1408 è tratto da un abbozzo diventato poi una storia breve, e la carenza di materiale fa sentire il suo peso.
Scrittore pseudo-horror di mezza tacca in piena crisi, si imbatte nel mito della camera 1408 del Dolphin Hotel a New York: la leggenda vuole che oltre cinquanta persone vi siano morte, in larga parte suicide; decide di trascorrevi una notte, con l'intento di sbugiardare i gestori.
La trama di fatto è assente: pochi fatti coloriti riguardanti il passato della stanza, e poi ci si dedica alle visioni suggestive-paranoiche del protagonista, tormentato per la recente morte della figlioletta.
Eppure il film ha i suoi pregi: il senso di angoscia è ben costruito, ed anche se si sa in ampio anticipo quando aspettarsi il colpo di scena e quando si tratta di un falso allarme, la tensione viene mantenuta per tutto il tempo.
Merito di una buona fotografia, di una regia tutto sommato accettabile (anche se qualche scena sopra le righe non manca, a partire dall'accanimento isterico contro il frigo-bar), di effetti speciali usati con accortezza e soprattutto di John Cusack e Samuel L. Jackson, davvero ottimi.
Senza di loro il film sarebbe stato probabilmente un evitabile esercizio di quasi-stile.
Voto: 6+ (originalità zero, ma si lascia guardare).
Tags: horror, drammatico, hotel, camera, 1408, tredicesimo piano, apparizione, sovrannaturale, figlia, morte, suicidio, incubo, angoscia, letto, albergo, alcool, bagno, surf, New York, allucinazione, ricovero, ufficio postale, morte, aldilà, fantasma, perdita, separazione, stanza, muro, parete, condotto d'areazione, paura, superstizione, libro, scrittore, crisi, incendio, computer, frigo-bar, telefono, conto alla rovescia.
1408 (2007)
Regista: Mikael Håfström
Scrittore: Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander
Genere: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Valutazione: 7.2/10 (30368 voti)
Durata: 104 min
Paese: USA
Lingua: English
Cast:
- John Cusack .... Mike Enslin
- Paul Birchard .... Mr. Innkeeper
- Margot Leicester .... Mrs. Innkeeper
- Walter Lewis .... Book Store Cashier
- Eric Meyers .... Man #1 at Book Signing
- David Nicholson .... Man #2 at Book Signing
- Holly Hayes .... Lady at Book Signing
- Alexandra Silber .... Young Woman at Book Signing
- Johann Urb .... Surfer Dude
- Andrew Lee Potts .... Mailbox Guy
Trama:
Based on the short Stephen King horror story of the same name, 1408 is about supernatural writer Mike Enslin, an author of two successful books on supernatural phenomena. As research for his latest book, Enslin is determined to check out the notorious room 1408 in a New York City hotel by personally staying as a guest in the fabled room. He believes that 1408 is just a myth perpetuated by stories and rumors that Enslin has collected for his past works. However, hotel manager Mr. Olin has strong objections to Enslin's stay and only warns him of possible danger to come. Enslin is determined to go anyway. But what Mike Enslin is about to experience is no myth, as 1408 truly is a room where the guests don't check out by noon.
Trivia random: While addressing his audience at the book signing, Mike says "Stay scared." This is a phrase traditionally used by director 'George A. Romero' , a friend of Stephen King's. Romero has said this at numerous conventions and often uses it as part of his signature.
Citazione random: [examining the mini-bar in room 1408]::Mike Enslin: Eight dollars for Beer Nuts? This room *is* evil!
