Nice Contemporary Adaptation of a Stephen King Short Story

Rating: 8/10 (14 June 2019)

I love reading Stephen King novels. And with the recent resurgence of his books being adapted into well-done movies (IT, Pet Sematary, Gerald's Game, Doctor Sleep), I thought I might check out some of the other recent movies made about his works. I have heard good things about 1408 by Mikael Hafstrom so I decided to check it out. I thought it was quite good.
The movie revolves around the character of Michael Enslin, a formerly exceptional fiction writer who now spends his time writing cheap paperbacks on the debunking of the paranormal while traveling around looking at supposedly haunted hotels. One day, he receives a mysterious postcard from the Dolphin Hotel that tells to not check in, especially room 1408. Determined to finish his book on Haunted Hotels, Enslin manages to be able to stay at room 1408, despite the extreme warnings of Manager Gerald Olin, and soon learns he won't be getting out in his current state.
John Cusack gives a great performance as Enslin, portraying him as a grieving man who is having severe trouble coping with a terrible loss. The majority of the movie revolves around him and the nightmarish ordeal in the Room. The performances of Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, and Tony Shalhoub are great also but are woefully underused.
The scares in the film are done very well with a rather slow build-up. There are some parts where you think, also, that there is going to be something terrible about to happen then it doesn't, throwing you completely off-balance and when the actual scares start happening, they hit harder than you think they will.
Finally, I watched the alternate ending cut, which is pretty good. I haven't seen the other cut, but I thought the ending was well-shot.