 Stephen King adaptations ever, thanks to its strong psychological core at the heart of its main character, Mike Enslin. This being King, I'm sure you can guess his occupation, but this time there's something about his paranormal investigations and skepticism that separates him from the pack here. 1408 comes down to the man breaking the job, than the job the breaking the man. Enslin heads to this supposedly haunted hotel room, an anonymous challenge sent to him in a postcard, at the Dolphin in New York. The room has a nasty reputation: 56 deaths in the last 95 years. Enslin is seriously discouraged by the hotel's manager, Olin, but Enslin doesn't heed this warning and heads in anyway. What I love most about this film is how it builds up the psychological dread of the room. It starts off normal enough, maybe even fancier than what Enslin is used to, chocolate on the pillows, fully stocked minibar, folded towels, pay-per-view, and of course, Enslin acts like his typical haughty self. Suddenly though, the room starts to get hotter, a blue light reveals the remnants of past murders, strange apparitions start appearing to Enslin. His once self-sure sarcastic self gets quickly broken down, as if the room itself is alive, or taking on the aspects of Enslin's haunted, tormented, fractured mind. Despite it seeming like the movie would wear itself down in a such a claustrophobic location, it does wonders in making its three small rooms feel expansive, as the film constantly invents new ways to scare and frighten in this limited place, making the room feel like a looping maze of endless insanity. Chilling shots like a zoom out revealing Enslin's two windows as the only windows remaining on this foreboding brick slab of a hotel building are the most enigmatic aspects of the film, really emphasizing how trapped literally and figuratively Enslin feels in his life. The film's cruelest moments come when Mike appears to be free of the nightmare and goes on with his life normally, until it is revealed it was all an illusion crafted by the room. Again, this is such a fantastic use of the location and one of the film's most psychologically gruelling aspects. I think the film might get a little heavy-handed with literally showing figures from Enslin's past, but I guess it does service Enslin's character to make the deteriorating quality of the room more connected to Enslin's psyche. This film has 3 different endings of varying degrees of positivity. I do like the theatrical ending the best; some might say, why watch a horror movie if you're planning on feeling good afterwards, but it serves Enslin's growth as a person and makes the torment he goes through worth it in the end. If he's just going to die after it, what was it all for? Simply fantastic film, it draws you in from start to finish, and I almost couldn't ask for a better adaptation of King's work.

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Bare feet on the tile with my head up in the clouds
https://imgur.com/1e1e70S