Great Hollywood horror, a rare find these days

Rating: 7/10 (26 August 2007)

Don't watch this just before you go to bed. The movie hung with me and I rally didn't sleep, not because I was scared rather I didn't want my head to end up in a 1408 existence.
The plot has John Cusack as a writer of horror guide books (10 haunted lighthouses) who goes to a hotel in new York and stays in room 1408 where people either die or go insane or both. Cusack is certain there is nothing to the stories, of course he finds out otherwise.
Creepy horror story thats one of the better Hollywood horror movies in years. It helps not to be a remake or a complete retread like most of the recent crap we've been subjected to recently. A genuine horror movie as opposed to one of the thrillers (Disturbia, Vacancy, etc) where things do bump in the night and ghosts do seem to walk. I liked this movie a great deal. Its not the be all and end all of horror movies but it is a nice creepy little distractions.
If there are any real flaws to the film they are minor. There is perhaps a bit too many effects, the scariest moments are the ones with out them. Also the casting of John Cusack, while very good on the face of it, distracts from the sense that this is a real hotel and events happening to a real person. It doesn't diminish the scares, except perhaps that you know on some level there will be a suitable ending. (I could almost argue that Samuel l Jackson, in what amounts to a cameo, is too Hollywood as well except that his presence and delivery, especially of the "Its an evil f#%$ing room" line that adds a great deal of weight to what follows. I don't know if the movie would have been as frightening with out his dire warnings)