1408 (2007)

In this Stephen King short story adaptation, John Cusack is perfect as the drily funny, cynical paranormal investigator and professional skeptic who checks into room 1408 of New York's Dolphin Hotel wanting to debunk claims the room is somehow evil, but both he and the viewers soon have the smiles wiped off their faces once the supernatural terror kicks in, though these chills and jump scares wear thin a good time before the movie's oblique, that'll-do, "whatever" ending.

★★★☆☆

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Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)

It wasn't until the door-in-space title sequence that mum realised Phar Lap was showing in the other theatre of our local Twinplex and hurried me, seven or eight years old, across the foyer to the correct theatre, assuring me Dan Aykroyd's car passenger, the one who had just turned into the purple monster, was just the product of Hollywood make-believe and I was really going to enjoy the story of Australia's fastest racehorse "in here," but the damage was done - a glimpse of this four-story horror-fantasy compilation (actually a selection of trite fables that have since bored me, from big name movie men Steven Spielberg, John Landis, George Miller, Joe Dante) piqued my taste for the macabre....I struggle to recall anything about the racehorse!

★★☆☆☆

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