1408 (2007)

Room 1408 attacks John Cusack with a clock radio, a creepy painting and a Carpenters song, and somehow the song is the scariest part. For a good while, it’s basically Cusack alone in a room, and it’s great. Cusack plays a writer who’s turned being unimpressed into a career, and watching that smirk crack piece by piece is the fun. Samuel L. Jackson gets one scene as the hotel manager, a long, calm warning over a drink in his office, and he makes it the best stretch of the movie. Then the room runs out of tricks and starts throwing everything at once: freezing weather, flashbacks, fake-outs. The quiet stuff, like the sad thread about Mike’s daughter, hits harder than any effect. It’s PG-13 and runs on dread, not gore. It made $133 million worldwide on a reported $25M. A 6.8 because it starts as a slick little ghost story and ends up forgetting that less is scarier. $593 says you add up the digits on your next hotel room door before you swipe the key.

What works: Cusack’s slow unraveling is a great solo act, and Samuel L. Jackson’s one scene of polite warnings is chilling.

What doesn’t: The second half piles on so many effects and fake-outs that the room stops being scary and starts being busy.

Who it’s for: People who like their horror spooky instead of bloody, and anyone who’s ever hated a hotel room on sight.