Since the loss of his young daughter, a writer has traveled around the country investigating reports of the paranormal and debunking them in a series of haunted-travel-guides. He’s really just looking for some evidence of an afterlife, something to let him know his little girl isn’t truly gone. So far he’s had no luck, then he gets a postcard warning him about the Dolphin Hotel, room 1408.

This movie really comes right out of left field. It didn’t do much in the box office, I don’t remember the Stephen King story it was based on at all, the back of the box compares it to The Shining which is a very dangerous game for a movie box to play, and despite having two big stars there wasn’t a whole lot of hype going on. Still, it’s good. It’s very, very good.

It’s really a fresh take on a haunted hotel room. Instead of being scary or traumatic, it’s a fatal room. As Samuel’s character puts it, it’s not a haunted room, it’s an evil room. It really feels like the ghosts are as much victims of the room as our main character is.

And so once he gets in, he can’t get out. The room wants to make him commit suicide, and once you see how the room goes about it, it’s pretty compelling. That’s actually the strongest moment in the flick, when the room basically says “it’s your choice”. Once we see his options, suicide seems a lot more reasonable.

A great set-up for a flick, a cynic is usually a better character than a believer, and watching him break down makes for an interesting sub-plot, as does his changing attitudes about his wife and daughter.

The best part is the scares, there’s not a whole lot of them but there’s a couple that are truly scary. Once the climax hits the story is a lot more about the plot than about being scary, and that’s a downside. Just the same, it’s a plot that’s easy to get invested in and once you make it to the sad yet hopeful ending, you’re thankful for it.

1408 is an entertaining story with some truly menacing moments. Fans of a good haunting, where ghosts are portrayed as dangerous, hateful entities, should really enjoy this one. It’s sure as hell not The Shining, but it had a similar feeling about it I really liked. Maybe this is where the spirit of the Overlook went when it exploded.

8 out of 10 Stephen King film-adaptations that aren’t at all disappointing