Review of 1408 (2007) by April M — 20 Feb 2017

Excellent horror film with a great story and brilliant acting from John Cusack as the cocky writer of ghost stories, Mike Enslin and Samuel L Jackson, as Mr Olin, the cautious hotel manager of Dolphin Hotel who went to great lengths to dissuade Mike Enslin of foolhardiness.

Entering 1408 at great peril to himself and a mess for Mr Olin to clean up afterwards. Never in the world would I expect the Carpenters classic nostalgia " We've only just begun" incongruously used as the recurring spooky and haunting song in the haunted room 1408.

Not the typical haunted stories with macabre ghosts and blood bath. Rather it was the painful memories of Mike Enslin, his deceased daughter of cancer being the worst, that would plague Mike recurrently like 'Groundhog Day' that was the most hurtful and unbearable and ultimately his reason to check out of the hotel in a fiery inferno.

The best scene was the playful banter between Mr Olin and Mr Mike, one trying to dissuade the other not to venture into the room. In the meantime, not only was Mikes curiosity heightened enormously to taste the forbidden fruit but also us the audience.

It was a satisfying ending because Mike Enslin, for all his cockiness and scepticism, he did not survive room 1408.