1408 is about as mainstream as a horror film can get, given that it stars several people who are actually famous and is based on something written by Stephen King (a story I really liked, actually). And that's about everything you need right there, isn't it?

Well, no, apparently. The problem is that the original story offers, at most, 20 minutes of a movie, and that's assuming you stretch everything out as long as possible. That would leave 84 minutes of this film unaccounted for, which sounds about right. That time is filled with John Cusack being bored, John Cusack trying to be clever to Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack talking to himself a lot, and then a random, unfocused barrage of various things happening.

After exhausting its source material, the film instantly can't decide what it's trying to do. The scary room starts channeling Home Alone, things begin to feel suspiciously like a comedy, and finally it settles on being an emotional drama for some reason.

Truthfully the film's floundering really isn't that surprising. Trying to do a film about one guy in a room inhabited by indeterminite evil is probably never going to work, and the filmmakers knew it was just going to be John Cusack bumbling around on his own, which is why it's hard for me to picture how this project got greenlit.

"Well, we'll start off with John Cusack talking to himself and being filled with malaise, right? Then he goes somewhere else to talk to himself and be filled with malaise, and Samuel L. Jackson is there but he won't do anything interesting. You with me so far? Okay, good. Then--get this--we put him in a room. What? Well, no, he'll just... stay in the room. I dunno, he'll keep tripping over shit or something. Maybe a vase falls on his head. I don't care. Fine, we'll put Samuel L. Jackson inside the freezer too, just so he doesn't do anything there either. Whatever, fuck it. Look, will you just sign off on my John Cusack Stuck In A Room script already? Jesus, Ken!"

http://www.simulacri.com/1408.jpg