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1408 – Review
1408 is a spooky and tense movie at points, with some slightly saggy bits, but the general overview is it’s a decent shocker/supernatural story with a well cast John Cusack playing the disillusioned writer/haunted house investigator Mike Enslin. His job is to visit spooky haunted hotels and run the usual tests, for spooks, poltergeists and ghosts, even though the tests never come up with the goods. However he still writes the books about them knowing that his audience will love it. He then stumbles upon room 1408 which is located in a large hotel in his ex wife’s city. Room 1408 is closely guarded by the Hotel manager played by Samuel L Jackson as he feels the room is pure evil.
1408 starts off slow but it draws you in slowly, Cusack gets to show a varied and often stand out performance here with minimal support from his agent played by Tony Shalhoub, Jackson as the concerned Hotelier and Mary McCormack as his separated wife. All the cast do their bit with what they are given, its just that Cusack has the lions share.
The Movie itself is based on a Stephen King story and has trademark features of this laced throughout the film. The pacing of the film was good in general with some overly long section towards the end but we can forgive these thanks to all the good factors involved. A psychological horror with some genuinely spooky moments, 1408 is a cut above the mainstream shocker/slasher movies, its classier and its got more character.
