nicely told horror story

Rating: 8/10 (1 March 2009)

Stephen King filmatisations rarely work, in fact I have enjoyed only maybe three of movies based on his works, at least from the ones I've seen. So that's why 1408 was such a pleasant surprise for me, as I really did like it and it didn't have the feeling of unnecessary dragging that most of the films based on King's novels have.
In it's core 1408 is pretty basic story of a tortured soul, writer Mike Enslin (John Cusack), who investigates and writes about ghost invested places of America. One day he checks into a hotel Dolphin, that has a room, that the director of the hotel, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), describes as one evil room. As usual Enslin doesn't believe a word that is said about the room, but soon enough he notices, that there indeed is something in there. Or then again it all might be in his head.
1408 is effective and well woven yarn, that mainly slips into the territory of supernatural drama than your standard generic slasher horror film.