Hotel recommendations
Posted on | June 28, 2007 | 10 Comments
I’d love to see the write-up Mike Enslin would do for Travelocity concerning his stay at the Dolphin Hotel.
I saw 1408 last night, and found it to be a smart adaptation. It conserves a lot of the original story, though it doesn’t have much of the bizarre voice from the telephone saying things like, “This is number 5″. They added a good backstory about Mike’s wife and daughter (his wife only appears in a single passing reference in the short story). There are a couple of nice establishing scenes early on, one in which Mike visits another “haunted” hotel and one where he shows up for a poorly attended booksigning.
John Cusack is phenomenal. I love the way you can tell he’s lying to the woman in the bookstore about his first novel. The writing is also smart enough that they don’t pound that point home–it is what it is and you take it at face value. The exchange between him and Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) is an entertaining game of chess. There are some funny camera angles. Why do we need to see him take his mail out of the mailbox from the inside? Perhaps only so that when that persecutive is used later on it won’t be as much of a surprise (I liked the shot of the tumblers inside the lock, for example). Some of the camera angle switches felt awkward, but that, too, might have been to conjure up a feeling of disorientation. One subtle touch I appreciated was the sound of his feet squeak-crunching on snow.
There’s one piece added to the story late in the film that I didn’t care much for—it felt like an extended cheat—but I liked the resolution they came up with. The movie ends with a nice gentle punch to the stomach. All in all, a solid B to B+. Stretching a short story to feature length can be a challenge and, for the most part, I think the additions enhanced the story (with the one exception I alluded to above).
I finished the first draft of my new short story. 5500 words. Now comes the real work—honing, shaping, forming, crafting and discovering the story. I was intrigued to find two unconscious influences on the tale toward the end of the first draft: The Monkey’s Paw and Rumpelstiltskin.
So was it just me or did Anderson Cooper look like he wondered what the hell he was doing spending an hour of his life dissecting Larry King’s interview with Paris Hilton?
Comments
10 Responses to “Hotel recommendations”
Leave a Reply
About
Bev Vincent is the author of The Road to the Dark Tower, the Bram Stoker Award nominated companion to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and The Stephen King Illustrated Companion, which was nominated for a 2010 Edgar® Award and a 2009 Bram Stoker Award.
His short fiction has appeared in places like Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, From the Borderlands and The Blue Religion. He is a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine and a member of the Storytellers Unplugged blogging community. He also writes book reviews for Onyx Reviews.
June 28th, 2007 @ 10:48 am
I think my expectations were too high for 1408. I thought it was miscast (Jackson) and really badly directed (lingering on something FOREVER doesn’t make it scarier. In fact, it makes it funnier). A great premise gone wrong. I didn’t care for the back story at all. Cusack’s screw-up writer was interesting enough on his own. Great first 45 minutes, though.
Yay short story
June 28th, 2007 @ 11:37 am
I saw a studio preview of 1408 a few months ago. Apparently, it was before they had finished the ending, which was a relief as that was the part with which I was the most disappointed. I stil wish, wish, wish, though, they had included the phone voice. Maybe it’s just because of the way King read it in the audiobook (or the way it came back in DARK TOWER), but that was the scariest goddamn element of the story, to me. The scares in the movie, as well-executed and random though the were, still had a little too much logic to it. Whereas in the story, menus could change languages, phones could belch demonic voices speaking nonsense, things could start melting . . . that would’ve made the movie a solid classic. But, yeah, B/B+ sounds about right.
June 28th, 2007 @ 12:41 pm
The phone voice did show up in the finished movie, but only once and only for a moment. The melting phone that followed was very creepy.
I would call it one of the better though not one of the best adaptations.
June 28th, 2007 @ 12:49 pm
Oh, good, I’m glad it shows up and that somethin’ melts!
I agree. And my hat’s off to the producers having the balls to go ahead and make a movie that’s mostly about one guy in a room (however spectacular they decided to ramp up the effects notwithstanding).
PS,
Bev, I think you might get a kick out of my most recent post on this ol’ livejournal. Check it out if you get a sec.
June 28th, 2007 @ 12:56 pm
I read one pithy review that described the movie as:
Minutes 1 – 30: Don’t go in that room
Minutes 31 – 90: I shouldn’t have gone in that room
Thanks for pointing me at your LJ. I can’t think of any direct references to an island full of noises, but if there is one, I’d guess it would be either “The Reach” or “Storm of the Century.”
June 28th, 2007 @ 1:03 pm
Heh. Yeah, the Onion’s review was rather slight, too. All they focused on was that the main character was another writer and that it didn’t particularly make sense to them. Not one mention of whether or not it was scary or effective.
Oh, “The Reach” is a possibility . . . I have a feeling I might totally be making it up, though.
June 28th, 2007 @ 1:15 pm
I just searched “The Reach” — not there. Perhaps you did make it up.
The reviews of 1408 have been predominantly positive without being overwhelming. It had the biggest dollar opening weekend ever for a King adaptation (not figuring in inflation/ticket prices), and with a low budget of $25 million it will make money before long.
June 28th, 2007 @ 1:21 pm
Dag! That’s a helluva search engine you got there, Mr. Vincent! I have a feeling if it is somewhere in his canon, it was done in an off-hand sorta way. Like when you say, “the world is too much with us,” even if you don’t necessarily know of the Wordsworth poem.
I’m glad it’s doing well. It certainly seems to be the highest profile theatrical King adaptation since Secret Window, which itself was the highest profile in a long time, and 1408 is light years better. It gives me great hope for The Mist.
June 28th, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
I was on the set of The Mist a couple of months ago and I really liked what I saw. Fast paced, lots of handhelds, lots of improv (especially Mrs. Carmody), a sincere cast, and people with a great deal of reverence for the story. I can’t wait to see how it turns out.
June 29th, 2007 @ 6:55 am
Me either Bev! The Mist should rock!