Cusack is aces in this above average King adaptation

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2007)

1408 (2007) *** John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub, Jasmine Jessica Anthony, Alexandra Silber. Cusack gives a strong performance  and the best on screen case of the jitters/nervous breakdown since John Lithgow in TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE  as a failed author - with a tragic past - whose claim to fame is a debunker of 'haunted' houses who gets his day with the devil when he is invited to the posh Dolphin Hotel in NYC daring him not to stay a nite in the titular suite where no one has lasted more than an hour staying alive (!) Based on the short story by horror meister Stephen King, the screenplay by Matt Greenberg and Scott Alexander & Larry Karaszewski, while economical, delivers the good ol' fashioned ghost story genre some fresh blood with a finely tuned twist on the chestnut. Jackson has a fun cameo role as the hotel's manager who has a pas de deux with Cusack that deserves serious recognition to budding actors in the craft. Better than expected King creepfest.(Dir: Mikael Hafstrom)