1408 -- John Cusack Horror/Thriller - Reviews, Thoughts?
 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450385/

Strangely enough, when I saw the trailers for this with a sizable group of fellow moviegoers, I was the only one that felt like this horror/thriller stood a chance at being pretty darn sharp. But, hell, I've been wrong before about trailers, and thus kind of dismissed that impulse and backlogged 1408 as a flick I'd be mildly interested in at release. Amazingly, this is now sitting at > 80% at RT. :eek:

Both Eric D. Snider and Brian Orndorf seemed to like it to varying degrees.

Anyone hopping out to the theater to see 1408 this weekend?

I saw the trailer a few months ago and I too thought it had the potential to be a good ghost story/thriller. Honestly I sort of forgot about it until I saw the review link at the top of the forum today - I didn't even realize it was coming out this weekend. I'll probably check out a matinee showing on Sunday.

I saw it last week, and I enjoyed it a lot. Fun, creepy atmosphere. It doesn't rely on gore to shock you, which is a nice change of pace from the last year of all scary movies.

Seen it, its an okay movie, not very scary. It plays with your mind big time though. Half way through the movie you think its gonna end and you find your self saying what a crappy ending, but its not. Not as good as I hoped but worth seeing. 7.5/10

Haven't seen it yet, but find it interesting that all of the reviews seem to be 'great setup, weak resolution' (paraphrase). Which pretty much describes every other Stephen King screen adaptation ever.

In any case, I'm probably one of the few people in the world who finds a fair amount of entertainment value in just about every SK-based big screen or TV movie, so very likely will pick this up when it comes to DVD.

There's two ways to end the movie:

Apparently the DVD will have an alternate ending, so we might get to see both scenarios. I didn't have a problem with the way it ends in theaters.

The most memorable thing about this was the absolutely horrid pack of trailers attached, including "Who's Your Caddy?" which looks sub-Soul Train.

As for the movie itself, it was a perfectly acceptable summer horror flick. I really enjoyed the set designs, and not just the room which was the primary focus.

I thought this was very solid and very creepy. Cusack is awesome as usual and the movie moves at a quick pace. Thriller/horror fans should really enjoy it (there was definitely some stuff in trailers that didn't make the movie, so I guess the dvd will probably have some deleted scenes). Like the scene between Samuel L. and Cusack, they have a good onscreen chemistry together IMO. Well done and pretty intense. 4/5.

Just saw the trailer for the first time yesterday. It looke pretty cool. Cusack tends to kick ass, so I'll probably go check this out.

Maybe it's just me, but I thought it was pretty weak. Not many laughs, not very creepy...just not...special.

I give it a C.

= J

Um... I don't think it was going for many laughs.

Come on man, a dead daughter is Comedy Gold. :p

Only if Jerry Orbach is involved.

I'm shocked when that I'm actually typing this, but I think David Spade summed this up well on The Showbiz Show (which I don't normally watch but happened to catch the tail end of as I waited for a repeat of The Daily Show to come on):

"Why don't they just close the hotel? How many people have died in that room? Why would people even want to stay at that hotel after that many people have died in it?"

Still, it's doing very well for itself and all the good reviews have me mildly interested.

That's funny, because they address that in the too-short scenes with Sam Jackson.

I saw it yesterday, good creepy atmospheric horror flick. I'd recommend it, it was a nice change of pace from the overblown summer movie sequels. Although, the short story is better; the audio version is amazing.

BTW, I actually thought the use of humor was affective. The material doesn't lend itself to laugh-out-loud moments, but they do offer a few tension releasing moments.

I saw this last night. Same feelings as most of the people I suppose. First half is really good. Once he starts talking to his wife on the computer the movie takes a turn towards shittiness. They're probably just staying close to the book but my god, what a crappy way to end the movie.


Still a good movie though. I'd give it a B-. Cusack was really good in it. Sam Jackson was waayyy underused in his extended cameo.

Wife and I saw this last night. I enjoyed it and thats saying a lot because this isn't my type of movie. I'll agree with most here. Great till he starts talking to his wife then it's just ok after that. Lots of tension.

I thought it was very good, especially for a pg-13 horror movie...creepy throughout but the ending had me confused...

It lost its way a bit at the end, but it was so totally excellent before that I just sort of let it slide. I really enjoyed the parts where it was just Cusack alone in the room losing his mind. That was really, really effective and he was just fantastic in this.

Also, the jump scare when was damn good. Everyone in the audience screamed bloody murder.... then we all laughed of course. Good times. I will get the DVD for sure.

I liked the setup for this film well enough, but I think it loses steam about 2/3 into the film, so it could have been a really good film, but ends up in the so-so column. John Cusack does most of the heavy lifting on this film (and he never seems to age anymore, perhaps he needs to star in a Dorian Grey vehicle soon).

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

I'm shocked that there isn't more love for this one here at DVDTalk.

I went to see it earlier this afternoon, and I loved it. It's easily the best film based on a work of Stephen King since The Green Mile, and one of my favorite movies of that sort ever. It's also the best John Cusack film and performance since Being John Malkovich and High Fidelity. To take it a step further, it's also one of the best horror flicks I've seen in years. Every now and then we'll get a really good one, but a horror film like this is pretty rare these days. The film does not rely on cheap GOTCHA scares and tones of gore. No, this one dishes out the feeling of impending doom on the viewer, using plenty of creepy atmosphere and very freaky scenes. It's a total psychological type of horror flick that plays with your mind the whole way through, and it's a great watch.

The dolts like Eli Roth could learn a lot by giving this one a watch. I hope we get more horror films like this pretty soon, instead of the already tired "torture-porn" horror trend.

In case anyone was wondering, I agree with everything Brent L said.

Same here, I agree with Brent's summary. It was very intense and some scenes even scared the crap out of me (which most horror movies never seem to be able to do anymore). I thought the ending was great.

Has anyone read the book?

In the ending

Does it mean they were both in it or was it real?

You should probably spoiler that question.

Although it does lose a bit of steam at the end, and may have actually been better with none of the computer vid chat and just stayed IN the room, this is the first movie I have seen in a REALLY long time that really almost SCARED me...outside of just shock shots. It really built a great sense of dread that was uncomfortable, kind of like in the Exorcist every time they approached her room.