1408: Critic Reviews

Reassuringly old-school gothic.

A Stephen King short story is adapted and brought to the screen in 1408, more psychological thriller than outright horror.

Unpretentious and effective.

A faithful and creepy adaptation of [King's] 2002 short story.

Listen up, all you Hostels, Saws and other purveyors of bloody terror. Lay down your whips, chain saws and paring knives to watch a truly scary movie.

The problem with this movie is that it feels too much like a joke rather than a true work of suspense.

The horror wouldn't work without Cusack, who makes what could have been a rote acting exercise -- Be tough! Now angry! Now defensively funny! -- a cathartic ritual instead.

In this mix of recycled scares and half-hearted twists, the only real fright is the sight of an interesting actor wasting his talents in yet another mediocre movie.

A psychologically thrilling movie that leaves you gasping in the end.

All the suspense and shock depends on [Cusack's] performance, how he reacts from minute to minute, and he does a terrific job under Mikael Hafstrom's direction.

It's a good, solid scare picture, modestly scaled but well-crafted. And unlike certain other horror items on offer right now, this one doesn't make you feel like a psycho-in-training for sitting through it.

Adapted from a Stephen King story, this trite but watchable chiller plays like a scaled-down version of The Shining, with Cusack driven over the edge by hallucinations of his abusive father and dead daughter.

An entertainingly hairy paranormal affair based on a King short story, 1408 sets up its star -- and its audience -- for a blood-curdling, bone-chilling night of horror.

John Cusack is virtually a one-man show in the claustrophobically chilling 1408.

The story features some surprises, and director Mikael Hafstrom adds realism by bypassing computer graphics for practical effects. Add in the natural fear of being trapped in tight spaces and you have a can't-miss formula for horror and suspense.

Regardless of how long you last in 1408, the logic to which you are entitled never comes.

Refuses to embrace the fashionable elements of torture porn that are currently cutting a bloody swath through the horror genre, relying largely on psychological terror to impart the sense of someone possibly going mad, and taking the viewer along.

If I ever check into a hotel room and the clock radio is playing the Carpenters, I'm going to freak out.

Quaint or not, this King adaptation chills, and may have you Googling the next hotel you're scheduled to check into, room by room.

Even as haunted hotel King movies go, 1408 is certainly no Shining. Not even the TV-movie version.

You might say 1408 has a 1409 ending -- beige, humdrum, only mildly uncomfortable and, once passed through on the journey home, instantly forgettable.

The movie attempts a false ending that doesn't quite work; the picture feels prolonged, dragged out, and its ennui lessens the impact of some of its more terrifying fillips.

It reminds us what it's like to be scared in a theater rather than overwhelmed by buckets of blood and gore.

Cusack manages to summon deep wellsprings of personal grief along with breezy humor and naked animal terror. It's a tour de force performance that confirms the talents of this remarkably versatile, sometimes underrated actor.

1408 generally survives and thrives on the strength of John Cusack's passionate performance as a skeptic of the supernatural who learns that spooks may be real, plus a spirited supporting role by Samuel L. Jackson and some effective chills.