Based on a short story by Stephen King, 1408‘s movie trailer shows a lot of events that don’t happen in the short 46 page story.
The trailer offers some truly scary scenes, an evil in the room terrifies its victims until they ultimately sacrifice themselves to it.
The movie offers much the same, and not much more.
The frustration I have with the movie is never knowing what the Evil is, what it wants or how it got into 1408, a room who’s number adds up to 13 and is on the 13th floor (as the Dolphin Hotel’s 13th floor became the 14th).
Ultimately it’s not a bad movie, but as with all Stephen King story adaptations the book is better! You’ll find 1408 in a book of short stories titled “Everything’s Eventual” which contains some great stories such as “Autopsy Room Four”, “The Man in the Black Suit” and the titular “Everything’s Eventual” to mention but a few.
If you have the opportunity to see 1408 in a cinema, it may well make for a more enveloping environment but to get your money’s worth, I suggest you buy the book and wait for the DVD!
Update (200709201407): Daniel at work rightly points out that not ALL of the Stephen King adaptations are better in book form. “The Shawshank Redemption” was an amazing movie and while adding a lot more detail to pad out the short story (“Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” from “Different Seasons”) to a feature-length stayed true to the basic storyline first created by King.