Not bad, but I was expecting more

Rating: 7/10 (24 June 2007)

1408, based on a short story by Stephen King, has a lot of creeps and chills, but I found myself wishing for more. The film offers some nifty spooks, and is more of a cerebral horror film than anything, but it still felt lacking.
John Cusack plays Mike Enslin. He is a writer of ghost stories, but since his daughter has died, he has lost faith and believes that there are no real haunted places to write about. He goes all over the country to stay in haunted rooms to prove that spooky places and ghosts do not exist. One day someone sends him a postcard about the Dolphin Motel in New York and tells him not to go in to room 1408. Seeing a chance to prove another haunt false, he decides to go to the Dolphin Motel and stay in 1408.
Once at the hotel, he is accosted by the hotel manager named Gerald Olin, played by Samuel Jackson, who pleads with him not to go into that room. Gerald Olin explains about the deaths that have occurred in there, but Mike Enslin is insistent, and so Gerald Olin reluctantly gives him the key to the room.
Once inside the room a few moments pass and Mike is ready to call this another fake haunting, but then a The Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" comes blasting out of the radio which he had not turned on, and then strange things start to happen as the clock radio is suddenly counting down the hour. I will say no more about the plot.
Mikhael Hafstrum, the director, offers up some genuine chills, and the scenes in the room will feel like a weird mind warp, but I was still expecting him to go farther with the film's clever ideas. He never does, and then the film is over.
The acting was well done. John Cusack as usual is good, and Samuel Jackson wasn't bad either. In fact, Cusack's performance helps raise the film to a higher level, and that is one of the biggest reasons why I find myself recommending it even though it needed some more pizazz.