1408

 Released Year: 2007

Directed by Mikael Håfström

Casted by:

John Cusack as Mike Enslin

Samuel L. Jackson as Gerald Olin

Mary McCormack as Lily Enslin

Len Cariou as Mike's father

Jasmine Jessica Anthony as Katie Enslin

 Story:

Mike Enslin is a cynical, skeptical author who, after the death of his daughter Katie, writes books appraising supernatural events in which he has no belief. After his latest book, he receives an anonymous postcard depicting The Dolphin, a hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York City bearing the message, "Don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Mike forces the hotel to allow him to book the room, referencing a law that any hotel room in New York can be requested as long as it meets safety standards. The hotel manager, Gerald Olin tries to dissuade Mike from checking into the room, explaining that 56 people have died in the room over the past 95 years, and that no one has lasted more than an hour inside it. Mike, who does not believe in the paranormal, insists on staying in the room, and asks Olin if he thinks it is haunted; Olin replies that it is "evil" rather than haunted.

Once inside the room, Mike describes on his mini-cassette recorder the room's dull appearance and its unimpressive lack of supernatural phenomena. During his examination, the clock radio starts playing "We've Only Just Begun". Mike assumes that Olin is playing a trick to scare him. At 8:07, the song plays again and the clock's digital display changes to a countdown starting from "60:00". Mike experiences a series of supernatural events. A window sash slams down on his hand, the hotel operator calls about food he didn't order, and spectral manifestations of the room's past victims and members of his family, particularly his daughter, appear on the TV set. Mike's attempts to leave the room are in vain; the doorknob breaks off, climbing through the air ducts prompts an attack from the corpse of a former room victim, and climbing onto the window ledge reveals the windows of the other rooms have disappeared.

Mike uses his laptop to contact his estranged wife, Lily, but the sprinkler system short circuits his laptop. The room temperature drops to subzero when the laptop suddenly begins to work again, and Lily tells him the police have entered 1408, but the room is empty. A doppelgänger of Mike appears in a video chat window and urges Lily to come to the hotel herself; it gives Mike a diabolical smile. The room shakes violently and Mike breaks a picture of a ship in a storm. Water pours from the broken picture, flooding the room. He surfaces on a beach and relives a surfing accident seen earlier in the film. His life continues from this point, and he reconciles with Lily. Eventually he assumes his experience in 1408 was just a dream. Lily persuades him to write a book about it. When visiting the post office to send the manuscript to his publisher, he recognizes members of a construction crew as the Dolphin Hotel staff. They destroy the post office walls, revealing Mike is still trapped in 1408. A vision of his deceased daughter Katie appears to Mike, and after some reluctance he embraces her; she crumbles to dust. The clock radio begins playing "We've Only Just Begun" again, and Mike looks for it in the rubble. It counts down the final seconds. When the countdown ends, the room is suddenly restored to normal, and the clock radio resets itself to 60:00.

The "hotel operator" calls Mike again. When Mike begs to be released, she informs him that he can relive the hour over and over again, or use their "express checkout system"; A hangman's noose appears and Mike has a vision of himself hanged, but he refuses to kill himself. Mike improvises a Molotov cocktail from a bottle of cognac given to him by Olin, and sets the room on fire. The fire alarm sounds, the hotel is evacuated, and Lily is prevented from entering. Mike breaks a window, causing a backdraft. Mike lies down upon the floor and covers his ears. A group of firefighters enter the room and drag Mike out before the room collapses on them. Mike tells the firefighters, "Don't go in that room... It's evil."

Mike and Lily move to Los Angeles, California. They are unpacking as Lily moves about the house. Mike begins to think again that his experiences were just a bad dream. He finds his tape recorder in a box and plays it. The sound of Mike's encounter with Katie is on the tape. Lily and Mike realize that the ordeal was real.

 L² Scored: 7/10

L² Comment:

A movie based on the short novel of Stephen King in 1999. No doubt the storyline is quite nice, but i feel tat its a bit complicated and messy when comes to the horror part. John Cusack is not really presenting the "scared" part as he should be; while there's not much chances for Samuel L. Jackson to show off his acting skills as well~

Carrie 1976

 Released Year: 1976

Directed by Brian De Palma

Casted by:

Sissy Spacek as Carrie White

Piper Laurie as Margaret White

Amy Irving as Sue Snell

William Katt as Tommy Ross

Betty Buckley as Miss Collins

Nancy Allen as Chris Hargensen

John Travolta as Billy Nolan

P. J. Soles as Norma Watson

 Story: 

Carrie White, a shy and friendless 17-year-old girl, is the scapegoat of her school in North Carolina. At home she is abused by her mentally unstable mother Margaret, who is a Christian fundamentalist.

