Film

Tipped that room 1408 is haunted, occult travel-guide author Mike Enslin (Cusack) checks into a New York hotel. “It’s an evil fucking room,” the no-nonsense manager (Jackson) explains. No tenant lasts more than an hour. Given that this amusingly derivative horror film is based on a Stephen King story, one might expect room 1408 to be a variant of The Shining's Overlook Hotel—a claustrophobic space that slowly, inexplicably drives its occupants mad.

As it turns out, the room is more of a cousin to the space station in Solaris: Its ultimate purpose is to put Mike in touch with the ghost of his dead daughter (Anthony)—but not, of course, before attacking him with loose window frames, a broken thermostat, a rogue faucet and a radio alarm clock stuck on “We’ve Only Just Begun.”

Forever bleeding from its walls, unstraightening its paintings and locking its front door, the room gives a showier performance than Cusack, whose character maintains a rationalist’s skepticism even after the toilet paper changes itself. Is it all in his mind? Elaborately nonsensical—right down to the knee-jerk only-a-dream fakeout—the movie finally isn’t about anything other than its own set design. Its quaint, Freudian notions of the subconscious might inspire a hilarious essay by Slovenian philosopher (and film enthusiast) Slavoj Zizek. For scares, though, you’re better off at the Bates Motel.