This movie, as a horror movie, is terrible. (Now you see why I made the other point earlier.)
John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer who is known for debunking paranormal occurrences in hotels and B&Bs. He's currently working on a new book when he gets wind of the insanely haunted room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel in New York City. The hotel's manager,Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), refuses to let him stay in the room because of the activity that usually occurs in the room. As a matter of fact he has never let anyone stay in the room since he has become manager, but Mike gets a lawyer in on it and forces his way into staying. Once he arrives at the hotel Gerald tries one last time to get him to stay in a different room. He tells him of the many deaths no one can explain that have happened in the room. This only makes Mike want in more. He is adamant that it's all a ruse and that he'll debunk it all. Gerald gives in and takes him up to the room and tells him most people don't last an hour.
Begin the mayhem. Mike notices some small things as he explores the room. He believes someone is in the room with him. The radio keeps turning on. Chocolates are placed on his pillow and the bed turned down. The toilet paper roll is delicately folded. He decides he's all right with a poltergeist maid and begins to settle in. But then things start getting weird. The clock resets and starts counting down from an hour. He sees ghosts reenacting their suicides. A window slams on his hand. He sees flashback of his life. His home videos play on the television. He's locked in the room and when he tries to go out the window he finds that there are now no more windows on the hotel but his. He's chased through the duct work by what can only be described as a zombie. As the hour begins to draw near its end Mike decides he wants out. He reaches out to his wife who he hasn't talked to since their daughter died and she says she'll call the police for him but the hotel play another trick on him and the police say the room is empty. His wife says she'll be there in fifteen minutes. The clock says he has about five.
Then the room plays its cruelest trick yet. Mike wakes up on a beach, only to pass out and wake up in a hospital bed. His wife is there. She flew from New York to Los Angeles when the hospital called her. She tells him he hit his head on his surf board. He assumes everything was just a bad dream. Then his life pulls a Ground Hog Day on him and he relives the day he was told of The Dolphin Hotel, but no one mentions The Dolphin. When he starts looking for it, the room reveals itself. It has become a burned out shell of a room and his daughter is there now too. Like the room has done most of this time, she tries to convince him to kill himself and join her. The countdown ends and the room resets itself to the way it was before. The phone rings and he answers it. The room tells him he can relive this last hour over and over again or kill himself. That's when he decides to take matters into his on hand. In true "man" fashion, he Molotov cocktails the room and burns it and himself alive. Thus ending the evil activity of the room.
The end. Basically. I mean there are a few more bits of the movie but that's basically the end of the story line. Like I said before, this movie is great. Amazingly written and very well done. But it isn't scary. It's suspenseful at best but it by no means frightened me. Would I recommend it? Yes, but not as a horror movie. It's a great suspense thriller. For some reason this movie is number one on IMDB's "True Horror Movies That Will Scare the Crap Out of You" list. Insidious is number two. After watching it I have to disagree. It's a great movie but not scary in the least. On a scale of 1-10?
