Mikael Håfström's 1408, though good, does NOT rank as one of the best Stephen King adaptations with The Shining, although Maxim's Pete Hammond is quoted saying so on this sickly looking poster for it |
A horror writer stays in a haunted hotel.
This horror just makes it to generous four small hearts. It is an adaptation of a 1999 same-titled short story by Stephen King (The Stand (1978)).
The shocks are there, and the horror is mostly based on different phobias which is interesting. 1408 is entertaining, although I can't really stomach John Cusack's (Maps to the Stars (2014)) silly acting here, bulging his eyes out and staggering around. He's often just not my cup of tea for some reason.
The film's Swedish director Mikael Håfström (Escape Plan (2013)) is also no Stanley Kubrick, (who made the arguably scariest hotel horror ever with his King adaptation The Shining in 1980), even if he did make a really good film with Jan Guillou's autobiographical youth novel, Evil/Onskan (2003), (which, despite its title, is not a horror film but an intense, school-set drama.)
1408 is co-written by Matt Greenberg (Mercy (2014)), Scott Alexander (Goosebumps (2015)) and Larry Karaszewski (Big Eyes (2014)).
Besides The Shining (1980), the best Stephen King adaptations are, in my opinion; Carrie (1976), Creepshow (1982), Christine (1983), Stand By Me (1986), Misery (1990), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and The Mist (2007).
Related post:
Mikael Håfström: Derailed (2005) - Håfström's pointless romance thriller
Watch the trailer for 1408 here
Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 131.9 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 5.72 times the cost)
[1408 was premiered 12 June (Los Angeles, California) and runs 104 minutes with an unrated cut that runs 112 minutes. Shooting took place in New York, California, including Los Angeles, and in England, including London, ending in July 2006. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Evan Almighty, to a 20.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for another week (#5) and grossed grossed 71.9 mil. $ (54.5 % of the total gross.) The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 6.4 mil. $ (4.9 %) and Spain with 5.7 mil. $ (4.3 %). Håfström returned with Shanghai (2010). Cusack returned in Martian Child (2007), and Samuel L. Jackson (Unicorn Store (2017)) in Great Performances (1990-07)) and theatrically in Cleaner (2007). 1409 is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of 1408?
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