Product Description

(Thriller) Based on a short story by Stephen King, a man who specializes in debunking the paranormal checks into the infamous room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, only to discover… the terror is real.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2082 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-10-02
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 104 minutes

Amazon.com
As creepfests go, 1408 is right up there with The Shining, also inspired by a Stephen King work and featuring a menacing hotel and the wobbly sanity of a writer lodging there. "It's an evil [bleep]-ing room!" intones Samuel L. Jackson, who plays the smooth but vaguely sinister manager of the Dolphin Hotel. John Cusack is stellar as Mike Enslin, a cynical Everyschlub who writes "occult travel guides," but believes in nothing, especially anything resembling an afterlife.

What happens in room 1408 of the Dolphin may change Enslin forever--if he survives the first hour. The thrills range from jumpy "gotcha" moments involving mirror images, to more traditional horror fare like bleeding walls, to truly diabolical touches like the recurrence of the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun." (Shudder.) The film does a nice job of weaving the operatic horror effects with the truly heart-breaking backstory of the death of Enslin's young daughter and his marriage--perhaps the only two things Enslin has ever believed in. And thankfully, there's just enough humor to leaven the intensity at key moments; Cusack is unparalleled when it comes to delivering a self-deprecating wisecrack, even as his life passes before his eyes. Get your adrenaline pumping and check into this room. Oh, and sorry, no refunds. A.T. Hurley

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Customer Reviews

I liked it. Here's why.
OK now a lot of people who give this movie a bad review seem to be forgetting a few things. First off, I wouldn't really call this a horror movie. It's more of a mystery/ghost-story.

***SOMEWHAT OF A SPOILER BUT NOT REALLY***

John Cusack dominates the entire movie with stone-faced brilliance in a way only he can. But the thing that makes this movie so awesome is that you never really know if he's imagining what's happening to him or if it's real. The movie really keeps you guessing until the very end and even then it's kind of left somewhat up in the air. It is apparent as the movie gets going that Cusack's character has his own inner demons he needs to face down, and it's growingly ambiguous whether or not the "ghosts" he faces in that room are his own, or the room's. It's all very psychologically driven, so hardcore horror fans who love the fast-paced gorefest will probably be bored by this movie.

Also, I notice a lot of people who negatively review the movie claim that the scares in it are cheap and run-of-the-mill. For me personally, I think Stephen King worked it this way on purpose. I mean he's Stephen King for crying out loud; he's the horror genius. You don't think he can think of better or more original scares than to make the walls drip blood? Cusack's character is a jaded not-easily-scared writer, so all these cheap B-movie horror-flick type scare shots are just there to test his belief system. Because when King wants to scare you, or at least make you feel eerie, he accomplishes it.

I took off one star because I thought they could've done better if they'd made the film an R-rating. Not to mention, and again this is a kind of a spoiler, that Samuel L. Jackson's role is totally ambiguous, even the room itself is totally ambiguous. So it's his inner demons then? Then why'd the room kill all those other people? The end is totally unclear, for my dumb brain at least. So that's why I took off a star.

***REAL UNAMBIGUOUS SPOILER AHEAD***

All in all, what few reviewers seem to mention or notice is that this is much more of a psychological thriller than a horror movie. It has that same psychological element that the Saw movies do, for me at least, in that they force the character(s) to brave something terrible to realize how much they want to live. Cusack's character was like the walking dead before he met that room. That room forced him to face his demons and realize that he wants to live, REALLY live. And believe.

Maybe it's a bit corny but it's how I interpreted the movie.

Neither scary nor entertaining
Sorry, but anyone who places this film on par with The Shining is just plain uninformed. The only thing even slightly redeeming in 1408 is Cusack's performance, which is strained, I believe, to make-up for the utterly uninspired directing and flat screen write. This film is just going through the motions.

Catalogue of horror special effects
Our protagonist goes in an hotel that has an haunted room (1408, at least it wasn't 666). At first the only horrific thing he notices is the hideous wallpaper. Then all usual ingredients show up.
Let's see...electric appliances going on of their own, check!Unsettling music, check! Scary ghosts, Check! Eerie unhearthly lights, check! Homicidal madman with ax, check! Walls spilling blood, check! Dead children appearing, check! Ghastly pictures on walls running wild, check! Zombies, check!Desperate fugue in labyrinth, check!
But... wait a moment! Didn't we see it all in Kubrick's Shining?
That's right. We saw it, and it was a masterpiece, contrary to this confused and confusing drivel.