Movie Report: 1408

I've been keeping a list of the reviews I need to do since the move and all borked up my blogging, and I've got *a ton* of them to catch up on.

So I'll put it to my three readers -- do you want to see these, or should I just move on?

Until then ...

Before we left Indiana, I wanted one last trip to one of my favorite Indy places, the Tibbs Drive-In.

It's a great drive-in theater -- good management, good upkeep, the sound quality is decent (they run it through your car stereo) and the bathrooms aren't scary. And the corn dogs and fries always make for a tasty dinner.

Normally, I'm not big on movie concession stands, having seen too much of how they work when John was working at a movie theater. Anyone want some popcorn that was popped two weeks ago and stored in a closet? But there aren't many drive-ins left, and they don't make any money on tickets. All that cash goes to the movie studios. So if you go to a drive-in, be nice and hit the concession stand.

It was a Saturday night and it was threatening to rain, but we went anyway. And it rained. Big time. But since we were in our cozy Hyundai, it didn't bother us at all.

Movies based on Stephen King stories can be hit or miss. Some are good (Carrie, The Shining), some aren't worth the film they're printed on (Dreamcatcher or whatever that complete piece of shite was called.) But 1408 had John Cusack, and I adore John Cusack, so we decided to give it a chance.

You don't see many movies like this anymore. Scary does not have to equal giant buckets of gore.

Cusack plays a writer with the all-too-common hints of a tragic past. These days he makes a living writing travel books about haunted places, even though he doesn't believe in any of it.

B.S. alert -- If I could make a decent enough living as a haunted travel writer to have a cool apartment near the beach in Cali and surf all the time, I'd do it in a second. There's not that much money in those kind of books.

When he gets a postcard with a cryptic message about a haunted hotel room, he packs his bags and demands a night in Room 1408.

Enter Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the hotel manager. His job in this movie is to be mysterious, give a bunch of exposition and offer Cusack some expensive booze. He does his job very well.

Since most of the movie is set in a run-down hotel room, I was impressed at the beautiful cinematography, which did everything from ice whites and blues to a sickly, scary green. I'd like to thank the rainstorm too, for tossing in some thunder and lightning at key points of the film. It made it even better.

This isn't the "BOO!" kind of scary. It builds and builds. You don't know what's coming, but you know it's bad, and you want to get away, but you can't. Fabulous suspense, and some nice twists. The best scares are psychological.

In the end, what you get is an excellent little horror film without the tired, played-out cliches filling flicks like Saw. I have a feeling that this film will be missed by a lot of horror fans, and that's too bad.

1408 is well worth a reservation.