1408 (2007) **

Rating: 5/10 (22 July 2007)

Based on a short story by Stephen King, this spooky movie starts out strongly intriguing but unfortunately lapses into tedium and predictable situations. John Cusack is at first interesting as an atheistic author who believes in practically nothing, and has published books on haunted hotels and other such spiritual phenomena. He then insists on spending a night in an "evil" New York City hotel room numbered 1408, which has had a long history of unexplained deaths and madness for nearly a century, and has subsequently been closed to the public. Samuel L. Jackson matches wits with Cusack as the adamant hotel manager who does everything he can to dissuade the cynical writer from his research, but guess who wins out? Too bad things sink rapidly into clichés once Cusack settles in for the evening. No spoilers revealed here, but since we pretty much know what's going on between Cusack and 1408, it's hard to be very impressed or terrified. Instead, it's only a matter of how much we are required to endure before it ends. ** out of ****