Less is more

Rating: 10/10 (8 February 2018)

I'll never understand why so many people think that for a horror film to be "scary" or "good", it needs to have lots of blood, sex, gore and swearing. 1408, much like 2012's "Sinister" and 2001's "Session 9", relies less on cheap thrills and gimmicks and instead uses atmosphere to tell a story that's more sad than frightening, a perfect portrayal of a man going through the stages of deep grief in a hotel room feeding off his own bad memories and sadistically waving them in front of him. Set in beautiful New York City, it follows the obnoxiously cynical yet strangely likable Mike Enslin, a writer of cheap supernatural fodder who doesn't actually believe a single thing he publishes. He takes great pride in mocking and debunking the beliefs of his readers, even advising a young man to visit Disney World's Haunted Mansion in Orlando if he's looking for "real ghosts". Worse than that he mocks those who rely on ghost stories to keep their businesses open, including Mr. Olin, the manager of the Dolphin Hotel who actually wishes the owners of the building would simply shut the room down. He's a decent guy and he feels responsible in a way for the room's many atrocities, but he's simply unable to sway Mike from worming his way in and getting 1408 all to himself for the night.
This is a truly remarkable, criminally underrated film. It's not as massive and epic as "The Shining", yet it manages to convey something really unsettling throughout, whether it's a deceased corpse of a sewing machine salesman in an air duct, two parents losing their young daughter to cancer or the notion that not believing in something will only make it stronger. It's not showy or pretentious or cheesy, it's just a good, clean ghost story reminiscent of old classics in every respect. You never know what will happen next but Mike is so flawed that it makes him all the more human and honest as a protagonist in a story that seems to be eating him alive.