1408 Film Review - 9/9/07

Based on the short story from Stephen King's short story collection "Everything's Eventual" this latest King film adaption of "1408" does not adapt well. Having read most of King's work (and "1408" left me feeling rather queasy and creeped out when I read it a few years back) it seems most of the time that (apart from a handful of his works) his material doesn't really lend itself to TV or movies (*see below). Starting off extremely well we get John Cusack as a writer covering the paranormal and embittered about his past life coming up against Samuel L. Jackson as the hotel manager with a real haunted room who attempts to persuade Cusack to not stay in a particular room for the night. After about 20 minutes of tension the ham starts to get laid on real thick, the effects take over and it degrades to rubbish much like the hotel room itself. Nice try but the curse of King strikes again!

* Better Stephen King adaptions to TV and the movies: The original film of "The Dead Zone", the TV Series "The Dead Zone", "The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile".