10 Underrated Horror Movie Moments That Will Scar You For Life

9. The Man in the Window - 1408

Jacobs Ladder
Dimension Films

Based on the Stephen King short story of the same name from the horror literature legend's underrated collection Everything's Eventual, Derailed director Mikael Hafstrom's 1408 is a superb slice of haunted hotel horror that boasts a barnstorming performance from Grosse Point Blank's John Cusack.

It's a good thing that the Hot Tub Time Machine star is on hand to offer this tour de force too as, outside of a brief Samuel L Jackson cameo at the beginning (and a hard-to-explain later appearance from the Pulp Fiction star inside a mini fridge), this is essentially a one man show.

As cynical supernatural phenomena debunker Mike Enslin, Cusack swings between his usual world weary persona and wild-eyed frantic panic as the titular haunted hotel room sends all manner of spooky shenanigans his way. Nothing later in the film can match the early terror, though, of watching Cusack signal for help out the window, trying to grab the attention of a shadowy hotel room across the road's inhabitant.

Said inhabitant flicks on a lamp, revealing himself to be Enslin...

And illuminating the hatchet-wielding, wild-eyed madman behind him.

Contributor

Cathal Gunning hasn't written a bio just yet, but if they had... it would appear here.