Thursday, August 2, 2007

Terror in Room 1408... I'm afraid not.


So I went and saw 1408 a while back. I had really high hopes for this film. The premise seemed rad- finding terror in a well-lit hotel room piqued my interest in the initial trailers. John Cusack is solid in most everything he does, and Sam Jackson throws down watchable films now and again. On paper, this film should be pants-pissingly scary. So what ruined it? Computers. There's too much damn computer animation. And this is why movies aren't scary anymore. "But what about Eli Roth's super slasher films?" you retort. Slasher films are not scary. They're nothing more than shock value gimmicks to spray a bunch of red corn syrup all over the set.

1408 could have been epic if director Mikael Hafstrom would have stuck to more of a psychological scares. Less computers. If Hafstrom used the psyche of John Cusack to set the tone, his descent into madness would have been great. But I'm not a director, so what do I know. I know that most scary movies these days are laughable.

You want to see a scariest movie of 07, Watch 28 Weeks Later. Do yourself a favor and skip1408. .

I literally yearn for someone to make a movie as epic as the original Shining. If anyone's up to the tall task (Rob Zombie doesn't count), good luck. I'll be first in line on opening night.

1 comment:

Joy said...

I personally find red corn syrup to be terrifying, myself. I hate scary movies...So thanks for warning me about 28 weeks later. My pants will remain dry for now!