I remember catching sight of The Two Dead Girls book in the grocery store. I bought the book, took it home and began to enjoy what would be my first experience reading serial novels. Paul Edgecomb runs the death row section of the Cold Mountain Penitentiary in the middle of the Depression. We are first drawn into Edgecomb’s life before the giant John Coffey walks onto The Mile.

Edgecomb is dealing with a particularly nasty bladder infection. His colleague’s friend is dying of a brain tumor. And if that wasn’t enough, he has to deal with a power-hungry prison guard who likes to blackmail him with his “connections” with the governor. This guard escorts John Coffey into the Death Row cell block, yelling, “Dead man walking! This is a dead man walking!”

Coffey shuffles into his cell, looking scared and bewildered. He cries a lot. The guards, with the exception of Percy the power-hungry, feel sorry for him. Then, one day, Coffey calls Edgecomb up to his cell. With great reluctance, Edgecomb complies. Coffey grabs the guard by the groin and proceeds to rid him of his bladder infection.

Mystified, Edgecomb sets out to find out exactly how Coffey wound up on Death Row. He learns that the case isn’t as cut and dried as everyone thinks. He also learns that Coffey’s gift can do great things (like bringing a dead mouse back to life), but with a price.

Frank Darabont did an excellent job of recreating the story almost precisely as it is written, and the cast couldn’t have been any better than it was. This isn’t a normal Hollywood movie, but a leisurely 3-hour story and a very good one. I didn’t know about the alternate ending when The Green Mile was reproduced as a full-length novel. After watching this movie, I found that I wanted more. So, I may just go out and buy that novel. I highly recommend the movie. Just make sure you can set aside a full three hours to watch it.

This movie was exactly what I expected it to be, a cheap sequel with a somewhat interesting plot twist of devil worship and torture. The writers knocked out the infamous Red Room and substituted it with growling vents, which I thought was very stupid and cliche. If I had gone to the movie theater to watch the Amityville Horror remake, I would have been disappointed. The bonuses on the DVD make this movie worth renting.

I enjoyed watching the bonus segment entitled Supernatural Homicide. The former police chief and medical examiner were interviewed, as well as psychic Lorraine Warren. While the police chief refuted Ronald DeFeo’s claim about demon possession and ghosts, he is haunted by the crime scene. Lorraine, on the other hand, believes that the house is possessed by evil and that DeFeo wasn’t solely responsible for the murders.

I disagree with David Germain’s “low rent” version of The Shining (see prior post). This movie stands alone on its own merits. While The Shining relied on gore and violence, 1408 is psychological horror at its best.

John Cusack performed beautifully as Mike Enslin, a troubled writer who writes books about haunted hotels despite the fact that he’s a skeptic of the paranormal. “Nothing would make me happier than to experience a paranormal event, to catch a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel,” he said to a meager group of fans.

He gets his wish, and then some, when he enters Room 1408 inside the Dolphin hotel. The special effects were very typical of a Stephen King movie. According to the hotel manager (played by Samuel L. Jackson), 56 people had died in that room. Yet, I saw only four of the ghosts.

The evil essence (or whatever you’d like to call it) picked Mike’s brain and tortured him with the memories of his deceased daughter and father. At first, he denies the ghosts as hallucinations, blaming the manager for poisoning the liquor he had taken up to his room. The hauntings escalate until he decides to check out. Only the room won’t let him.

His situation gets scarier and weirder as time goes on. In one scene, we think he’s escaped, only to watch him get plunged right back into that nightmarish room. The ending was a bit rushed and pat. That, I agreed with. Despite the weak ending, this was a good movie. I’m looking forward to adding the DVD to my Stephen King movie collection.

For those of you who haven’t heard about the movie yet, I’ll give you the gist. John Cusack plays a man who, after losing his daughter, becomes obsessed with debunking the paranormal. He receives a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel (which is notoriously haunted) with a message that reads, “Don’t enter 1408.”

Naturally, he does.

1408 was dubbed the “low rent of The Shining” by David Germain of Associated Press, but he said that the movie was saved by the stellar performances of John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. I’ve been anxiously awaiting to see this movie since I first saw the movie trailers back in January.