I'm getting a little desperate for horror movies that Ms. Spenser will like. No slasher, preferably supernatural, etc. 1408 (2004) looked likely. For years I've confused it with that Shining documentary - Room 237. The only thing they have in common is source material by Stephen King.
It stars John Cusack as a sad-sack writer of travel guides with a specialty in haunted hotels. He doesn't seem too popular, possibly because he doesn't believe in the hauntings, but isn't a debunker - kind of falling between two stools there. We slowly learn that he is estranged from his wife (it seems he "went out for cigarettes") because they lost a daughter to cancer and he couldn't cope.
He gets an unsigned postcard telling him not to visit the Dolphin Hotel in New York, and not to stay in room 1408. The manager, Samuel L. Jackson, doesn't want him to stay there, either. Too many people have died there. Cusack's editor, Tony Shalhoub, has to get lawyers involved.
So he sets out to spend the night in this creepy room. Things are OK for a bit - he has a few drinks, settles in. Then things start going haywire: everything from a creepy clock radio to shadows in the mirror to blood pouring out of the wall.
At one point, he figures that Jackson dosed him with acid in the booze. That doesn't go anywhere. The door won't open. He even tries the window ledge and discovers that all the other rooms have disappeared. There are ghosts in the room and in the air vents. And so on.
He finally wakes up and finds it was all a dream - he's back home, he's ok, he reconciles with his wife, and you can guess where this is going...
I thought this was kind of fun. I liked how crazy it all got, and the twists as he tries to come to grips with the phenomenon or to escape. Ms. Spenser, on the other hand, thought it was silly, lacked all subtlety, and went from zero to psycho in under 60 seconds. She says she recognized the heavy hand of Stephen King. Oh well. Back to the DVD queue.
If anyone out there has seen this, let me know: Better or worse with Nicholas Cage in place of John Cusack?
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