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Ric and I went to see 1408 because it's got John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, and because the reviews weren't as bad as I expected them to be. Oh, and also because it was only two dollars to see it. There's no way I would have paid full price for a Stephen King story.

Cusack stars as a relatively successful writer named Mike, who makes a living off of visiting hotels that have been reported to be haunted, staying the night, and writing a review of the hotel's scariness factor. Mike gets a mysterious postcard from a hotel in New York and the only thing written on it is "Don't stay in 1408". So, of course, he heads straight for the challenge, but is confronted by the hotel manager (Jackson), who warns him that everyone who has ever stayed in the room has died, and none of them have lasted more than an hour. Undeterred by photos of dead victims and fueled by the fact that he has not yet come across anything remotely supernatural in the other hotels he has visited, he insists that he will spend the night. Apparently the evilness of the room is connected to the thermostat, because nothing happens until the handyman comes and tells him how to fix the room temperature. Oh, also, Mike's got a dead daughter, which is important, because little dead kids are all the rage in scary movies these days.

Speaking of scary movies, this isn't one, and I don't think it's meant to be. It's a flawed psychological thriller. First off, we are told (by Jackson) the room is evil. There's no explanation of why it's evil - it just is; and I'm okay with that. When the window shuts on Mike's hand and he goes to wash out the blood in the sink and is scalded by hot water, it's because the room wants to kill him. And the room likes playing The Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun", which is funny. I kind of liked the sense of humor going on here, and the twisted actions of the room.

But then, the room is somehow omniscient and has unrestricted access to all aspects of its victims' lives. It's able to conjure up old video footage of Mike's dead daughter, as well as flashbacks from his past, and can even fake footage of Mike talking to his wife on a video chat from a frozen laptop. Mike has somehow warped into the devil's playground, apparently, because that's the only thing that can explain how many things the room is able to do and what kind of access it has in the present and after lives. But, even with all of the neat (preposterous) things the room can do, the story is really about how the room uses Mike's own life to torment him, and so, in a sense, it's Mike's own conscience that is torturing him.

Interesting idea, yes, but that's why the movie isn't scary for us as an audience - it's not about shocking us, it's about freaking out Mike, and there are no typical scream-out-loud moments. If the psychological thrilling would have been well-executed, the movie might have been more successful, but it was all over the place and left me disappointed.

First of all, there were a few too many laugh-out-loud moments for me and Ric, particularly the one you see at the top of this post, in which heavily eye-linered Cusack is doing his best to make Mike look like he can't take it anymore and the camera spins around him several times. Second, there were many gratuitous shots, that were a stylistic effort made for no particular reason. These consisted of such things as "creative" camera angles and a cgi look through the key-hole to see the lock click into place as Mike shuts himself inside the room. It's pointless, and thus, gratuitous. Third, how in the world does the world's biggest skeptic not freak out the first time he sees actual evidence of the supernatural? The man watches a vision of a previous victim jumping out of a window and makes almost no reaction at all! Fourth, the movie fell prey to a few too many cliches, especially the dead daughter angle, although the image of (SPOILER) Mike's second-time dead daughter crumbling into ashes in his arms was a very effective visual moment (end spoiler).

Yet, while the movie has so many flaws, it's certainly better than a lot of other movies that are in the same vein. It starts out with promise because Cusack is excellent at playing the skeptic, and his first moments with the room are well played. Jackson, too, is a nice touch, and his character adds a good sense of tension at the beginning of the movie. I guess what I'm saying is that the setup works well, but the payoff is little. The final scene feels tacked on for lack of a good script-ender, and Ric walked out telling me I owed him one for convincing him to see the movie with me (even for two bucks!). Oh well.