No torture, no porn, just horror...and John Cusack

By Tom Tapp

Amidst the hyperventilation about the death of torture porn, audiences responded this weekend to a horror movie of another sort: One starring John Cusack.

The mysteriously-titled Stephen King adaptation "1408" took in $20M at the box office for The Weinstein Company and MGM. That's $1.5 million more than Friday estimates.

Those numbers stand in stark contrast to the opening of "Hostel II" a few weeks ago. That film only took in $8M at the B.O., only half of the first film's $19M bow.

So maybe audiences are ready for a return to more nuanced horror?

Variety says at least half of them are: "(T)he pic attracted a large female audience -- comprising 53% of its ticket buyers -- over the frame."

This may hint at torture porn's shortfall: With increasingly graphic violence aimed increasingly at women (see "Hostel II" and the furor over next month's "Captivity") torture porn may be cutting it's own throat, so to speak. Many women just aren't into that stuff.

John Cusack is another story. Women like him.

Los Angels Times critic Carina Chocano, for instance:

Considering that "1408" is essentially a movie about the relationship between a man and a (hotel) room, the ever more squinty and solid Cusack seems a felicitous casting choice. What evil hotel suite worth its salt could resist trying to rattle that supercilious squint?

She goes on to compare "1408's" setting to that of another, better, Stephen King adaptation, "The Shining."

In the grand scheme of things, the Dolphin Hotel is no Overlook, but it's no cheesy slaughter motel either.