A mix of good and bad with some frights.

Rating: 7/10 (1 September 2007)

A writer who spends his time visiting places reported to be haunted for review in his book visits a hotel where the rooms inhabitants meet there bitter end. The author Mike Enslin played by John Cusack makes a serious profession from his books but keeps a sceptical outlook on the actual existence of paranormal events. Though Cusack is excellent in this role he only just manages to remain believable when things start getting creepy in 1408. Having sweet talked his way into the room ignoring the warnings from the hotel manager Samuel L. Jackson brushing them aside as mere intimidation tactics, a few jumpy moments in and a call from the reception desk asking if he'd like to check out leads to the hard to stomach part of every horror film. Mike continues around 1408 looking for tell tale signs of foul play uttering to himself his sarcastic theories to explain the earlier events, fortunately this is short lived as the horror kicks in. 1408's history is very cleverly portrayed by a case file provided by the manager detailing some of the rooms disturbed inhabitants and also some extremely good special effects. Sadly the special effects are also what made this movie a bit of a stinker for me, I was left wondering if Stephen King had written this around the release of Time Bandits or The Twilight Zone using the same effects team or at least some unconvincing illusions brought back from the 80's. I'm not a huge fan of horror films often finding them an excuse for bad taste rather than genuinely scary, however out of the later horror films I've seen this packs more scares and better production. Go see it