1408
I watched a bad movie last night. I can't really bitch about it because I knew it'd be bad going in.
The movie was "1408" starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. The reason I had to watch it was because it's based on a Stephen King short story which can be found in his collection "Everything's Eventual," and this particular short story is, bar none, without question, the single scariest piece of prose I've ever read. And I know I am not alone in this assessment.
When I heard they were making a film of it, I was like, bzuh? HOW?
First of all, the story consists of two scenes. The first is longer, and it's nothing but a conversation between two characters in an office, but it is KEY to the story's power because it's the buildup. The title (for those of you who haven't read the story or seen the film) refers to a hotel room. The main character, Mike Enslin, is a writer of pop horror books (like "Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Cemeteries") who doesn't believe in ghosts and is determined to stay in this particular room for his next book. The manager, Mr. Olin, tries to talk him out of it. Unlike most of the "haunted" hotels Mike has visited, the Dolphin Hotel doesn't advertise its haunted room, doesn't want any publicity, and does not even rent out the room anymore.
Then there's the scene in which Mike enters the room. It's fucking terrifying. But it is so in a way that just wouldn't translate well to film. It's vague perceptions, things like walls melting, voices on the phone, paintings changing...it's hard to explain how it's so scary, it just IS. But not in a cinematic way.
Sure enough, it didn't translate to screen, and the makers of the film fell back on more ordinary horror-movie shit, making the writer see the ghost of his dead daughter (invented for the film), explosions, floods, blah blah blah. They made it...mundane, where the story is scary in a way that was totally novel. And its power was 70% in the buildup, which they boffed totally by truncating it AND by casting Jackson as Mr. Olin, a role he played with vague menace and his usual rough badassery, which is totally completely and in all other ways wrong for the part.
It made me want to reread the story but I realized I loaned it to Nancy ages ago and she still has it. Damn.
The movie was "1408" starring John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. The reason I had to watch it was because it's based on a Stephen King short story which can be found in his collection "Everything's Eventual," and this particular short story is, bar none, without question, the single scariest piece of prose I've ever read. And I know I am not alone in this assessment.
When I heard they were making a film of it, I was like, bzuh? HOW?
First of all, the story consists of two scenes. The first is longer, and it's nothing but a conversation between two characters in an office, but it is KEY to the story's power because it's the buildup. The title (for those of you who haven't read the story or seen the film) refers to a hotel room. The main character, Mike Enslin, is a writer of pop horror books (like "Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Cemeteries") who doesn't believe in ghosts and is determined to stay in this particular room for his next book. The manager, Mr. Olin, tries to talk him out of it. Unlike most of the "haunted" hotels Mike has visited, the Dolphin Hotel doesn't advertise its haunted room, doesn't want any publicity, and does not even rent out the room anymore.
Then there's the scene in which Mike enters the room. It's fucking terrifying. But it is so in a way that just wouldn't translate well to film. It's vague perceptions, things like walls melting, voices on the phone, paintings changing...it's hard to explain how it's so scary, it just IS. But not in a cinematic way.
Sure enough, it didn't translate to screen, and the makers of the film fell back on more ordinary horror-movie shit, making the writer see the ghost of his dead daughter (invented for the film), explosions, floods, blah blah blah. They made it...mundane, where the story is scary in a way that was totally novel. And its power was 70% in the buildup, which they boffed totally by truncating it AND by casting Jackson as Mr. Olin, a role he played with vague menace and his usual rough badassery, which is totally completely and in all other ways wrong for the part.
It made me want to reread the story but I realized I loaned it to Nancy ages ago and she still has it. Damn.