This movie scared me. It was quite a treat. The last movie that gave me trouble sleeping was The Ring, which was strange because it didn't scare me that much watching it. I'd probably have to go all the way back to watching Poltergeist as a kid for the last time a movie truly terrified me. It is very, very rare for me to see a movie that scares me nowadays. I watched The Exorcist, which I was told was the scariest movie ever and even as an adult I wouldn't sleep for days, and I laughed at it. 1408 legitimately creeped me out, to the point that on a few occasions I seriously thought it might be a good idea for me to watch it with the lights on rather than in the dark. I also found it difficult to fall asleep the night I watched it. About ten minutes into the attempt, my upstairs neighbor dropped something in her bathroom, and I nearly soiled myself. All right, not literally, but it did jar me. I'd highly recommend this movie. Plus it had Samuel L. Jackson in it, and he's a god. I found out afterward that the version currently on cable has the "happy" ending, and there are actually a couple of other endings out there which are much darker, so I'm going to have to see them as well.

I also watched Southland Tales. Wow. I figured it would be one of those movies that its fans would defend by claiming that anyone who didn't get it must be stupid, and sure enough, after looking, that was the case. I figure that any movie that had The Rock, Mandy Moore, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and John Larroquette had to be good. I'll say that I found the concept of the movie to be quite fascinating, but I just don't think it was done well. I'll also admit that there were parts of it I definitely didn't understand. Turns out they came out with a prequel comic book series that should be required reading for anyone wanting to watch this movie, as there are things you're never going to get unless you have that additional information. For example, there's a very important element to SMG's character that I got absolutely no clue to from watching this. Plus she changes hair color for the last few scenes. There's apparently some significance to this that I would understand if I'd read the graphic novels, but since I hadn't it just comes off as odd. It was certainly an ambitious effort, and basing a movie on the Book of Revelations is no mean feat, but IMO making the effort doesn't automatically mean you've also made a good movie. Based on what I've read since watching, and knowing that I could get my hands on the prequel, I would probably get way more out of this movie on a second viewing, but I don't know if I can sit through it again. I'd honestly been interested in seeing this movie ever since I first heard of it, but I can now see why they had so much difficulty finding a distributor, and why it was in and out of theaters in a blink of an eye. I just wish the movie hadn't left me scratching my head and wondering what the hell I just watched. This really does seem like a movie someone would write while very, very high on something. I don't know whether to recommend it or not. All I can say is that if you watch it, keep in mind that it's 2.5 hours long...and IMO, it feels like it. Both Mandy Moore and SMG look quite fantastic in it, though, and strangely enough put me in the mood for a sandwich.

I finally saw The Simpsons Movie. It's too bad they didn't put out a Simpsons movie years ago, which I heard was once the plan, while they were still funny.