While in the showers after gym class, Carrie experiences her abnormally delayed first period. Having no prior knowledge of menstruation, Carrie believes she is bleeding to death. The other girls, including Chris Hargensen and Sue Snell, add to her shame and humiliation by pelting her with tampons and sanitary pads. The gym teacher Miss Collins intervenes and as Carrie becomes more frantic, a light bulb bursts in the showers.

Miss Collins brings Carrie to the principal's office to excuse her from gym class for the next week. After Carrie grows angry from the principal repeatedly mispronouncing her name, an ashtray on his desk suddenly flips onto the floor. As Carrie walks home a boy on a bicycle taunts her. When Carrie glares at him, the boy immediately crashes and hurts himself. At home, Margaret receives a call from Miss Collins about the shower incident. Margaret tells Carrie that the "curse of blood" is divine punishment for sin and forces her to confess before locking her into a dark and cramped prayer closet to pray for forgiveness. A vengeful Carrie stares at her bedroom mirror until it shatters.

The next day, the other students laugh at her when she says that classmate Tommy Ross's poem is "beautiful". Miss Collins subjects Carrie's PE class to a week-long boot-camp-style detention, threatening the students with suspension from school and the prom if they do not attend. Chris becomes defiant and is slapped by Collins; Chris storms out, unremorseful of her prom ban. Sue convinces Tommy to invite Carrie to the prom.

Carrie suspects she may have telekinesis. While researching in the library, Tommy invites her to the prom, but she declines, fearing another trick. Tommy later visits Carrie's house and repeats his invitation, which she eventually accepts. Carrie tells her mother she is going to the prom, but Margaret declares the prom a sinful occasion. Carrie reveals her telekinesis by causing all the windows to slam shut, leading Margaret to believe she is a witch. Carrie insists on going to the prom, and Margaret reluctantly accepts.

Chris tells her delinquent boyfriend Billy Nolan that she wants revenge on Carrie. She goes with Billy and some of his friends to a local farm, where Billy and his friends slaughter pigs and store the pigs' blood in a bucket. Billy then sneaks into the school and places the bucket above the school's stage. As Carrie prepares for the evening, her mother tries to discourage her from going to the prom, claiming that "They're all gonna laugh at you!" Carrie's classmates are surprised to see her at the prom, and several girls point and snicker. After Miss Collins comforts her with stories of her own prom, Carrie begins to enjoy herself and dances blissfully with Tommy, who gives her a first kiss. Sue, who was unable to attend due to lacking a date, sneaks into the prom to ensure everything goes well for Carrie.

To Carrie's surprise but according to Chris and Billy's plan, she and Tommy are named prom king and queen. As the two approach the stage, Sue discovers Chris holding a rope attached to the bucket. Before Sue can warn Carrie, Miss Collins forces her out. The crown is placed on Carrie's head, then Chris pulls the rope and Carrie is drenched in the pig's blood. Chris and Billy escape the gym laughing, as Tommy is knocked unconscious by the falling bucket. Carrie hallucinates that the whole room is laughing at her in mass hysteria.

Carrie snaps into a cold rage, and telekinetically seals the exits. She then manipulates a fire hose and it blasts several students to their deaths at a tremendous force. As Miss Collins attempts to escape the chaos with a group, Carrie telekinetically seperates her from the group and pins her to the wall. She proceeds to cause a basketball goal post to collapse and swing onto Miss Collin's body, dismembering her, which the horrified Chris and Billy witness from a high window. The water makes contact with the wirings, igniting a massive fire in the gym.

Carrie leaves the inferno in the gym and begins walking home, covered in blood. Chris and Billy attempt to run Carrie over with Billy's car, but Carrie telekinetically flips the car over and causes it to explode, killing them.

Carrie returns home and takes a bath to wash off the pig's blood, and puts on her nightgown. She encounters Margaret and breaks down in her arms. Margaret confesses to Carrie that she and her husband Ralph believed that sex was a sin and abstained from it, until he got drunk one night and raped her, which she actually enjoyed. She embraces Carrie as the two recite the Lord's Prayer together, but halfway through the prayer, Margaret stabs Carrie in the back with a butcher's knife. Carrie falls down the stairs and is cornered in the kitchen by a crazed Margaret, who attempts to stab her more. Carrie's telekinesis is adrenalized, and all the knives and sharp objects in the kitchen are sent hurtling into her mother, crucifying her in the doorway. Carrie screams and unhooks her mother as the house starts to shake, which then collapses onto them.

Some time later, Sue, the sole survivor of the prom massacre, has a dream in which she visits the lot where Carrie's house once stood. As she places flowers on the ground, Carrie's bloody hand shoots out of the ground and grabs her elbow—then Sue wakes up screaming in her mother's arms.

