1408

Rating: 8.0

What it's about:

The PG-13 rating given to 1408 belies this film’s truly terrifying effects on its audience. Though it’s far less gory than its peers, it has frightening moments and a creepy mood throughout. John Cusack (IDENTITY) plays Mike Enslin, a gifted writer who has turned his talents to paranormal travel books. His stays in haunted hotels never shake him, but he’s intrigued by New York’s Dolphin Hotel. Room 1408 has been the site of dozens of deaths, and this is a selling point for the skeptic in Mike. Despite the warnings of the hotel manager (Samuel L. Jackson, BLACK SNAKE MOAN), Mike resolves to stay in the haunted room. No one has lasted more than an hour in 1408, and Mike has his work cut out for him.

My thoughts:
This is a creepy movie. John Cusack did a great job portraying someone who is basically losing his mind to room 1408. And the scary part is that he has lucid moments but he can't really do anything to help himself. He can't leave! I love horror movies that have a lot of atmosphere and 1408 has lots of that! I read 1408 (the Stephen King short story this movie is based on ) right before going to see the movie so I could see how close the movie stuck to the story. Of course they had to add quite a bit seeing how the story was only about 30 pages or so. I think they did a great adaptation. Stephen King should be proud. There wasn't a whole lot of jump-out-of-your-seat scary moments but the sinister mood was pretty consistent throughout. Just the thought of being in a haunted room and not being able to get out is frightening enough without needing a ton of the startling frames that make you gasp in terror. Also I should mention that Cusack did an awesome job in this movie considering he was in most of the scenes and by himself! He was very convincing. Overall, it's an eerie movie that I will definitely be watching again. (Just not by myself at night, lol.)