Imaginative and Thoughtful

Rating: 6/10 (7 December 2007)

A warning to those who want to see blood and gore in this movie: sorry, you've come to the wrong place. What we have here in 1408 is an intriguing exploration of the stability of the human mind in a man's struggle to overcome his own 'inner demons' or at least, that was the general interpretation within my group. There are no overly graphic, bloody scenes of the macabre and ghastly and instead, I'd recommend going into this film without expecting that.
There is a fair measure of conventional shocks and thrills though, ones that pleasantly occur without warning which is a welcome change to the more common things you see in the mainstream. While the horror isn't really emphasized the film manages to compensate for it by the well-crafted progression of the main character's descent into madness so to speak. Although the somewhat lackluster acting of John Cusack left something to be desired and Samuel L. Jackson played the creepy hotel manager well but seemed to be a little too one- dimensional.
Things did start to deteriorate somewhat though in the latter half of the film and it felt like it was dragging at some points. However the musical score was brilliant and accompanied the scenes' atmosphere quite well, building tension at the right moments though more would have been nice. Tension was something that needed to be upped throughout the film so that by the end the audience would be sitting on the edge of their seats, heart pounding in excitement and fear, nerves frayed to breaking point...but unfortunately that wasn't something I felt.
Now I did mention in the summary that it was imaginative and thoughtful. Why, you ask? Well, because despite anything else I have said, the best thing about 1408 is that it has scenes which are just out of this world (the ghost of the daughter crumbling into rubble sticks out in my mind the most) and not something you see every day. Of course, what else can you expect when the source material comes from Stephen King?)
Go see this movie with an open mind because that's the best way you're going to enjoy it.