Brains but no blood

Rating: 8/10 (30 March 2008)

Who is expecting blood or a conventional horror movie will be a lot disappointed. 1408 is more than just a horror movie, it's a psychological mix of horror and thriller in the best brilliant way possible like old classic horror movies used to be.
As well said, 1408 is a story that Stephen King never published as a book. The writers not just did a movie based on a limited material as they put all together in the story most of the elements that Stephen King's stories classically have.
The movie is a nightmare coz its confusing, claustrophobic and frightening in real time. But the most horrifying thing of it it's not its story, but yes all the situations lived by John Cusack which starts being a lot terrifying when we start imagine our selves living all his experiences. By the way, John Cusack is brilliant as always. The path he goes thru his sanity to insanity in 60 minutes makes Mike Enslin one of the best performances of his career.
The writers seems to be a bunch of people that know a lot about Stephen King's stories because references of his works are in every corner of the room: Cujo, The Shinning, Pat Cemetery, Rose Madder, Misery, and a lot more. 1408 is also a lot similar to Silent Hill: The Room, a video game for PS2.
Mikael Håfström, the same director of Derailed (2005) did an amazing job. Even both movies setting their main stories in hotel rooms, who watched Derailed would never imagine that he would be the director of such a movie like 1408.
Like Identity (2003), another hotel movie also starring John Cusack, 1408 is not just a horror movie, it's something that you will watch and you probably will not like it for the first time, but you'll be impressed, thinking about it for hours and trying to understand what really happened.