Ineffective and bombastic

Rating: 6/10 (14 October 2007)

1408 is about a trashy paranormal author (John Cusack: Better off Dead, American Sweathearts) who travels to globe to debunk haunted hotels, and other paranormal areas of interest. Maybe he finds an authentic place, but his personality tells us he has seen all the tricks. That is until he stays an hour in the famous room 1408 at the Dolphin in New York. Told the room is evil by the ever fun Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, Snakes on a Plane) who plays the hotel manager our protagonist enters the room against the manager's wishes. What happens next is a series of rather effective and eerie images which John Cusack gives a very intense and provocative performance.
The movie's failure is its direction. The movie ends around 80 minutes but a quick time check will tell you, you still have 30 minutes to go. Right here would have been a good time to stop but the movie goes on and ends again. The idea the 1408 could be a room for Purgatory is quite effective, and could explain the hellish images. However the movie moves into another direction that just throws out the baby with the bathwater. In many ways the direction of the first 80 minutes is lost and we are left to believe the room is just torturing our protagonist. I found that to be a rather disappointing direction for the movie.