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
King, Stephen (I)
Nome di battesimo: King, Stephen Edwin
Data di nascita: 21 September 1947
Altezza: 6' 4" (1.93 m)
Coniuge: Tabitha King::(2 January 1971 - present) 3 children
Ultimi lavori:
- Cell (2009) .... (novel) [scrittore]
- From a Buick 8 (2009) .... (novel) [scrittore]
- Creepshow (2008) .... (short story) [scrittore]
- "Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season" (2008) (mini) .... (book) [scrittore]
- "The Talisman" (2008) (mini) .... (novel) [scrittore]
- 1408 (2007) .... (short story) [scrittore]
- Diary of the Dead (2007) .... Newsreader (voice) [attore]
- The Mist (2007) .... (short story) [scrittore]
- Desperation (2006) (TV) .... (executive producer) [produttore]
- Lovecraft's Pillow (2006) .... (suggestion) [scrittore]
Biografia:
Stephen Edwin King was born on September 21, 1947, at the Maine General Hospital in Portland. His parents were Donald Edwin King and Ruth Pillsbury King. He was the only natural-born child in the family, his older brother David having been adopted at birth two years earlier. The Kings were the typical family until one night when Donald said he was stepping out for cigarettes and was never heard from again. Ruth took over raising the family with help from relatives. They traveled throughout many states over several years, finally moving back to Durham, Maine, in 1958. Stephen began his actual writing career in January of 1959, when David and Stephen decided to publish their own local newspaper named "Dave's Rag". David bought a mimeograph machine, and they put together a paper they sold for five cents an issue. Stephen attended Lisbon High School, in Lisbon, Maine, in 1962. Collaborating with his best friend Chris Chesley in 1963, they published a collection of 18 short stories called "People, Places, and Things--Volume I". King's stories included "Hotel at the End of the Road", "I've Got to Get Away!", "The Dimension Warp", "The Thing at the Bottom of the Well", "The Stranger", "I'm Falling", "The Cursed Expedition", and "The Other Side of the Fog." A year later, King's amateur press Triad and Gaslight Books, published a two-part book titled "The Star Invaders". King made his first actual published appearance in 1965 in the magazine Comics Review with his story "I Was a Teenage Grave Robber." The story ran about 6,000 words in length. In 1966 he graduated from high school and took a scholarship to attend the University of Maine. Looking back on his high school days, King recalled that "my high school career was totally undistinguished. I was not at the top of my class, nor at the bottom." Later that summer King began working on a novel called "Getting It On", about some kids who take over a classroom and try unsuccessfully to ward off the National Guard. During his first year at college, King completed his first full-length novel, "The Long Walk." He submitted the novel to Bennett Cerf/Random House only to have it rejected. King took the rejection badly and filed the book away. He made his first small sale--$35--with the story "The Glass Floor". In June 1970 King graduated from the University of Maine with a Bachelor of Science degree in English and a certificate to teach high school. King's next idea came from the poem by Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came." He found bright colored green paper in the library and began work on "The Dark Tower" saga, but his chronic shortage of money meant that he was unable to further pursue the novel, and it, too, was filed away. King took a job at a filling station pumping gas, for the princely sum of $1.25 an hour. Soon he began to earn money for his writings by submitting his short stories to men's magazines such as Cavalier. On January 2, 1971, he married Tabitha King (born Tabitha Jane Spruce). In the fall of 1971 King took a teaching job at Hampden Academy, earning $6,400 a year. The Kings then moved to Hermon, a town west of Bangor, Maine. Stephen then began work on a short story about a teenage girl named Carietta White. After a completing a few pages, he decided it was not a worthy story and crumpled the pages up and tossed them into the trash. Fortunately, Tabitha took the pages out and read them. She encouraged her husband to continue the story, which he did. In January 1973 he submitted "Carrie" to Doubleday. In March Doubleday bought the book. On May 12 the publisher sold the paperback rights for the novel to New American Library for $400,000. His contract called for his getting half of that sum, and he quit his teaching job to pursue writing full time. The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, King has had numerous short stories and novels published and movies made from his work. He has been called the "Master of Horror". His books have been translated into 33 different languages, published in over 35 different countries. There are over 300 million copies of his novels in publication. He continues to live in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, and writes out of his home. In June 1999, Stephen King was severely injured in an accident that left him in critical condition with injuries to his lung, broken ribs, a broken leg and a severely fractured hip. After three weeks of operations, he was released from the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine.
