Bad movie!

Rating: Null/10 (9 July 2007)

At the beginning of the movie, employees of the Dolphin Hotel claim that nobody stays in room 1408 very long. Strange, for I didn't want to watch 1408 for very long either.
Judging by the movie trailer and the 7.7 out of 10 rating IMDb users had given the film, I was expecting something good. However, this movie was anything but good. I tried to like it, and I tried to hold on to scenes I did like so that scenes that didn't fit could be forgiven, but it just wasn't possible. There was too much to try to forget.
Now, I can pretend.and I like a good fantasy story, but only when it is supposed to be a fantasy story. When something as portrayed as true at times, and a huge stretch of the imagination at other times, it just doesn't work for me.
The movie begins with a lot of promise. Still some minor elements that you'll wish would just go away, but nothing too damaging to the major themea writer who doesn't believe in ghosts is confronted with something he can't explain. That's spooky enough! That's believable! That simple, basic story is something everyone can identify with and believe. Why they wouldn't leave it at that, I don't know. Instead, they complicate things, and thrown in moments meant to be frightening, but cause more confusion than fear.
It appeared that they had something going, as they built the audience up for something huge, something realistic, and something creative, but instead deliver scenes that simply didn't fit the plot the movie laid out.
Mike Enslin, played by John Cusak, is a paranormal invesigator who doesn't believe in ghosts. He feels hotel managers claim places are haunted to boast interest in the hotel. Believable. He thinks that everything believe to be a "haunting," can be contributed to other real factors. Still believable. Once he enters room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel, everything he has believed before changes. The radio turns on and off. A repair man will not enter the room out of fear, windows open and shut, ghostly images seen around the room, hanging pictures move on their own, and the bed makes itself. All of these things are somewhat believableat least, when referring to a haunting. They're realisticthese things COULD happen, and a number of people claim they happen at various sites, so OK, the movie is still OK.
But then everything changes. Poor Mr. Enslin, who still morns the death of his daughter and sees his father in a strange scene that did not make sense and didn't progress the film in any way, starts to experience more paranormal activity. I'm not even sure the order of it, but it doesn't really mattertrust me: The paintings on the wall come alive, like something out of Harry Potter, he contacts his wife via Yahoo Messenger and a ghost or spirit takes over his image and tells his wife things that he isn't saying (ghosts from 50 years ago can do that), he is chased by a zombie old man in the ventilation shaft, the wall cracks (and I mean CRACKS) and then bleeds, other windows of the hotel vanish, his window is covered with bricks, and his room temperature gets so cold that it begins to snow.
So take out everything they start you with at the beginning, and try to forget about it. Because nothing else you see will be like it. Not one thing will be realistic or even the least bit believable. And nothing else will really make sense.
Even after all of that crap (and there's more) I tried to hold on and I hoped that the ending would somehow pull it all together. But it didn't.
Think of it this waythink of someone you trust, someone who's words have a great deal of credibility. If they come to you and say that they saw a ghost, or a door opened and shut on its own, or the radio turned on by itself...would you believe them? You might.
But what if they came to you saying that a ghost caused it to snow in their room or their wall cracked all over and bleedwould you believe them then? The movie begins as something you can get into, something you can suspend disbelief and enjoy for it is somewhat possible, but then it turns into something else. Some of the events they portray could happen in real lifesome people certainly claim they do. And some of the events only happen in fairy tales. This movie started as something believable, but then quickly turned into a very bad, poorly executed fairy tale.
With Transformers, and the new Die Hard already in theaters, and with the new Harry Potter out tomorrow, there's plenty of other good movies to see. So make like the repairman in this oneand don't go in 1408.