1408
I went into this movie not really expecting much more than a few conventional scares, poor acting and overall not enjoying it but what I got wasn't a bad movie. Scary? Not really, but it was a clever thriller that was genuinely evil at times and really convinced me haunted "house" movies aren't all bad.
Qussack plays a stubborn jackass writer who has a minimal fan-base who's job is to solely hunt down haunted hotel rooms and post fake reports on them or debunk them alternately. He stumbles upon the room 1408 in a Hotel run by Samuel L Jackson who presents a decent, but short, cameo. The build up and tension to the room is better than the actual scares but both sides of the coin still present a good story.
The camera angles are excellent and so is the pacing, hinting at the horror of the "unknown" lurking in the corners of the camera or even the camera acting as something sinister's vision at times. And the pacing really developes a slow decline in mental stability until the room takes full control and starts delivering sucker punch after sucker punch to the main character's sanity. Its an enjoyable, and believable, thing to watch unfold until the bullshit ending (The ending played in theaters would have made the movie a solid 8/10 for me if it was there.)
It was a good, but not perfect, movie that showed there's still some energy left in the age old house on haunted hill story. The room was almost a character too, it was menacing and straight up a dick.
7/10