I've seen better
Added 11/17/2009
Got this through an old Pepsi Promotion for free and I'm glad I didn't pay for it. The basic idea was okay, but in the end, if you want a good class horror movie that takes place in a hotel, go for The Shining original, not the tv remake).
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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good, but could have been better
Added 8/16/2009
I can't say I'm as thrilled with 1408 as most people.
The movie did an INCREDIBLE job in the beginning building up suspense that the hotel room the main character wanted to stay in was full of unexplainable evil, and had a dangerous history of countless deaths over the years of the previous visitors that stayed in the room. After all the convincing that the guy should NOT stay in the room from Samuel L. Jackson's character, I was anticipating what kind of danger this room would hold.
The creepy build up as the guy (who was a book writer by the way) was approaching the room while walking down the hotel hallway was quite good too, with an elevator opening by itself, and flies buzzing over the food on the plates that were sitting on a tray outside a hotel room. You could sense an enormous danger right around the corner.
Once the guy entered the room and started experiencing how insane the room really was, this is where the movie started to lose me... but only a little bit.
A nice twist having the Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" constantly playing on the alarm clock radio, haha. I love that song. The history of the band itself was a tragedy, though I don't think the movie directors intended the band to be the focus of the storyline- it was just a random song they chose that was appropriate for the film because of the song title and the beautiful melody of the vocals worked REALLY work in this kind of uncomfortable setting.
Anyway, once the guy started getting comfortable inside the room (or rather, UNcomfortable) strange things began to happen.
Of course this is a horror movie, so the suspense started off slow and builded gradually. Once the guy realized something was terribly wrong (and arrogantly thought beforehand that NOTHING would happen to him) he started having hallucinations. It was a REAL challenge trying to figure out what was real and what was just the guys hallucinations creeping in. Of course the evil in the room was forcing the guy to have hallucinations quite often about his dead daughter and almost drowning in a ocean (and waking up near a beach) but it was REALLY confusing to me what was really happening and what wasn't.
I also feel the movie went a little too far with the creepiness and the hallucinations of the room. Come on, the ENTIRE room turns into a freezer suddenly as the guy almost freezes to death? The ENTIRE room floods with water as he almost drowns? It went WAY too far sometimes and the creepiness went away as a result.
1408 is quite entertaining as far as the action is concerned- one great scene right after another, and the film certainly LOOKS really good.
Well, the film does make more sense in its conclusion. I might give this movie a higher rating the second time I watch it, but as it is, it could have been a classic had some exaggerated scenes never taken place.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Enjoyable, but Pointless
Added 7/18/2009
1408 is an interesting concept, a room so soaked with death and tragedy that it has become its own supernatural realm, presence, what-have-you. Unfortunately, for me, it falls flat in the execution therein.
John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, an author whose books are about demystifying places of supernatural mystery. Throughout the story, this motivation is explored, and lends the movie great purpose. Don't imagine a lot of screen time from others, it is primarily Cusack on the screen with the rest of the cast practically amounting to cameo appearances.
In this quest to demystify, he learns of "Room 1408" at a prestigious hotel. While in the room he comes face-to-face with the supernatural world and battles it constantly, trying to survive until a time-limit is reached (apparently no previous guests have lasted beyond a specific time interval, and while the movie implies that the ordeal will be over at this time, there is nothing shown or told that would make this any more than wishful thinking on Enslin's part.)
Unfortunately, the movie seems to be full of half-scares, half-creeps and half-finished ideas. There are plenty of freaky circumstances, lots of menacing ghoulies, but it never seems to reach a critical point. The movie can't seem to decide if it wants to be Japanese Horror (lonely horror, atmospheric, slow build with disturbing and discordant glimpses of dreadful things to come) or Western Horror (Terror and Gore thrown up to 11 to shock and scare the viewer) and as such the supernatural force comes across as (charitably put) unfocused. Does the force want to terrify Enslin? Does it want to kill him? Is there another motivation at work? This is all eventually explained, as a matter of fact, to offer a conclusion which, like the horror, is half-hearted in the end.
There are a few startling moments, nothing horrendous (certainly not as creepy / scary as Poltergeist, a movie 25 years its senior and superior in nearly every way.) and nothing ground-breaking. In all, it's worth a rental if you are looking for some time to fill with an OK film, but if you're looking for horror, there's much better and bigger game out there.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Loved it! So glad I bought it. :)
Added 7/10/2009
This was a great movie - very suspensful, plays with your mind a little bit.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Stephen King Does it again!