Trivia random: Many of his stories take place in or near the fictional small town of Castle Rock, Maine. The first film to be based on a Castle Rock story was Stand by Me (1986). Director Rob Reiner subsequently named his production company Castle Rock Entertainment.
Citazione random: I love the movies, and when I go to see a movie that's been made from one of my books, I know that it isn't going to be exactly like my novel because a lot of other people have interpreted it. But I also know it has an idea that I'll like because that idea occurred to me, and I spent a year, or a year and a half of my life working on it.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Jackson, Samuel L.
Nome di battesimo: Jackson, Samuel Leroy
Data di nascita: 21 December 1948
Altezza: 6' 2½" (1.89 m)
Coniuge: LaTanya Richardson::(1980 - present) 1 child
Ultimi lavori:
- Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey (2009) .... Fear (voice) [attore]
- The Spirit (2009) .... The Octopus [attore]
- Iron Man (2008) .... Nick Fury [attore]
- Jumper (2008) .... Cox [attore]
- Lakeview Terrace (2008) .... Abel Turner [attore]
- 1408 (2007) .... Olin [attore]
- "Afro Samurai" (2007) (mini) .... (co-producer) (executive producer) [produttore]
- Cleaner (2007) .... (producer) [produttore]
- Resurrecting the Champ (2007) .... Champ [attore]
- Black Snake Moan (2006) .... Lazarus [attore]
Biografia:
Samuel L. Jackson usually played bad guys and drug addicts before becoming an action hero, as the character Mitch Henessey, in The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996) and in Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995). From character player to leading man. His performance in Pulp Fiction (1994) gave him an Oscar nomination for his character Jules Winnfield. He was active in the black student movement. In the seventies he joined the Negro Ensemble Company (together with Morgan Freeman). In the eighties he became well known by three movies made by Spike Lee - Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990) and Jungle Fever (1991). He received a Silver Berlin Bear for his part in the movie Jackie Brown (1997) as Ordell Robbi.
Trivia random: Briefly suspended in 1969 from Morehouse College after taking hostage several members of the board of trustees, including the father of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, during a protest of the failure of the university to have black trustees or a black studies program.
Citazione random: "I feel like I have a kinship to England. I go about three or four times a year because you guys love me. Seriously, that's it right there. I just need to feel that love every once in a while. I like England because I can go anywhere on the tube and buses. So when I'm there I go to all the places where I used to hang out."
Salario massimo: $10,000,000, per Shaft (2000)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Cusack, John
Nome di battesimo: Cusack, John Paul
Data di nascita: 28 June 1966
Altezza: 6' 3" (1.91 m)
Ultimi lavori:
- The Last Full Measure (2009) .... Scott Huffman [attore]
- Stopping Power (2009) .... [attore]
- Igor (2008) .... Igor (voice) [attore]
- Talking with Dog (2008) .... [attore]
- 1408 (2007) .... Mike Enslin [attore]
- Grace Is Gone (2007) .... (producer) [produttore]
- Martian Child (2007) .... David [attore]
- Summerhood (2007) .... Narrator (uncredited) [attore]
- War, Inc. (2007) .... (producer) [produttore]
- The Contract (2006/I) .... Ray Keene [attore]
Biografia:
John Cusack is, like most of his characters, an unconventional hero. Wary of fame and repelled by formulaic Hollywood fare, the Chicago-born actor has built a successful career playing underdogs and odd men out--all the while avoiding the media spotlight. With the exception of mom Nancy (a former math teacher), the Cusack clan is all show business: father Dick Cusack is an actor and filmmaker, and John's siblings Joan Cusack, Ann Cusack, Bill Cusack and Susie Cusack are all thespians by trade. Like his brother and sisters, John became a member of Chicago's Piven Theatre Workshop while he was still in elementary school. By age 12, he already had several stage productions, commercial voice overs and industrial films under his belt. He made his feature film debut at 17, acting alongside Rob Lowe and Andrew McCarthy in the romantic comedy Class (1983). His next role, as a member of Anthony Michael Hall's geek brigade in Sixteen Candles (1984), put him