1408 (2007)

A man who makes a living debunking and exposing false paranormal activity claims, checks into a supposedly haunted room (room 1408 funnily enough) in The Dolphin Hotel, whose manager is one Samuel L. Jackson. The debunker in question is John Cusack.

I’d read some promising reviews of this, and it’s been on my list for a while, so it’s a shame to report that this was extremely disappointing. Stephen King adaptations can be hit and miss, but there’s certainly a handful that have made their mark on cinematic history. Most notably The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and more recently the remakes of IT (2017-2019), part one more so than part two. 1408, like The Shawshank Redemption is actually based on a King short story, but unlike the former; which expands a novella into something truly astonishing, 1408 throws a lot (literally) at the wall to the point where you just don’t care. There’s no jump scares (often a good thing) but there is just a whole load of noise when windows bang shut or radios suddenly switch on. Jackson and Cusack do their thing, but for two more than able actors the material they’re working with is thin with nothing creepy or sinister going on around them. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not, and frequently that can form the basis of a solid horror but in this case it just made me wish I’d picked something else for my Friday night film. A real disappointment. 4.0/10