The DVD cover of the film painted a different picture but a film based in the actual year 1408..actually would of been pretty cool but I digress.
This was the first night of my Horror/Mind Fuck weekend. Movies I haven't seen. What huge surprise this was! Not so much frightening but the story itself drew me in. The allure and history of the room told in thode first few minutes along with the psychological roller coaster the writer was taken on. Great performances and would defiantly watch again!
Great movie, ending was good, isnt dissapointing.
should have been the length of a twilight zone episode
Not only an excellent adaptation, but one of the scarier movies I can remember seeing in a long time.
From famed horror author Stephen King comes the suspense thriller 1408. The story follows paranormal novelist Mike Enslin as he takes on the challenge of staying in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel, which is supposedly cursed. John Cusack gives an outstanding performance as the lead, and is supported by Samuel L. Jackson. Additionally, the script is especially well written, and does an amazing job at giving a surreal and nightmarish quality to the experience of being in the room. Terrifying and chilling, 1408 is a powerful horror film that’s smart and well-crafted.
"Even if you leave this room, you can never leave this room!"
The good: John Cusack acting insane is always good. Samuel Jackson is calm and collected, not over the top and doesn't scream in this movie.
The bad: Drags on for a while in the middle and I might've gotten a little bored. There are 4 different endings to this movie so depending on what you get, you may hate or like the ending.
Tedious and meandering. It has a good premise but ultimately fails to develop a strong connection to the main character. Half the movie is given over to weird things happening with lots of abstract visuals in the hotel room, lots of loud audio cues and self indulgent scenes of loss and grief. But since I didn't care for the protagonist it was simply boring. He's not likeable and doesn't have any redeeming qualities that we are shown: he's surly, sarcastic, misanthropic, and disingenuous.
Definitely not Cusack's best.
TL;DR: This was a mixed bag but ultimately quite boring. Unless you are a huge Cusack fan you can safely skip this one.
The production overall is fine and sometimes the effects are effective but the story is barely there and feels quite manipulative in order to elicit an emotional reaction. Also the sound design was pretty bad, to the point of being distracting at times.As far as performances go it was cookie cutter, nothing that bad but not anything great really.
However, in Horror I can overlook almost everything if the movie gets my blood pumping. This is just not scary. At the very start there is tension and intrigue there but as the movie establishes, however loosely, the rules and the how things are going to work it all falls apart.It did not know what kind of horror it wanted to be , it starts out subtle but it went off the rails at a certain point and then it tried to go back and forth which just does not work at all. [Not really a spoiler but it might tip you off about something] The "twist" is just laughably predictable, so much so that I came to doubt it was really intended to foul me. Overall this is a meh if I ever saw one.
Mike Enslin is a writer who is "fun" to debunk myths about ghosts and spirits. When he gets to room 1408 of a major hotel, his mind takes over and most painful memories resurface with all their might. John Cusack is a really good actor and seems born for this role. The story, at times a bit confused, hides many messages to be seized.
Nice, they aren’t forcing the Director’s cut ending on you anymore. When I watched it on Hulu or even when I bought it. I was getting the Alternate ending version.
Now suddenly I own the theatrical ending one on Prime. Which I prefer. John Cusack’s last good movie in awhile I think. Definitely better than his King adaptation of Cell which came out a couple of years later.
Which also reunited him with Samuel L. Jackson. 1408 is creepy and trippy, as well as a fun movie to watch in the dark.
"1408" is really not that scary, although that might have been due to the distracting group of 13-year-olds in the theater who were blabbing on their cell phones and yelling out theories about what was going to happen on the screen.
John Cusack was okay early in the film as an author going through the motions of pushing his latest book. His skepticism about haunted houses, gleaned from his uneventful stays in them on past reader recommendations, flies in the face of the source of his income as someone who writes about haunted houses.
The movie builds up the suspense helped along by Samuel Jackson's performance. Cusack became less convincing once he became isolated in Room 1408, when the supposed scares were to begin.
Well, it wasn't too scary for me because I thought he was tripping on something, because almost everything he saw was based on his personal tragedy, not the room being possessed. Ending suggests that I was wrong.
According to the Wikipedia this movie has 3 alternative endings, I saw the tragic one.
Enjoyed it up to a point, but felt it went a little too far and for a little too long.
What a good surprise! A great performance for John Cusack and an effective sound mixing which makes this movie really good. A good actor, a good story and a good "mise-en-scène", that's all you need for a good movie.
Second time watch was better than the first, definitely a well made horror, love the effects within the room and definitely one of Cusack's best and I’ve not read book but i’d be interested like.
Mindbender. Scary in the sense that when you think you can outsmart your imagination, it is always three steps ahead. Eslin was dead as soon as he did a double take with that postcard.
Good idea, good movie. Very bad shallow ending.
john cusacks shirts gave me more horrors than the movie.
Really enjoyed this when I first saw it 15 years ago. Have seen it once or twice since and still think it holds up. Saw a bit tonight in passing and feel it's one of the last really good atmospheric thriller/horrors I've seen in the last 20 yrs. **Edit. Ended up re-watching in its entirety tonight and it remains a wonderful descent into madness. I continue to get a little creeped out by it. Nostalgia and just a solid thriller imo. 8.2
The streamed versions have the alternate ending. The theatrical one is 10x better.
I generally dislike haunting stories so wasn't expecting anything good.
The build up was decent. A good ghost story for the sceptic. Cusack plays a good cynic with some sarcastic dialogue and Jackson is good to watch.
Some inventive, creepy and fast paced hauntings follow. Almost like and action movie with hauntings. Slows down a lot towards the end as the type of horror changes to supernatural fantasy and as it involves the story themes again. In the end it maybe just another ghost story movie, but it's above average and a very sensory experience.
Not bad.
Shout by LaurenBlockedParent2023-09-27T19:33:54Z
The lesson is when Samuel L. Jackson tells you to not stay in the room, YOU DON’T STAY IN THE MOTHERF*CKING ROOM!