1408 - Review

                                    Haunted Hotel Suite -A- Go.

Is there even such thing as "scary" anymore? I mean, really; what are the boys at Hollywood thinking; acting as if we're going to be fooled by CGI ghostys. That's just not right.

    However, there is a man in Hollywood who apparently knows how to make a damn good horror film, and his name is Mikael Hafstrom. Somehow, I ended up loving this film. It is one of the absolute best horror films of the past decade; scary, surrealistic, well-acted, and intelligent.

    I love John Cusack and I love Stephen King. So...yeah, I loved "1408". The film is about a writer (played by Cusack) who is writing a horror novel but must travel to a supposedly haunted hotel suite to finnish the thing. The Dolphin Hotel (where we set our scene) is rumored to have a haunted suite known as "Suite 1408". Everyone who has checked in to the room has been killed or has taken their own lives. Cusack's character does not believe in ghosts; that is until he learns the full truth of the room.

    The film, based upon a Stephen King story, is ingenious in how it portrays horror. While I don't mind a little red sauce on my horror pasta, there are some seriously good PG-13 horror films, and this is one of them. The film has scares which never aim to sicken; they exist to truly, honestly "scare" us. And they do succeed; this is a surprisingly great horror movie.

Hafstrom's direction and the efforts of the cast make this already great film better. Cusack is delightful as the psychologically uneven horror writer, and his co-star is Samuel L. Jackson as a spectacularly spooky hotel manager. The film creates characters who we care about; and for all its visual whimsy, the film is also frightening and smart. I loved this film; it reminded me of the days of horror films such as "The Exorcist" and "Halloween". That is how awesome it is. It won't work for everyone, but if you know good horror, then you should know how good this is. One of 2007's best.