Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

TheBlueHairedLawyer I'll never understand why so many people think that for a horror film to be "scary" or "good", it needs to have lots of blood, sex, gore and swearing. 1408, much like 2012's "Sinister" and 2001's "Session 9", relies less on cheap thrills and gimmicks and instead uses atmosphere to tell a story that's more sad than frightening, a perfect portrayal of a man going through the stages of deep grief in a hotel room feeding off his own bad memories and sadistically waving them in front of him. Set in beautiful New York City, it follows the obnoxiously cynical yet strangely likable Mike Enslin, a writer of cheap supernatural fodder who doesn't actually believe a single thing he publishes. He takes great pride in mocking and debunking the beliefs of his readers, even advising a young man to visit Disney World's Haunted Mansion in Orlando if he's looking for "real ghosts". Worse than that he mocks those who rely on ghost stories to keep their businesses open, including Mr. Olin, the manager of the Dolphin Hotel who actually wishes the owners of the building would simply shut the room down. He's a decent guy and he feels responsible in a way for the room's many atrocities, but he's simply unable to sway Mike from worming his way in and getting 1408 all to himself for the night.This is a truly remarkable, criminally underrated film. It's not as massive and epic as "The Shining", yet it manages to convey something really unsettling throughout, whether it's a deceased corpse of a sewing machine salesman in an air duct, two parents losing their young daughter to cancer or the notion that not believing in something will only make it stronger. It's not showy or pretentious or cheesy, it's just a good, clean ghost story reminiscent of old classics in every respect. You never know what will happen next but Mike is so flawed that it makes him all the more human and honest as a protagonist in a story that seems to be eating him alive.

fullheadofsteam What do you do with a movie that, fairly early on, shows you that the main character suffers a serious surfboarding accident and thus is so obvious in setting up brain damage as a likely reason for the lengthier remainder of the film? What do you do with a movie that shows us how the man character can override the thermostat of his hotel room once, but then fails to do so again?? What do you do with a movie that hints at, then actually goes to a crawling-through-the ventilation-system scene with absolutely no meaningful or important result(s), ether positive or negative whatsoever for the main character??? What do you do with a movie that leads the main character to believe that a bottle of brandy may have been laced with an hallucinogenic drug, thereby accounting for what he sees as distorted and unreal, but then continues to let his situation worsen with continued drinking the brandy???? And so it seems too obvious that reviewers on the IMDB website who praise this movie have major flaws in logical thinking. And as a final closure to how ridiculous this movie truly fails, you go ahead and try to figure out the ending with no help or advice...

blumdeluxe "1408" is one of the movies that can give you a hard time when you're watching it at home alone in the dark. We get to know the story of an author that earns his living writing books about haunted hotels, who has to realize that not every case is just a hoax. Of course this is a story already told so often that it is quite a lazy attempt to reflect this in the movie itself. This is by no means a creative movie, regarding the story. Nonetheless it is quite enjoyable for a number of reasons.The movie starts off rather slowly, the first paranormal phenomenons are still quite decent and that's something I really liked. Later on, unfortunately, they get the hammer out and at the latest when our hero lays in a room covered in snow, things shifted towards a bit too much. So why should you give this movie a try then? Because it achieves one of the most crucial things a horror film can achieve: It actually makes you feel uneasy. You can relate to the situation of the protagonist and you want to get out. It is exactly this feeling that makes this movie something special, achieved through clever ideas, a bit of well-proved horror tools and some plot-twists.You don't necessarily have to have seen this movie, I wouldn't go that far. But if you're looking for some paranormal frightening action, this is what you're searching for.

DansHauntedHouseful It has the flair of a psychedelic trip; albeit a trip or horrors – a very bad trip. But luckily for us the viewers, we are grounded in reality on the other side of the screen. Any "trippy" experience to be had is thankfully vicarious. But I'll admit that I found myself a bit exhausted by the film's end.I really liked this movie. It is a tense film with psychological drama mixed in with the horror. John Cusack is excellent. And Samuel L Jackson, though his screen time is limited, brings a welcoming performance. This movie is one of my favorites. See it! For a more in depth review of this film, please visit my website TheBooksofDaniel. The link is in my IMDb profile.