Extraordinary start, weak follow-up

Rating: 4/10 (5 February 2008)

I love horror movies. I like John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson in most movies I've seen them in. Honestly, I tried to like this movie. Decent actors, a haunted hotel room setup, what's not to like, after all?
In the beginning I thought my hopes would be fulfilled, the setup is just nothing short of great. John Cusack plays a disillusioned horror novelist visiting supposedly haunted places, only to find there's nothing to them after all. After returning from such a place he receives a post card that lures him to room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel. Samuel L. Jackson comes into play as the manager of said hotel. The following dialog between Jackson and Cusack is really well written and well acted and sets the bar pretty high for the rest of the movie: Jackson manages to convincingly portray a manager who's really trying to talk a guy out of staying in that room. After that I was pretty hyped for the rest of the movie. Sadly, the setup sets the bar too high for the rest of the movie to deliver on the promise.
The problem is that "1408" happily includes about every cliché imaginable for a haunted house story. It's all there: Room getting colder, bleeding walls, light flickering, thing's moving or appearing / disappearing, pictures changing, ghosts reliving their demise, ghosts attacking the visitor... everything. Too bad there is nothing really surprising or catchy about it. The background of the room is sadly completely left in the cold after the setup that it's "evil" and that people died there. The main character's background gets a bit of attention after all, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it's just there so that the room can use it against him: It's left in an unfinished state, just a rough draw of a background for our hero. Until the big "twist" the movie still was somewhat decent, but that thing doesn't even deserve being called twist. It's so obvious from the first scene of that supposed "twist" that it hurts, trying to hard to make the audience wonder.
When the movie finished I was left really disappointed that it failed so miserably at reaching the goal it so eagerly set for itself.
Overall: Okay for a rental or simply watch it on TV when it gets aired.