1408 -- PG-13 -- 2007

I love thrillers. They warp your head and leave you wondering. Such was the case with 1408. It's based on a Stephen King story, and the screenplay wasn't written by him, so it's a fair bet, the movie will be decent. It was. I really enjoyed. It was the type of film that keeps you guessing, and remains legitimately random enough that you don't know what will come next.

Our hero visits and writes about haunted locations, be they houses, motels, or other places. The film opens with him visiting a random hotel and staying on the 14th floor where "most of the paranormal activity happens." The hotel owners are clearly happy that he's there, and are certain to see a rise in business for appearing in his next book. But he's not a happy guy.

He's not mean by any means, but he went to a book signing and few people showed for it. And the only person to bring up a book was someone who had found an older novel of his on eBay, as opposed to the new books that were being sold. There are also references to his "10 most haunted" books showing up on discount rack sand such, which is never a good place for a writer to be.

He receives a postcard telling him "not" to stay in room 1408 at a hotel in New York, so naturally he checks it out. He calls the hotel and asks for room 1408 and it's "unavailable" without his ever telling them when he'll stay there. No matter when he asks, it's always unavailable. Well, undaunted, he goes through his publisher and finds a way to stay in that room.

However, the hotel manager still tries to change his mind about staying in this room, insisting that the room is evil. There are no ghosts or spirits, he says, but it's just evil as there have been 55 deaths in that room since the hotel opened. Our man is insistent, and so he gets the room. So begins a night that will change his life.

Reality is quickly turned on its ear, and nothing is set in stone. It starts simple but goes to the exceptionally weird. The room plays by its own rules, and whether it is real or not is in question the whole time. While the ending itself doesn't offer anything especially shocking, it is quite creepy in its own right.

A story about one character lends itself very easily to filling that character out very completely, and through the experiences in the room, we not only get a creepfest, but we also learn about the guy up one side and down the other. We get to know everything about him through the course of this room, and despite the horror of the experience, it can easily be said that the room saved his life -- or at least restored it.

The plot is actually very, very simplistic. All they needed to do was get him into the room, and let the weirdness begin. His backstory was simple and explained sufficiently. His reasoning for being there, and being trapped there was plausible. It was fairly well constructed overall, and was that much more fun when it didn't make sense (since it worked in the overall framework).

So I enjoyed, whatever anyone else might think. It was a fun little haunted room romp through some horrific imagery and one guy's life.