Mike Enslin (John Cusack) is a professional skeptic. Instead of the viewer being a step ahead of the filmmakers, it's the other way around. The film doesn't try to do too much and what appears to be a dead give-away of things to come turns out to be nothing more than a delicious piece of misdirection. It is by turns bold, scary, and downright creepy. While 1408 isn't on the same plane as The Shawshank Redemption or Misery, it's easily among the best King-inspired motion pictures to-date. The rule of thumb is that King's non-horror efforts have gotten much better treatment than his bread-and-butter fare. To say that movie adaptations of Stephen King stories have a checkered history is to understate the matter. However, 1408 deftly sidesteps that trap, delivering a conclusion that somehow manages not to disappoint while at the same time leaving things open-ended enough that viewer interpretation comes into play. Too often, we see a movie with a great setup like this ruined by a subpar ending. Yet, despite all of these recycled plot elements bobbing around, there's nothing stale about 1408, which is easily the best horror film of 2007. And here's a movie about a room-for-rent where people go in but don't come out (see also Vacancy). Here's a supernatural debunker faced with something that refuses to be debunked (see also The Reaping). Here's John Cusack, once again having lodging problems (see also Identity). If elements of 1408 seem a little familiar, it shouldn't be a surprise.
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