Added 7/10/2009
1408 is such an amazing movie. I was a little hesitant at first due to the fact that most horror movies that have come out in the past few years have been kinda crap, but I figured if I love to read Stephen King and have always enjoyed his movies then it was worth the watch. 1408 is the kind of movie that keeps you thinking and biting your nails till the end and not to mention John Cusack does an amazing job! You would think that a guy stuck in a room would be a little boring, but there is nothing boring about this movie. I very much so recommend this movie to horror/thriller/suspense movie fans.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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I've seen better
Added 11/17/2009
Got this through an old Pepsi Promotion for free and I'm glad I didn't pay for it. The basic idea was okay, but in the end, if you want a good class horror movie that takes place in a hotel, go for The Shining original, not the tv remake).
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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good, but could have been better
Added 8/16/2009
I can't say I'm as thrilled with 1408 as most people.
The movie did an INCREDIBLE job in the beginning building up suspense that the hotel room the main character wanted to stay in was full of unexplainable evil, and had a dangerous history of countless deaths over the years of the previous visitors that stayed in the room. After all the convincing that the guy should NOT stay in the room from Samuel L. Jackson's character, I was anticipating what kind of danger this room would hold.
The creepy build up as the guy (who was a book writer by the way) was approaching the room while walking down the hotel hallway was quite good too, with an elevator opening by itself, and flies buzzing over the food on the plates that were sitting on a tray outside a hotel room. You could sense an enormous danger right around the corner.
Once the guy entered the room and started experiencing how insane the room really was, this is where the movie started to lose me... but only a little bit.
A nice twist having the Carpenters "We've Only Just Begun" constantly playing on the alarm clock radio, haha. I love that song. The history of the band itself was a tragedy, though I don't think the movie directors intended the band to be the focus of the storyline- it was just a random song they chose that was appropriate for the film because of the song title and the beautiful melody of the vocals worked REALLY work in this kind of uncomfortable setting.
Anyway, once the guy started getting comfortable inside the room (or rather, UNcomfortable) strange things began to happen.
Of course this is a horror movie, so the suspense started off slow and builded gradually. Once the guy realized something was terribly wrong (and arrogantly thought beforehand that NOTHING would happen to him) he started having hallucinations. It was a REAL challenge trying to figure out what was real and what was just the guys hallucinations creeping in. Of course the evil in the room was forcing the guy to have hallucinations quite often about his dead daughter and almost drowning in a ocean (and waking up near a beach) but it was REALLY confusing to me what was really happening and what wasn't.
I also feel the movie went a little too far with the creepiness and the hallucinations of the room. Come on, the ENTIRE room turns into a freezer suddenly as the guy almost freezes to death? The ENTIRE room floods with water as he almost drowns? It went WAY too far sometimes and the creepiness went away as a result.
1408 is quite entertaining as far as the action is concerned- one great scene right after another, and the film certainly LOOKS really good.
Well, the film does make more sense in its conclusion. I might give this movie a higher rating the second time I watch it, but as it is, it could have been a classic had some exaggerated scenes never taken place.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Enjoyable, but Pointless
Added 7/18/2009
1408 is an interesting concept, a room so soaked with death and tragedy that it has become its own supernatural realm, presence, what-have-you. Unfortunately, for me, it falls flat in the execution therein.
John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, an author whose books are about demystifying places of supernatural mystery. Throughout the story, this motivation is explored, and lends the movie great purpose. Don't imagine a lot of screen time from others, it is primarily Cusack on the screen with the rest of the cast practically amounting to cameo appearances.
In this quest to demystify, he learns of "Room 1408" at a prestigious hotel. While in the room he comes face-to-face with the supernatural world and battles it constantly, trying to survive until a time-limit is reached (apparently no previous guests have lasted beyond a specific time interval, and while the movie implies that the ordeal will be over at this time, there is nothing shown or told that would make this any more than wishful thinking on Enslin's part.)
Unfortunately, the movie seems to be full of half-scares, half-creeps and half-finished ideas. There are plenty of freaky circumstances, lots of menacing ghoulies, but it never seems to reach a critical point. The movie can't seem to decide if it wants to be Japanese Horror (lonely horror, atmospheric, slow build with disturbing and discordant glimpses of dreadful things to come) or Western Horror (Terror and Gore thrown up to 11 to shock and scare the viewer) and as such the supernatural force comes across as (charitably put) unfocused. Does the force want to terrify Enslin? Does it want to kill him? Is there another motivation at work? This is all eventually explained, as a matter of fact, to offer a conclusion which, like the horror, is half-hearted in the end.
There are a few startling moments, nothing horrendous (certainly not as creepy / scary as Poltergeist, a movie 25 years its senior and superior in nearly every way.) and nothing ground-breaking. In all, it's worth a rental if you are looking for some time to fill with an OK film, but if you're looking for horror, there's much better and bigger game out there.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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