A writer whose sole topic is supposedly haunted locations checks into a New York hotel, insisting on staying in a room in which 56 people have died suddenly and bizarrely over the years. The hotel manager fails to dissuade him and subsequently the writer's sanity in the titular room degenerates rapidly under a constant bombardment of lifelike hallucinations. Nor does the viewer soon know either what is meant to be real or what is nightmare, and a succession of false endings ensues, with no certainty of wheteher he is still in the room or outside.
It's no surprise to learn that, being about a hotel room possessed by a malevolent presence and a protagonist driven insane by it, the original story was penned by Stephen King. While nowhere near as nuanced and accomplished as The Shining, it does succeed at generating scares effectively, and John Cusack's strong performance as the writer, initially cocksure and then terrified, is a big asset.
6/10
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