1408

Saw 1408. The film stars John Cusack as a cynical reviewer of so-called haunted hotels who finds an actually haunted hotel room this time!(!!!) Before the hotel room is revealed though, he stalks about grumpily, making oblique references to an abusive father and an ex-wife and leaving un-smoked cigarettes around the rooms he stays in and generally hinting at a Tortured Past. This was great news for me because it promises a psychodrama rather than a creature-feature and I enjoy psychodrama much better. Unfortunately, the ultimate sorrowful showdown with an imaginary version of his father and wife is kind of a disappointment. We never get to really know Cusack's character beyond knowing that he is a bitter man with a past in which he was bitter and shouted. Without any sympathy for him, I had only clinical disinterest in his squirmings.

Much more interesting was the machinations of the haunted/possessed room. Early on he hurts his hand and drips blood on the carpet before rinsing off the wound. The closeups of the blood being absorbed into the pile of the carpet and being hungrily sucked down the drain are suggestive and creepy. Also, the repeated images of Cuzack's face reflected in the edges of mirrors, his eyes cut off, or weirdly multiplied. It's such a simple thing, but kind of dehumanizes him. Later on, when the walls and windows begin shifting, I enjoyed that too. Unfortunately, there's only so many things an inanimate room can do, I suppose, and increasingly wearying mind-games are played for variety and believability's sake.

The film is best when it's being subtle or overtly hostile. I loved the phone melting and the changing map of the floor (also the suggestive H shape of the building.) The hysterical past-evoking and annoying misdirections evoke not so much The Shining as Being John Malkovich (also there's some jump scares with a hammer-wielding hobo which are bewildering, stupid, and the worst form of this kind of crap.) The cramped cat-and-mouse of room vs human is far more interesting and I wish more had been done with that. As is, it has interesting parts and much promise, but many rotten bits as well. Not bad, just uneven.