on track to becoming a teen-flick fixture. Cusack remained on the periphery of the Brat Pack, sidestepping the meteoric rise and fall of most of his contemporaries, but he stayed busy with leads in films like The Sure Thing (1985) and Better Off Dead... (1985). Young Cusack is probably best remembered for what could be considered his last adolescent role: the stereo-blaring romantic Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything... (1989). A year later, he hit theaters as a grown-up, playing a bush-league con man caught between his manipulative mother and headstrong girlfriend in The Grifters (1990). The next few years were relatively quiet for the actor, but he filled in the gaps with off-screen projects. He directed and produced several shows for the Chicago-based theater group The New Criminals, which he founded in 1988 (modeling it after Tim Robbins' Actors' Gang in Los Angeles) to promote political and avant-garde stage work. Four years later, Cusack's high school friends Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis joined him in starting a sister company for film, New Crime Productions. New Crime's first feature was the sharply written comedy Grosse Pointe Blank (1997), which touched off a career renaissance for Cusack. In addition to co-scripting, he starred as a world-weary hit man who goes home for his ten-year high school reunion and tries to rekindle a romance with the girl he stood up on prom night (Minnie Driver). In an instance of life imitating art, Cusack actually did go home for his ten-year reunion (to honor a bet about the film's financing) and ended up in a real-life romance with Driver. Cusack's next appearance was as a federal agent (or, as he described it, "the first post-Heston, non-biblical action star in sandals") in Con Air (1997), a movie he chose because he felt it was time to make smart business decisions. He followed that with Clint Eastwood's Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), in which he played a Yankee reporter entangled in a Savannah murder case. Cusack has always favored offbeat material, so it was no surprise when he turned up in the fiercely original Being John Malkovich (1999). Long-haired, bearded and bespectacled, he was almost unrecognizable in the role of a frustrated puppeteer who stumbles across a portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich. The convincing performance won him a Best Actor nomination at the Independent Spirit Awards. In 2000, Cusack was back to his clean-shaven self in High Fidelity (2000), another New Crime production. He worked with Steve Pink and D.V. DeVincentis to adapt Nick Hornby's popular novel (relocating the story to their native Chicago), then starred as the sarcastic record store owner who revisits his "Top 5" breakups to find out why he's so unlucky in love. The real Cusack has been romantically linked with several celebs, including Driver, Alison Eastwood, Claire Forlani and Neve Campbell. He's also something of a family man, acting frequently opposite sister Joan Cusack and pulling other Cusacks into his films on a regular basis. He seems pleased with the spate of projects on his horizon, but admits that he still hasn't reached his ultimate goal: to be involved in a "great piece of art".
Trivia random: Featured as #22 on VH1's 100 Greatest Teen Stars countdown.
Citazione random: [on celebrity] "I have a healthy fear of it. I'm not into the celebrity culture aspect of being an artist. To me it represents extinction. The more people know about you, the less they want to try to figure out what you have to say in your movies, and the less credibility you have. To me it seems: Go do your thing, then get out. That's the best way to do it." (January 14, 2004)
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
Håfström, Mikael
Nome di battesimo: Håfström, Jan Mikael
Data di nascita: 1 July 1960
Coniuge: Anna Anthony::(? - ?) (divorced)
Ultimi lavori:
- Shanghai (2009) .... [regista]
- 1408 (2007) .... [regista]
- Derailed (2005/I) .... [regista]
- Strandvaskaren (2004) .... [scrittore]
- Kopps (2003) .... [scrittore]
- Ondskan (2003) .... [scrittore]
- Leva livet (2001) .... [scrittore]
- "Sjätte dagen" (1999) .... (unknown episodes) [scrittore]
- Chock 1 - Dödsängeln (1997) (TV) .... [regista]
- Chock 2 - Kött (1997) (TV) .... [scrittore]
Trivia random: Brother of Dan Håfström.
Filmography links and data courtesy of IMDb.
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