1408
2007 film starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, loosely based on a short story by Stephen King.
Cusack stars as a writer who specialises in writing books about haunted places, with titles such as 10 nights in 10 haunted houses etc, and being a sceptic he makes a habit of debunking the myths surrounding these places. Upon receiving a postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in NYC, with the only writing being "Don't stay in room 1408", he decides to check it out for himself, despite the protests (almost begging) of the hotel manager, played by Jackson in a pretty shitty wig
What follows is a series of strange experiences as he attempts to stay the night in 1408, the sceptic in him slowly disappearing.
I read the story back in 2002, as part of Kings Everything's Eventual collection, and enjoyed it enough, and have had the film sat on my shelf for years without watching (cheap impulse buy from CEX), and for whatever reason it popped into my head yesterday, so I thought I'd give it a watch.
I'm glad I did because the film is excellent, despite barely resembling the source material (which, as you know pisses me off about The Shining), there are some genuinely terrifying moments throughout, I jumped several times (which is rare for me these days) and there was an overall sense of dread during the bulk of the film, which perfectly captured a Stephen King type of feel, hard to explain unless you're familiar with his work.
Cusack gives a great performance, I really felt for his character (a troubled past literally coming back to haunt him) and Jackson was convincing as the hotel manager, no muthaf***ers from him, but he did throw in a single F word
4/5 Highly recommended