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By Emily Garrett
By Cole Smithey
‘1408’
Movie Trailer
Adapted from a short story by
Stephen King, Swedish director
Mikael Hafstrom (“Derailed”) skillfully
helms this twisting one-man showcase
in terror. Horror novelist Mike
Enslin (John Cusack) is a debunker
of paranormal myths. He tackles
his latest book project, “Ten
Nights in Haunted Hotel Rooms,”
with the been-there-done-that
cynicism of a wizened professional
knocking out yet another routine
assignment. Things get exciting
when Enslin reads a news clipping
about a mysterious “room 1408”
in New York’s Dolphin Hotel, where
more than 50 guests have perished.
With his curiosity properly piqued,
our plucky author disregards the
earnest warnings of the hotel
manager Mr. Olin (snappily played
by Samuel L. Jackson), and enters
the room with tape recorder in
hand. The alarm clock begins a
one-hour countdown as walls move
and the landscape of the room
becomes a demonic presence taunting
the author to lose hold on his
already loosened sanity. The triumph
of “1408” rests squarely on John
Cusack’s perfectly pitched performance
as an unshakable disbeliever repeatedly
pushed to the brink of suicide
by memories of his own past. “Room
1408” presents a psychological,
paranormal and physical juggernaut
that will curl your insides in
knots.
“1408” falls neatly into the
category of Stephen King stories
like “The Shining” and “The Secret
Window.” A tough guy author becomes
trapped in the confines of a place
where the laws of physics don’t
seem to apply. Separated from
his wife Lily (Mary McCormack)
after the tragic loss of their
daughter Gracie, Enslin masks
his concealed personal crisis
by immersing himself in his work.
Here is a man attempting to displace
his own reality with other people’s
imaginary demons to overcompensate
for his slipping grip on reason.
It’s an effective gambit until
the demons become real. “We don’t
rattle” is the mantra that Enslin
repeats to himself as the room’s
alarm clock unexpectedly blasts
a Carpenters’ song and paintings
shift their images. Observing
paranormal occurrences is not
as prosaic and charming as our
protagonist might have imagined.
And so it is, for the audience,
that the scares we have waited
for turn out to be more potent
than we imagined.
Unable to escape from the room’s
door, Cusack’s unraveling character
puts aside visions of former visitors
leaping from the window as he
climbs out onto the ledge in the
hope of reentering the hotel from
an adjacent room. On the surface,
it seems like a classic scary
movie trope when the hotel’s windows
vanish and Enslin is left facing
nothing but brick, however the
visual slight-of-hand works like
a magician’s trusty card trick.
That’s us, the audience, stuck
on that high ledge. Like the Jack
Nicholson character in “The Shining,”
Enslin suffers from a psychosis
that his immediate environment
exacerbates. Right up until the
end of the movie, it’s unsure
how much of the room-morphing
episodes are real and how many
are cooked up in the character’s
plagued subconscious mind.
Special effects supervisor Paul
Corbold (“Children of Men”) metes
out the room’s slippery descent
into hellish realms with a modulated
crescendo of violence that gently
bruises your psyche before walloping
it with a concussive double climax.
The devil is in the details, and
in room “1408” every nightmare
element holds a deeper meaning
to the secret of Mike Enslin’s
mental breakdown that drops him
in rough seas within a cracking
ship.
Cusack is such a polished performer
that it’s easy to forget how effective
he can be at creating characters
capable of emphasizing extreme
emotional and physical states.
Here, the actor delivers a tour
de force performance that punctuates
the survival aspects of the story
every time the camera focuses
on his pained facial expressions.
There is plenty of Freudian subtext
that Cusack’s character mocks
as an invitation to the emotionally
cathartic experience he subconsciously
demands. You’ll have to think
your way through this thriller
as it twists like the road to
Hana, and you’ll be on the edge
of you seat the whole time. CV
Art Center showcases
winners of Iowa Film Competition
The word “art” brings to mind
images of large, strangely painted
canvases and oddly shaped sculptures.
But there is another, more familiar
art form that is often overlooked
— art films, aka independent movies.
The lack of exposure for artistic
films is why the Des Moines Art
Center, in conjunction with their
“2007 Iowa Artists” exhibit, started
the Iowa Film Competition Showcase
to be held this weekend.
This year marks the fourth biennial
production of the showcase. “The
event started as a support program
for the visual art exhibit because
it’s much harder to get people
to see your work if you work with
the moving image,” says Jill Featherstone,
the museum’s education director
and one of three people in charge
of selecting films for the showcase.
This year there were 39 entries
by 31 filmmakers. Each film was
viewed by Featherstone, assistant
curator Laura Burkhalter and former
Des Moines Register film critic
Jeffrey Bruner. The films were
judged on criteria such as script,
camera work and innovation. In
the end, 10 films were selected
and given an award of gold, silver
or bronze.
“Originally, the competition
was for first, second and third
place,” says Featherstone, “but
(with the new rating system) now
we can show more films.”
And more is better because exposure
is hard to come by in the business
of artistic filmmaking, which
may explain why few people who
enter films into the competition
are exclusively filmmakers. Often
films are submitted by students
majoring in film or journalism.
But many of the entrants are just
“people with a lifelong interest
in film, people with hobbies,”
Featherstone says.
Randy Hamilton of Des Moines
is one such filmmaker. His film,
“Body in Pain,” won the gold prize
in this year’s festival. Hamilton,
a neurologist at Mercy Medical
Center, is pursuing his master’s
degree in architecture at Iowa
State University in Ames and created
the film as a requirement for
one of his classes. After some
encouragement from a professor,
he decided to submit his film
to the competition.
“Film was always just a hobby
for me before this. I’ve made
four or five other movies I’d
never show to anyone,” Hamilton
says. However, since his success,
he’s decided to submit “Body in
Pain” to about 20 other film festivals
and has become very passionate
about filmmaking.
“I would love to make more films,
but now I want to concentrate
on other things,” he says. “I
became so obsessed with it that
I need to keep myself from thinking
about more films right now. But
really, I can’t wait.”
A free screening of all 10 films
will be held on Sunday at 1 p.m.
in the Levitt Auditorium at the
Des Moines Art Center. The films
are of various lengths and genres,
so there’s sure to be something
for everyone in this showcase
of less traditional Iowa art.
CV
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