1408 (DVD, 2007, Widescreen)

For every 10 thrillers made today, 5 stink, 4 are average and 1 is real good. THIS ONE IS REAL GOOD!

Mike Enslin (John Cusack), who once wrote a well-regarded but unsuccessful novel about a tormented surfer, now hacks out quickie books about haunted places and despises the readers who ignore his strenuous debunking and continue to believe in spirits. His psyche is lousy with his fizzling career, miserable childhood and failed marriage to Lilly (Mary McCormack), whom he abruptly abandoned after their little daughter's death. The disillusioned ghost writer is wallowing in sun-washed California squalor, catching a few waves and drowning his sorrows the time-honored way while trying to finish "Ten Haunted Hotel Rooms" when a mysterious postcard washes up in his P.O. box. Do not enter room 1408 of Manhattan's Dolphin Hotel, it warns! Enslin goes through the motions: 1+4+0+8=13. Spooky! Reports abound of guests checking in and then checking out via razor, rope or window. But the clincher is when Dolphin manager Mr. Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) curtly informs him that 1408 is "not available." Not next week, not next month, not ever. Convinced the room is the last chapter he's been looking for, Enslin packs his spook-catching gear, forces Olin to rent him the "evil f---ing room" (were it not for the film's teen-friendly PG-13 rating, Jackson would no doubt want the motherf---ing ghosts out of his motherf---ing hotel) and waits for the scary stuff to start. The minute it does, the movie starts a precipitous decline into flashy special effects, psychodrama and multiple "gotcha!" endings that make it feel almost as long as the one-hour eternity Enslin spends trying to escape slime-oozing walls, extremes of heat and cold, and sundry malevolent apparitions. Good story line, Super Cast! Great effects.

Positives:An excellent story, likeable characters (even Cusack as Enslin who becomes more and more likeable as the film goes on). Great scares, and some very great visual effects.

Negatives:The overall jist of the movie can be taken in different ways. After seeing this film, you'll probably see the situation from three different perspectives, and Mike Ensline as either a good or bad man. Or maybe a little in between. I felt the ending should've been more clear and resolute than the way it did end.

Overall:I'm not sure how well this movie did but I'd pay to see it in a theatre house. It's a slow, steady build up with terrifying and interesting plots. "1408" might go over the head of most audiences looking for explosions and high body counts in their horror films. But hopefully people will give this one a chance, if not for the A list STRONG cast alone.

Definitly get the movie !!