an evil fucking room: 1408 (2007) review

1408 is a 2007 movie based on a short story by Stephen King. For a horror movie, it's rather liked by critics and audiences; as of august 2012:

IMDB: 6.8
Rotten Tomatoes: 78%

Not all fans and followers of Stephen King might agree with me, but I could try and divide the time-line of screen adaptations of his work in three phases. Chronologically first, and in some part forming the basis of King's fame, especially as an author who's works make for good movies (though in my opinion, they are not really handy for the big screen - his short stories, though mostly great, are, well, short stories, meaning that the director and screenwriters of the movies have to add their own material, which may not work so well, while King's novels have just too many themes and subplots to be conveyed in two hours of a movie), would be the time starting with his first movie adaptation (of his first book) "Carrie" (1976), followed by "The Shining" (1980); later came Cronenberg's "The Dead Zone" (1983) and Carpenter's "Christine" (also 1983) - year '83 marking the end of this golden age.
Even if the following years saw some excellent screen adaptations of Kings's non-horror works: "Stand By Me" (1986), "Misery" (1990), "The Shawshank Redemption"  (1994) and "The Green mile" (1999), late 80's and 90's were dominated by rather cheap and, well, bad movies based oh King's stories.
In the new century, with Hollywood being at it's lowest creativity and avoiding new ideas like a plague, we are seeing the third phase of King's adaptations - decent budget and decent talent adaptations of his short stories: "Secret Window" (2004), "The Mist" (2007) and "1408" (2007).

The poster may feature Samuel L. Jackson as prominently as it may please, but 1408 is close to being a solo show of John Cusac (who does his job well), in a story of one man's fight with a hotel room. The execution is beautiful, the tension - hard to bear at some points. Still, I would like to criticize some scenes for using rather cheap scares - but there are not many of those. The story has many elements that King's fans will recognize - main character is a writer, also, there is a hotel room, which Mr King doesn't seem to like much. In fact, the story 1408 didn't start out as a story - it started out as an example in King's "On Writing" (the title is self explanatory here). And, it may just be me, but... it shows. The story has characters, plot with it's turning points, but it really is just as exciting as a textbook math problem would be to a mathematician. For example - as Jackson's character puts it at one point, "It's an evil fucking room"; and that, sadly, is all the reason ever given to the happenings of this movie (this wasn't really a spoiler). The movie hasn't really got a core or any drive; elements of the plot exist because they have to, not because Stephen King would have had a great idea.

Still, if you want to get scared - this is a good movie to watch. Overall - an adequate movie. That's it - not great. Just adequate.

black indeed: Black Christmas (1974) review

Black Christmas is a 1974 Canadian slasher movie. Opinion on it in October 2012 stands as:

IMDB: 7.1
Rotten Tomatoes: 63%

Not bad for a slasher, is it? For me, this tale of murders in a sorority house during days leading to Christmas is indeed a particularly interesting movie. See, if you surf around slasher movie trailers on YouTube, you'll notice those being presented as mind-blowingly horrifying, warning people with weaker minds to not even come near the theater, speculating on nearly being banned and such. However, they don't work that way. Slashers tend to rely on bodily emotions evoked by boo-scares and pure disgust, rather than mess with your mind. Black Christmas, however, is an exception.

It is truly the kind of movie other slashers pretend to be.

The atmosphere is dense and truly black, with characters actually having lives and tragedies of their own (rather than being "typical" teenagers, existing only for the viewer to identify with). There are none of the boring genre formalities, such as death by sex (this makes sense, as Black Christmas might very well be the first slasher movie - it predates Halloween by four years). The murders are gruesome. The murderer makes you afraid (I could recommend watching this witch a couple daylight hours still remaining, just in case you won't feel comfortable about staying indoors). The movie starts off dark and turns more toward pitch black with every scene, leaving a taste of sadness, disgust and fear in your mind when it's finished.

This is definitely not a movie to watch in a party. The chances of a chevalier getting laid after holding his girl through the scariest parts - well, that obviously  depends on the girl, but you might find a more suited alternative to Black Christmas for that purpose. This is, however, a must see for a slasher and horror lover. Beginning of a genre and, in my opinion, it's finest example.

i don't need the light anymore: Hide and Seek (2005) review

Hide and Seek is a 2005 horror/suspense movie starring Robert de Niro and an 11-year old Dakota Fanning. What others think about it, as per August 2012, is as follows:

IMDB: 5.7
Rotten Tomatoes: 13%

I must say that those numbers don't really represent the quality of the movie - I found Hide and Seek a waaay above average horror flick, and am sure of not being the only one (for one, RT's audience vote is at 60%).

A fairly justified reason for not enjoying this movie is, obviously, the less than original premise of a small number of people (de Niro's character and his young daughter) moving to a rather distant old house and discovering that they might not be alone nor safe there. Indeed, there is a "seen this, expected that" feeling through a large portion of the movie (turning to a "ok, i did not expect exactly this to happen" towards the end); it's even kinda weird that such an overused premise gathered so much professionalism around it. But it did.

De Niro rarely fails, and miss Fanning is smashing in this role; and the execution of the movie deserves a lot of praise. The script, following the titular hide and seek both as a game between the girl and her new "friend" and as a way of people hiding their feelings and secrets (main character is a psychiatrist and both he and his daughter are recovering from the loss of girl's mother), flows nicely, and it manages to give the satisfaction of details falling into place as they pave the way to conclusion. The movie respects it's viewer and stays completely away from boo-scares, relying on a growing suspense; on a sense of fear rather then shock.

The excellent work of actors and the overall quality of the movie makes Hide and Seek excel above the level of average horror movies. The lack of originality may keep it from pleasing the more demanding enthusiasts of the genre, but Hide and Seek is still a highly recommended movie, more than enough to fill an empty evening.