Thoughts on the movie, "1408" - SPOILERS!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450385/

"The cynical and skeptical writer Mike Enslin writes books evaluating supernatural phenomena in hotels, graveyards and other haunted places, usually debunking the mystery. While writing his last book, he travels from Los Angeles to New York to spend one night in the evil room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel, which is permanently unavailable for guests. The reluctant manager Mr. Gerald Olin objects to his request and offers an upgrade, expensive booze and finally the reports relating the death of more than fifty guests along decades in the cursed room. However, Mike threatens Mr. Oiln, promising to sue the hotel, and finally checks in the room. Along the night, he finds that guests of room 1408 can check out when they like, but they can never leave the room alive."

I had been wanting to see this movie for quite some time, and finally found a good quality download of it. Overall, I was a little shocked at the depictions in the movie. The basic idea that I gathered was that once you're checked into the room and shut the door, you're transported to your own personal little hell. Over an elegant series of unsettling events, Enslin is slowly but surely transported from his skeptical, debunking ways into a perturbed, God-fearing investigator. As the story begins to unfold, Enslin first assumes that the Dolphin Hotel manager has drugged him through the expensive liquor he was gifted with. After some time to shake off the effects of the 'drugs' in question, the events pick up again. Of particular note is his encounter with the window across the street. He sees a man and calls out to him, and soon discovers the man seems to be mocking him. However, after holding the lamp up to his face, he sees through the shadows in the other apartment that his own face, grizzled and appearing world-weary, staring back, before an unknown shadowy figure plunges a large, sharp object into his back. Enslin turns, and is immediately assaulted by a crazed woman with some sort of pick or sharp hammer.

Sudden reality shifts and bizarre occurences plague Enslin; first the 'air conditioning is broken,' leading to a heat wave, eventually culminating into first what seems to be the ocean breaking through into the room, followed by ice covering everything in the room in a sudden temperature plunge. Fans of Dante's Inferno and the like will recognize depictions of certain levels of hell here, namely:

-River Acheron, represented by the struggle to enter the room- the Dolphin Hotel manager can be thought of as the ferryman Charon.
-First level, Limbo, separation from everything, no cell service, wireless, contact with the outer world
-In an abstract manner, the outer seventh (Phlegethon, the river of boiling blood, represented as the boiling water in the bathroom)
-Fifth level, the River Styx, when the water rushes into the room. Sin of sloth, represented by Enslin sinking through the water without struggle.
-Ninth level, Cocytus, the ice overtaking the room.
-Sixth level, the punishment for heretics - the burning tomb. Enslin destroys the room by fire and dies within.
-Eighth level, Bolgia 8, the individual flames, can also be assumed from the above
-Eighth level, Bolgia 10, the disease, can possibly be seen in Enslin's daughter

-Also, for the sharp-witted, 1408's digits add up to 13.

1408, overall, was a great film and truly creepy. The religious undertones were a little out of place, but nonetheless a big part of the plot. I'd give it an 8/10, as well as a heartfelt recommendation.