Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
64
(27 sources)
64
(27 sources)
-
80
Washington Post
Swedish director Mikael Hafstrom creates a compelling ride of a movie. Every beat of the film is weighted with significance, and our mounting dread becomes almost intolerable. Read Full Review » -
78
-
75
Chicago Tribune
Swift, sharp adaptation of Stephen King's short story (from the "Everything's Eventual" collection). Read Full Review » -
75
-
75
San Francisco Chronicle
This is the old stuff, the good stuff, the tried-and-true stuff of shrewdly accomplished audience manipulation. Read Full Review » -
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Cusack, who is beginning to look disturbingly like Dustin Hoffman, is not only the film's center, but its orbit as well. Read Full Review » -
75
USA Today
At his best, King's most effective creatures are not the ones behind creaking doors, but inside crooked minds. Read Full Review » -
75
-
75
ReelViews
This is the most mature horror movie of the year - far more adult and sophisticated than the tedious Hostel Part II. If you like to be creeped out by movies, this is one to see. It reminds us what it's like to be scared in a theater rather than overwhelmed by buckets of blood and gore. Read Full Review » -
75
-
75
-
70
The Hollywood Reporter
Even with its flaws, 1408 deserves to be appreciated by connoisseurs of acting and bravura filmmaking. Read Full Review » -
70
-
70
Village Voice
The horror wouldn't work without Cusack, who makes what could have been a rote acting exercise--Be tough! Now angry! Now defensively funny!--a cathartic ritual instead. Read Full Review » -
70
Los Angeles Times
In the grand scheme of things, the Dolphin Hotel is no Overlook, but it's no cheesy slaughter motel either. Read Full Review » -
70
The New York Times
The movie is most effective in its early scenes of prickly menace, and while the Dolphin is no Overlook (the haunted hotel in "The Shining"), its old-world creepiness is exactly right. Read Full Review » -
63
Premiere
While 1408 is no classic, it is refreshing to see a horror picture that just wants to do its job rather than prove to its audience how ruthlessly nihilistic it is. Read Full Review » -
63
-
63
Miami Herald
For about an hour or so, 1408 has you thinking you're watching The Next Great Horror Movie: That's how good the first half of this adaptation of Stephen King's short story about a haunted hotel room is. Read Full Review » -
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Really wanting to get into our heads, 1408 tries awfully hard to play both sides of logic's boundary line -- tries and fails, and then succeeds, only to ultimately fail again. On the whole, the frights are frighteningly erratic. Read Full Review » -
60
Film Threat
1408 isn't great cinema, but does an adequate job in spite of its flaws. Read Full Review » -
60
Empire
Not up there with the best King adaptations, but a fun Gothic yarn that, like all good ghost stories, is simple and dripping with dread. Read Full Review » -
50
Salon.com
One night in 1408 stretches out until it ends up feeling more like a routine three-day business trip. The scariest thing in it may be the way the clock radio has a way of turning itself on, loudly, of its own accord. The song is always the Carpenters' "We've Only Just Begun." Now THAT'S horror. Read Full Review » -
50
New York Daily News
A curse would be a great improvement on the wishy-washy wickedness of this movie. Read Full Review » -
50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
In the end, 1408 amounts to little more than a radical shock-therapy session for a man still finding his way after the loss of his daughter. Read Full Review » -
50
-
50
Chicago Reader
Adapted from a Stephen King story, this trite but watchable chiller plays like a scaled-down version of "The Shining," with Cusack driven over the edge by hallucinations of his abusive father and dead daughter. Read Full Review »
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