1408

 

1408 is adapted from terrifying short story of Stephen King a suspense master. It is a tale of a debunker of paranormal occurrences who encounter real terror when he checks in at Dolphin Hotel in evil Room 1408.

Mike Enslin played by John Cusack is a famous travel writer who believes only in what he sees with his own eyes. He investigates on haunted hotels around the world and then writes them for books and newspapers.

After receiving a mysterious postcard and read a terrifying story about the room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel, he cannot resist to check it for himself to finally experience the real paranormal phenomena. Upon arrival at the Dolphin Hotel the manager's was intrigue on Mike on why he likes to stay at room 1408 since the room has been closed for so many years because of some terrifying incident happen to guest who stay at room 1408. The managers do everything to warn him that no guest can stay for about and the cause of death was hard to explain.
 

The movie is 100% haunted house type of scary and extremely psychological. Definitely it has a twists and turns but it was very well elaborated and plays out a very well movie. Every scene is much awaited if what would happen next, if its true or just an imagination. The room 1408 is really creepy Mike has been tortured by ghost with some creepy imagination. Mike looks like crazy after checking in at room 1408.

This film is totally amazing and gets my attention. Worth watching and John Cusack play his role very well. It was not boring and will wake you up with really scary scenes.

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Last updated: 2010-03-29 22:28:51 by user07

BOTTOM LINE: Not even John Cusack's best efforts and a solid opening can rescue this absolute mess of a film from the depths of silliness and stupidity.

THE GOOD: Stephen King is renowned for coming up with some very chilling and scary stories and the idea for "1408" is right up there amongst his best. Sceptic Mike Eslin (John Cusack) hears about a spooky, deadly hotel room and decides to investigate it for himself. He meets the manager, played almost menacingly by Samuel L. Jackson who warns him not to stay in the room because most people don't last an hour, and the room itself has accumulated a gruesome body count. These scenes between the two actors are great, and elevate the material quite a lot. With John Cusack running the show, he holds the screen and makes you believe in his experience. With such a good opening, the minute he steps in to the room you're hairs will stand up because you feel like the evil is in there, ready to pounce...

THE BAD: After that great start, "1408" becomes silly, then stupid, and then flat out outstays its welcome. Some of the initial scares work because they play on your imagination (such as Cusack seeing himself in an identical room in the opposite building - very freaky!) but before long you're seeing everything in detail and you'll find it hard not too laugh. At one point, John Cusack almost drowns and freezes to death in bizarre circumstances before turning out he's trapped there forever. The material seemed to suggest that it should have played on his character's neuroses but for whatever reason it's just not visualised or physicalised in any satisfying way which is a shame because you have a great actor in John Cusack who could have pulled it off but was never given the chance. After about thirty minutes, you're not scared any more and as a result, we have just one more mediocre Stephen King adaptation to add to the list. Oh well, it could have been worse - Dreamcatcher comes to mind!

RATING: 4/10

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

If you found hotel rooms creepy before, just wait until you see 1408, the scariest Stephen King movie adaptation since Misery. The story revolves around Mike Enslin (John Cusack), an author that specializes in debunking fraudulent ghost stories that innkeepers tell their customers in order to keep business alive. After Mike receives an anonymous postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in New York warning him to avoid room 1408, he naturally does everything in his power to secure that room. The hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) pleads incessantly to Mike to reconsider, stating room 1408 has claimed 56 lives in the hotel's history. Enslin, who remains uninterested and disbelieves the story, ultimately decides to spend one night in the dreaded room. But what Mike will soon discover is that once you enter 1408, there is no return. He must now decipher what is fact and fiction in this supernatural room that not only inflicts physical pain, but toys with the mental anguish that Mike still has from the loss of his daughter.

It would be misleading to actually call this film scary. The amount of legitimate scares and terrors in the film are very very minimal. The best term to describe 1408 would be creepy. 1408 will send shivers down your spine and will unsettle your mind, but it will not terrify you. But it is for this reason that I extremely enjoyed this film. Living in an age of torture porn, it is very refreshing to see a horror film that will affect you on an internal level, rather than trying to make you flinch or throw up. This is all the more impressive given the fact that 1408 is rated PG13, but still manages to remain effective.

1408 is a bit of a one man show starring John Cusack, since the movie takes place mainly in a solitary hotel room. But unlike Will Smith in I Am Legend, John Cusack is a great actor that is capable of carrying a film on his shoulders. His portrayal of a man whose life is being diminished by this evil room is intensely compelling and heartbreaking. Scenes where we explore his relationship with his late daughter really illustrate the despair that has been tearing him up on the inside. In a way, the real demon of this story is not the room, but the memories that the room brings back to life. Cusack is absolutely outstanding in this role, and I feel he is one of the most underrated actors of our time. Samuel L. Jackson has a small role as hotel manager Gerald Olin, and does a solid job of selling the character as truly afraid of what the outcome of Enslin's stay could be. It is also very entertaining to watch his back and forth with Cusack as they discuss the history of the room.

1408 is a creepy, disturbing, well written, well acted, excellent piece of film work that deserves respect for avoiding the hackneyed gimmicks that modern horror films indulge in. A lot of credit must also be given to director Mikael Hafstrom. Even with the use of a few classic horror movie cliches, Hafstrom carries out these tired commonplace events in an original fashion that makes them seem brand new. Most importantly, 1408 doesn't linger around for too long. Before you begin to feel bored with the unchanging scenery, the movie finishes with one of the best and most fulfilling endings anybody could ask for. Just talking about it makes my heart race and brings back the memories of when I had first seen it in the theater, and stood up applauding as the credits ran. You owe it to yourself to see this film. My rating (8.5/10)

1408 is a film by the short story of horror mater Stephen King. Most of the film takes place in a hotel room and so there are not much locations here. Still, there’s always something mysterious in hotel rooms. You never know who was there, what happened, who killed himself, who got mad, who ran from who…hotels are like places people go and have a pause for a minute from their lives. They recharge themselves, stop to think and wonder about the future and then move on. A stop and go for the human race. If this was a game, hotels would have been the saving points in the game.

The film stars John Cusack as a horror writer who chases so called hunted places and writes about them and Samuel L. Jackson who is not shown enough in the film as the hotel manager. Most of the film you’ll see Cusack in the 1408 hotel room, trying to learn the room and its mystery. Needless to say, the room is evil and Cusack does not believe it until it hits him that this room is really what the manager said it is.

The film is not bad. It’s not something out of the ordinary but the adaptation from the short story is not bad. There are a few things you’ll find in the story which are not in the film but all in all, the film is pretty good as Cusack slowly loses his mind and grip of reality as the room takes control.
Pictures moving in front of Cusack, voices of his dead daughter and day dreaming are just part of the film. The sensation is creepy as you feel yourself trapped with Cusack in that room, trying not to lost it and get the hell out of there, or is it hell already?

After watching the film some may cancel their next trip to their hotel and prefer staying at home. Perhaps a wise choice after what our character just went through. Yet again…hotels or not, it’s just a movie and it’s not bad at all.

So next time you book a hotel room, make sure it’s not 1408…

Jessie