Terrifying from start to finish

Rating: 7/10 (22 August 2009)

This is based review on the 2-Disc Collector's Edition DVD. I haven't read a single page of the short story. This grabbed me right away, and did not let go until the credits started rolling. Meet Mike Enslin. He was dealt a bad hand. In fact, his little girl died. It's made him pretty cynical, and he now makes a career as a sort of reviewer of the "scare factor" of hotels claimed to be haunted. His skepticism drives him to test the infamous room 1408 of The Dolphin in New York. The plot is interesting and the back-story fairly nicely told. As a character study, it doesn't leave much to be desired. This builds up atmosphere impeccably well, and almost all of the countless of effective shocks are from the mood, with a very limited use of blood and gore. I would call this a psychological horror-thriller. The Shining is an appropriate comparison, and the Silent Hill video-games are similar, as well. This makes several decisions that took guts to make, and they tend to pay off. There are a lot of jump-scares, but not a single one is the cheap "cat leaps at the camera" type. The acting is all strong, including the child, with Cusack's vital performance being fully convincing, and Jackson doing amazing, as usual. Dialog is great and well-delivered. There is some humor, very natural, never forced and not an excessive amount. The effects are incredible. Cinematography and editing are masterful. I haven't watched Ondskan, or, in English, Evil, Håfström's most talked-about of his Swedish films, though I now wish to more than ever. Both the Theatrical Release and Director's Cut are on the set. The two are largely identical save for twelve minutes of running time(which may add up to rendering the DC an R), the tone of the final scene being the biggest difference. There are well-done and informative featurettes about the production, as well as a commentary track well worth listening to, deleted scenes all in the complete state(meaning they look and sound just as good as what wasn't taken out), two alternate endings(both being other takes on those of the two versions of the movie), a trailer, B-roll footage and several brief interviews that do not contain spoilers. There is language(they went about as far with that as they could and maintain a PG-13 rating), violence and disturbing content. I recommend this to any fan of this type of picture. 7/10