A rude, sarcastic and odd John Cusack plays against type (hur hur) in a Stephen King adaptation....NO WAIT, WAIT COMEBACK! It's more Pet Semetary than Tommyknockers I promise...although I love Tommyknockers, don't judge me or my natty nostalgia goggles.

For some reason his short story adaptations work out better more than his mini series' like Stand By Me came out waaaay better than IT, not because of his writing but usually what he writes down gets too complicated to film (I'm looking at you, Macroverse turtle)  and, quite rightly, the director and/or producers cut parts.

Their mistake is in not replacing it. 

There's a little seen remake of Salem's Lot that blends characters together rather than omit them and it fares better than the loved-by-everyone-except-me David Soul fiasco.

There's also the Pet Semetary movie which sensibly omits Jud's wife and replaces her with Missy vs the far superior to the remake, fight me mini series of IT where they omitted the fantastically written scene of Patrick Hocksetter's demise that gave a rather clearer image of how there were actual limits to Pennywise's power.

Children of the Corn was also pretty decent aside from the disneyfied ending.

Anyway, point is, this one is good, very good, mostly due to John Cusack being a talented mofo, if anyone ever tells you he can't act then beat them up with a copy of this movie, John Cusack (probably) would.

So, he's Mike Enslin, a sceptic of the supernatural even though he makes his living off writing books about it, (an idea which was stolen by The Haunting of Hill House series on Netflix) and is sent a postcard challenging him to stay in room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel in NY.

When he tries to book the room he's told he can't have it, this fuels his fire and he shows up, puts off all attempts to dissuade him from an immaculately dressed and immaculately polite and immaculately Hector Elizondo-like Samuel L Jackson who warns him "it's an evil fucking room"

Don't doubt that, even for a second.

Mike thinks it's an elaborate publicity stunt but no, it's not and he's going to regret being stubborn.

Through the magic of visions we get backstory of his sweet little daughter, Katie, dying of some illness and him becoming the drunk, cynical jackass he is, which is understandable.

Also his strained relationship with his estranged wife although they still seem to care about each other.

We also see the rooms a genocidal maniac and possibly a relative of the Overlook as it shows him what it's done in the past, like make salesmen suicidal and cause people to climb into air ducts and become mummified and make women leap from windows as we remember Sam Jackson telling us it also made a guest drown in their soup....Stephen King is truly remarkable in making the most ridiculous things scary.

The worst of the rooms crimes is playing The Carpenters on repeat.

It also makes pictures come to life and causes you to crap yourself in a far too good jumpscare from an almost unrecognisible Benny Urquidez.

Mike tries to get the attention of the window across from him but it's New York so the person barely acknowledges him, however he then sees the neighbour is himself.

Climbing out the window onto the ledge to get to the next room results in all the other windows disappearing leaving him stranded  (like a certain tennis teacher, if you know your King) 

Climbing into the airducts results in another pants wetting jumpscare of a mummified corpse crawling along looking for him, bleurrrch.

The room also tries to freeze him, roast him, deafen him and drown him as well as taunt him with his father, Len Cariou's,  descent into senility and his shoddy handling of his grief at the loss of his daughter which caused his marital separation. 

You can actually feel the rooms frustration as it pulls the last two aces from it's sleeve, the old you-got-you-no-you-didn't-really fakeout and then it's lowest, dirtiest trick of all. Showing him Katie and letting him hold her before making her crumble to ash.

Never doubt Samuel L Jackson.

Evil fucking room

After surviving all this bullshizz the room is a sore loser and resets the clock to show him he's only been in the damn place for an hour.

It then jauntily calls and asks him if he wants to commit suicide and get it over with.

He refuses but then decides he will but he'll take the room with him and sets fire to it.

He then has a little party as he and the room perish.

Now there's three endings to this movie,  one where he burns and after his funeral, Sam Jackson shows up to offer Mike's ex-wife his unburnt possessions as memento's, she refuses and when Sam goes back to the car he sees a medium-well done Mike in the back seat.

It's a crappy ending IMO but it's what the director intended.

The other is the one where he lives and his wife hears Katie's voice on the tape so at least she'll believe he's not a loony. This is fine but a bit too happy.

The other one is truly baffling but maybe the best one;

So Mike dies, the funeral bit from the directors cut is dubbed over shots of LA, Sam goes back to the office of the hotel and reads Mike's manuscript, we start to hear the tape sounds and the office doors slam closed.

Then Mike's father says "As I was, you are. As I am, you will be " which is the most alarmed I've been by Len Cariou since The Lady in White.

Totally fantastic piece of atmospheric horror, superb acting, makes one room scary beyond belief. 

Also makes Len Cariou and Benny Urquidez scary...I know! Murder She Wrote Guy and Wheels on Meals Guy! 

I squeaked and usually always do on repeated viewings.

Benny Urquidez with a claw hammer is terrifying and it's only about 2 seconds.

Well worth your time in every way. Knowing the endings does nothing to damage the movie either...just maybe don't watch it before you go on holiday