Stephen King is a writer that's works have been adapted for the screen more times than one can count. At one time it seemed like he could write a two-paragraph outline on a restaurant napkin during dinner and it would end up being made into a film. Good or bad we've had no less than ninety film and television productions based on his scrawlings. Which brings us to 1408. Based on the short story contained in his "Everything's Eventual" collection, this sleeper hit is probably the best King movie to come down the pike since 1999's The Green Mile.

John Cusack plays Mike Enslin, a writer who's been using his skills to write such throwaway books as "10 Haunted Hotels". In fact, when we first meet him he's busy travelling to a countryside motel to investigate what the owner's claim is a spirit taking up residence in one of the rooms. This makes for decent material for Enslin's books, but being as he's just so damn cynical, he takes everything for either a scam or a trick of the human brain.

It's not a glamorous life for Enslin who's basically been existing making a series of these "haunted places" books and dealing with low-scale signing events where hardly anyone shows-up. But that's all about to change when, on his weekly mail run, he gets a postcard from the Dolphin Hotel in New York that simply states: "Don't enter 1408".

Intrigued by this vague warning, he soon heads off to the city and meets up with hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson) who goes above and beyond his call of duty to try and convince our sceptic writer that it's not a good idea he enters 1408 to try and debunk its history. And what a history the room has. Turns out most guests don't last an hour after they check-in and that over the years there have been a total of fifty-six deaths in the suite - most of them bloody suicides of some form or another.

This doesn't sway Enslin, who is soon in the infamous room and ready to come out an hour later alive and with proof it's all a wife's tale. He didn't expect for things to start getting weird, and they certainly do, as it's little things at first such as chocolates appearing on his pillow and the radio turning on by itself. But, soon enough, the clock starts an ominous countdown from sixty minutes and Enslin finds himself being dragged into one Hell of an hour trapped in a room that's, without a doubt, haunted and malicious (and also likes to prey on it's victim's mental state, which is fragile for our writer as he's still mourning the death of his young daughter).

Under the direction of Swedish helmer Mikael Hafstrom (his second English-language film after the disappointing Derailed), 1408 crackles with creepiness. He builds up a nice, "goose bumps" feeling in the viewer early on (I'm willing to say he starts as early as the scene in the manager's office) and keeps it going for the entire length of the movie. There's a moment with Enslin checking the room with a black light that reveals hidden blood stains that's unsettling, a scene where he sees a person in an adjacent window that turns out to be himself, and other little jolts peppered throughout the movie. The script by Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander, and Larry Karaszewski actually succeeds (with a little help from the production design) in making the room feel like a living, breathing entity.

Cusack's character is thrown through the ringer in the movie going from sarcastic cynic to scared for his life and as portrayed by our lead it comes across pretty convincingly. Cusack gets to hit all the emotions in what is basically a "one actor, one set" movie and he gives yet another solid performance outside of the comedy genre (he was also good in 2003's motel themed thriller, Identity). Jackson and Mary McCormack offer solid performances in side roles, though it would've been nice to see more of Jackson's character and given him a little more meat to work with (apparently they originally did, if you judge from the deleted scenes included on the DVD).

With enough chills, a good lead performance, and a handful of decent twists in the last third, 1408 is an effective horror-thriller that doesn't rely on outrageous gore or over-the-top plotting to get under your skin. It's an entertaining effort and a worthwhile King adaptation and it's also one of the best genre pictures of the year. (Chris Hartley, 10/3/07)

Directed By: Mikael Hafstrom.
Written By: Matt Greenberg, Scott Alexander, Larry Karaszewski.

Starring: John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, Mary McCormack, Tony Shalhoub.

Picture Ratio: 2.35:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: With solid colour and clarity, 1408 looks damn fine on disc. Not that we'd expect anything less from a movie produced within the last year, but what's on display here definitely looks good with no noticeable flaws.

Extras: While this is also available in a single disc release, this two-disc collector's edition contains one extra that you'll definitely want if you're a fan of the movie.

The main attraction of this set is that the second disc contains a 112-minute director's cut of the movie that adds eight minutes to the theatrical cut by fleshing-out footage during Cusack's return to the post office as well as offering a more downbeat alternate ending (which mostly works apart from a "burnt corpse in the backseat" moment that feels out of place considering the tone of the film). It's interesting to compare the two and while I like the discarded ending more, I generally preferred the original cut.

As for features on the first disc we get a trailer and two brief web promos about the film one with Cusack talking about the movie and another about the production design. On disc two, apart from the director's cut, we also get a commentary track by director Hafstrom and co-writers Alexander and Karaszewski which makes for a decent listen (Hafstrom early on calls this a "so-called director's cut", which makes me curious as to if it really is). There's also the inclusion of five pretty throw-away deleted scenes and four featurettes bundled under the heading "The Secrets of 1408" which are basically twenty-three minutes of EPK material about the characters, director, physical effects, and production design.

So, to sum up, apart from the alternate cut (and it's accompanying commentary) the extras here are pretty passable and offers little weighty material for fans to check-out.