- Joined
- Apr 7, 2007
- Messages
- 144
- Reaction score
- 9
- Age
- 59
- Location
- The Great State of Mississippi
- Website
- www.edward-gordon.com
1408, as we soon learn adds up to 13, which is unlucky. 1408 is an unfortunate place to be, because it is the place of addiction. And that's what the story is about, addiction.
It's good to see Steven King re-hashing the themes of his old stories; 1408 is an abreviated version of The Shining, which was also about addiction. If King is out of fresh ideas, maybe that gives us all a little room to wedge in.
However, 1408 does a good job of taking us into the mind of a person tormented by any addiction, especially one who has fallen off the wagon. In fact, we're never really sure if the main character is hallucinating from an ICU bed (incidently like someone who is in the throws of DTs) or whether the events are really happening. In one scene a haunting voice on the hotel room phone says, "Even when you check out, you are never out." And a ghost of the main character's father who is an obvious wasteoid in a nursing home says to him, "As you are, so I was; As I am, so you will become." How true of addiction on both counts: when we're addicted, we are never free of it, it is always there waiting to retake us. Also, it robs us of our lives physically and mentally. And it runs in families.
Remember, Steven King was addicted to alcohol and cocain in the early 80's, as well as smoking. So, it' s no surprise that 1408 is conspicuously autobiographical, all the way down to the last scene where the main character is limping while using a single crutch, just as King did after his accident.
The story is about a writer who writes popular travel books featuring haunted hotels. He's cynical and jaded about the supernatural and has become an atheist since the death of his daughter. As part of his research for a new book, he insists on being able to stay in a room that is notoriously haunted. The manager of the hotel begs him not to do it, and tries everything to get him to stay away. The manager of the hotel, seems to represnt an AA sponsor.
The room represnts that place in a person's mind where the addiction has hold of them. In that room is all the ghosts that might be at the root of the psychological defense mechanism of addiction. There is the dead daughter, the father, the impulse towards self-destruction represented by ghosts that keep jumping out the window. There are many addictive elements planted in the story: booze, an unsmoked cigarrette, chocolate on the pillow cases, and porn on the TV.
The goal of the "evil" of the room seems to be to get folks to kill themselves, which also seems to be the goal of the "evil" of most addictions. The main character tries to escape the room, and in one part says into his tape recorder as he's climbing out onto the ledge of the building, "If I fall it was an accident; the room didn't win."
Characters are a problem in this movie. They are shallow. I can't remember the main character's name, and it really doesn't matter. One really ceases to care what happens to the main character early on, and as usual, the little girl ghost has wisdom beyond her developmental stage, given that she's only about ten. So, she instantly becomes fake and paper thin.
Having said that this is a horror flick, and it really does a good job with the theme of addiction--a ghost that many people are tormented by. It is worth seeing. It is worth seeing in the theater, and that says a lot about a movie these days.
1408 is a must see this summer. If I were to give it stars on a scale of 1-4 stars, I'd give it a 3.
Ed
It's good to see Steven King re-hashing the themes of his old stories; 1408 is an abreviated version of The Shining, which was also about addiction. If King is out of fresh ideas, maybe that gives us all a little room to wedge in.
However, 1408 does a good job of taking us into the mind of a person tormented by any addiction, especially one who has fallen off the wagon. In fact, we're never really sure if the main character is hallucinating from an ICU bed (incidently like someone who is in the throws of DTs) or whether the events are really happening. In one scene a haunting voice on the hotel room phone says, "Even when you check out, you are never out." And a ghost of the main character's father who is an obvious wasteoid in a nursing home says to him, "As you are, so I was; As I am, so you will become." How true of addiction on both counts: when we're addicted, we are never free of it, it is always there waiting to retake us. Also, it robs us of our lives physically and mentally. And it runs in families.
Remember, Steven King was addicted to alcohol and cocain in the early 80's, as well as smoking. So, it' s no surprise that 1408 is conspicuously autobiographical, all the way down to the last scene where the main character is limping while using a single crutch, just as King did after his accident.
The story is about a writer who writes popular travel books featuring haunted hotels. He's cynical and jaded about the supernatural and has become an atheist since the death of his daughter. As part of his research for a new book, he insists on being able to stay in a room that is notoriously haunted. The manager of the hotel begs him not to do it, and tries everything to get him to stay away. The manager of the hotel, seems to represnt an AA sponsor.
The room represnts that place in a person's mind where the addiction has hold of them. In that room is all the ghosts that might be at the root of the psychological defense mechanism of addiction. There is the dead daughter, the father, the impulse towards self-destruction represented by ghosts that keep jumping out the window. There are many addictive elements planted in the story: booze, an unsmoked cigarrette, chocolate on the pillow cases, and porn on the TV.
The goal of the "evil" of the room seems to be to get folks to kill themselves, which also seems to be the goal of the "evil" of most addictions. The main character tries to escape the room, and in one part says into his tape recorder as he's climbing out onto the ledge of the building, "If I fall it was an accident; the room didn't win."
Characters are a problem in this movie. They are shallow. I can't remember the main character's name, and it really doesn't matter. One really ceases to care what happens to the main character early on, and as usual, the little girl ghost has wisdom beyond her developmental stage, given that she's only about ten. So, she instantly becomes fake and paper thin.
Having said that this is a horror flick, and it really does a good job with the theme of addiction--a ghost that many people are tormented by. It is worth seeing. It is worth seeing in the theater, and that says a lot about a movie these days.
1408 is a must see this summer. If I were to give it stars on a scale of 1-4 stars, I'd give it a 3.
Ed
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