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The 2007 American psychological horror film, 1408, is based on a 1999 Stephen King short story of the same name. While the movie stays mostly true to the basic plot of the original story, it also had to make several additions to it in order to flesh it out for a feature-length movie.
The film version, directed by Mikael Håfström, centers on Mike Enslin (John Cusack), an author who investigates haunted houses but does not believe in the paranormal. Mike rents out the allegedly haunted room 1408 at a New York City hotel, and finds himself trapped inside, experiencing an array of bizarre and terrifying events. King originally wrote the first few pages of the 1408 short story as an appendix for his non-fiction book On Writing, to be utilized as an example of how a story can change from one draft document to the next; eventually, he became immersed in the idea of a skeptical writer getting stuck in a haunted room, and he finished the story.
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In the short story, which instantly starts with Mike checking into the haunted room at the Dolphin Hotel, Mr. Olin—the hotel manager, played by Samuel L. Jackson in the movie—says it’s not a good idea. He tells Mike that the room hasn’t seen a guest in more than two decades, that people who used to stay there would throw themselves out of the window, and that when maids have gone in to clean it, they’ve fainted or bursted into fits of laughing or crying—plus, one went blind. Overall, Mike learns that 42 people died in the room, and Olin thinks it may be because the numbers 1, 4, 0, and 8 add up to the unlucky number 13—plus, the room is located on the 14th floor in a building that is missing its 13th floor.
1408: How The Movie Compares To Stephen King’s Short Story
In the movie version of 1408, the effects of visiting 1408 seem to be more grisly; Mike is told that a sewing machine salesman tried to sew himself together after staying in the room, and he’s shown grisly photos of the incidents that took place. Of course, in both versions of the story, the room begins to mess with Mike as soon as he gets there. Viewers don’t see Mike enter the hotel from the get-go; the film starts in a different way, offering a full backstory of his character. This backstory was completely created by the screenwriters, since they were working with a short story, and had to expand upon several factors. The movie introduces new information about Mike: he’s estranged from his wife, Lily, following the death of their daughter, Katie. 1408 does keep one fact about Mike that King wrote into the short story: he doesn’t smoke, but he keeps a cigarette tucked behind his ear. In both versions of the story, Mike has a tape recorder with him; he continually dictates what’s happening.
Something else the 1408 movie changed is how the ending comes together. In the short story, Mike’s agent listens to Mike’s tape recording following his stay in room 1408, and hears the following: “…the background sounds on the tape, a kind of liquid smooshing that sometimes sounds like clothes churning around in an oversudsed washer, sometimes like one of those old electric hair clippers…and sometimes weirdly like a voice.” In the movie, Mike plays his tape recorder back and hears the voice of his dead daughter.
Stephen King’s idea behind 1408 was that a skeptical author would endure horror inside of a haunted hotel room. In the original story, when Mike emerges, he knows he could write a best-seller based upon the experience. Instead, he finds that he wants to quit writing. He’s also a changed person, terrified and sleeping with the lights on. The idea behind the movie feels different from the book—it’s not so simple. In the movie, the author is dealing with the aftermath of losing a child and getting divorced, and his experiences in the room echo those traumatic themes more than the echo the sentiment of a skeptic learning he’s wrong.