Based on a short story from Stephen King, initially released only in audiobook form, annoyingly, this starts out rather promisingly.
The plot:
The always interesting John Cusack plays Michael Enslin, a writer of paranormal tales rooted in genuine research. His style is based on visiting famous haunted locations, and reporting on how and why they are actually not haunted.
Coming from a sceptical point of view, Enslin feels that he is invulnerable to the paranormal until, one day, he checks into room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in New York and, before even an hour is through, he is stark raving mad, seeing phantoms of his deceased daughter and, most traumatically of all, hearing The Carpenter's on a permanent loop.
How ghastly.
Swedish director Mikael Håfström crafts an interesting tale, though one that does veer towards the ridiculous towards the end.
After an initial promising build up, and some moments of genuine fright, we drift into the surreal and, much like this year's Insidious, it quickly loses any sense of menace, instead leaving you goggling at the screen at the preposterousness of what's happening.
Still, Cusack is always an engaging on screen presence, and the tale does just about have the momentum to carry through to the end, but this is no classic.
Average fright fodder.
3 out of 5
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