  L² Scored: 9.5/10

L² Comment:

I love girl who has telekinesis power, its so good to see when they lost control, as they will get angry and smash everything into pieces haha~ Well, the movie is based on Stephen King's first major novel in 1974 with the same name. Sissy Spacek has also won her few awards from this movie. Surprise to see young John Travolta here, he is really a fine good looking guy :)

The Shining

Released Year: 1980
Directed by Stanley Kubrick

Casted by:
Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance
Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance
Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance
Scatman Crothers as Dick Hallorann
Story:

Jack Torrance arrives at the Overlook Hotel to interview for the open position of winter caretaker, with the aim of using the hotel's solitude to work on his writing. The hotel itself is built on the site of an Indian burial ground and becomes completely snowbound during the long winters. Manager Stuart Ullman warns him that a previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family and himself. Jack’s son, Danny, has ESP and has had a terrifying premonition about the hotel. Jack's wife, Wendy, tells a visiting doctor that Danny has an imaginary friend called Tony and that Jack had given up drinking because he had physically abused Danny after a binge.

The family arrives at the hotel on closing day and is given a tour. The elderly African-American chef Dick Hallorann surprises Danny by speaking to him telepathically and offering him some ice cream. He explains to Danny that he and his grandmother shared the gift, which he calls "shining." Danny asks if there is anything to be afraid of in the hotel, particularly Room 237. Hallorann tells Danny that the hotel itself has a "shine" to it along with many memories, not all of which are good. He tells Danny to stay out of room 237.

A month passes and Jack's writing project is going nowhere. Meanwhile, Danny and Wendy have fun and go in the hotel's hedge maze; Jack discovers a model of this maze, showing Wendy and Danny inside it, in one of the hotel lounges. Wendy is concerned about the phone lines being out due to the heavy snowfall and Danny has more frightening visions. As time passes, Jack becomes frustrated and slowly starts acting strangely, prone to violent outbursts. Danny’s curiosity about Room 237 finally gets the better of him when he sees the room has been opened. Later, Danny shows up injured and visibly traumatized, causing Wendy to think that Jack has been abusing Danny. Jack wanders into the hotel’s Gold Room where he meets a ghostly bartender named Lloyd who serves him bourbon on the rocks. Jack complains to the bartender about his relationship with Wendy. Afterward, Wendy shows up and informs him that Danny told her a "crazy woman in one of the rooms" was responsible for his injuries. Jack investigates Room 237 and has an encounter with the ghost of a dead woman there, but tells Wendy he saw nothing. Wendy and Jack argue about whether Danny should be removed from the hotel and Jack returns to the Gold Room, now filled with ghosts having a costume party. Here, he meets who he believes is the ghost of the previous caretaker, Grady, who tells Jack that he must "correct" his wife and child. Later, Jack sabotages the hotel's two-way radio and the snowcat, cutting off both communication with and access to the outside world.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Dick Hallorann gets a premonition that something is wrong at the hotel and takes a flight back to Colorado to investigate. Danny starts calling out "redrum" frantically and goes into a trance, now referring to himself as "Tony." Wendy discovers Jack's typewriter and that he has been typing endless pages of manuscript repeating "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" formatted in various styles. Horrified, she confronts Jack, but he threatens her before she knocks him unconscious with a baseball bat and locks him in a kitchen pantry. Jack converses through the door with Grady, who then unlocks the door, releasing him.

Danny has written "REDRUM" in lipstick on the door of Wendy’s bedroom. When Wendy sees this in a mirror, she sees that the letters spell out "MURDER". Jack, armed with a fire axe, then begins to chop through the door leading to his family's living quarters. Wendy frantically sends Danny out through the bathroom window, but cannot fit through it herself. Jack then starts chopping down the bathroom door with the axe and leers through the hole he has made, shouting "Here's Johnny!", but backs off after Wendy slashes his hand with a butcher knife. Hearing the engine of a snowcat Hallorann has borrowed to get up the mountain, Jack leaves the room and begins to wander about the hotel, ambushing and killing Hallorann with the axe in the lobby. Wendy escapes the bathroom and flees through the hotel, but encounters several ghosts along the way. Meanwhile, Jack pursues Danny into the hedge maze by following his footprints, but is misled when Danny manages to walk backwards in his own tracks and leaps behind a corner, covering his tracks with snow. Wendy and Danny escape in Hallorann's snowcat while Jack slowly freezes to death in the hedge maze.

In the final scene, the camera slowly zooms in on an old photograph taken at the hotel on July 4, 1921 as Midnight, the Stars, and You is played through the hallways. A smiling Jack Torrance is at the front of the crowd of revelers.

L² Scored: 9/10

L² Comment:

Love watching this film, it always spook me out... got a lot of goosebumps when i see it, maybe the movie's music is making the whole movie works :)

From the novel of Stephen Kings, but the writer doubt about the film and does not really love it that time but this movie is getting a bit hit in 1980. Shelley Duvall looks weird but kinda high fashion face :P Jack Nicholson in another hand is always one of my favorite actor. An epic movie which u should not miss in your lifetime...