1408 (film)
Encyclopedia
1408 is a 2007 American psychological horror film
based on the Stephen King
short story of the same name
directed by Swedish director Mikael Håfström
, who earlier had directed the horror film Drowning Ghost. The cast includes John Cusack
, Samuel L. Jackson
, and Mary McCormack
. The film was released in the U.S. on June 22, 2007, although July 13 (a Friday the 13th
) is mentioned as the release date in the trailer posted on the website.
The film follows Mike Enslin, an author who specializes in the horror genre. Mike's career is essentially based on investigating allegedly haunted houses, although his repeatedly unfruitful studies have left him disillusioned and pessimistic. Through an anonymous warning (via postcard), Mike eventually learns of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, which houses the infamous "Room 1408". Interested yet skeptical, Mike decides to spend one night in the hotel although manager Olin (Jackson) warns him strongly against it. Mike has a series of bizarre experiences in the room.
) is a skeptic and author
who, after the death of his daughter Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony
), writes books appraising supernatural
vacation spots as real, despite knowing they are fake. After his latest book, he receives an anonymous postcard
from The Dolphin, a hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York City
, bearing the message, "Don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Mike attempts to book a reservation for room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Mike's agent
, Sam Farrell (Tony Shalhoub
), that the Fair Housing Act requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms, the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Mike. After arriving at the Dolphin, Mike is pulled aside by the hotel manager
, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson
), who warns him that no one has lasted more than an hour in 1408. He attempts to bribe Mike not to stay in the room, giving him expensive Cognac
and a file folder of information on the room to try to convince him, but Mike refuses. Olin reluctantly agrees to let him stay.
Once inside the room, Mike pulls out his Mini-Cassette recorder
and speaks into it, describing the room's dull and tired appearance and its unimpressive lack of unusual phenomena. During his examination, the radio
suddenly starts blaring "We've Only Just Begun
" by the The Carpenters
, but Mike assumes this is just a trick of Olin's. Later, the song plays again and the digital display flickers and changes to read "60:00," echoing Olin's warning that no one lasts in the room more than an hour. Shortly after this, Mike becomes deafened by a loud ringing and his hand is crushed by a window sash. His hand is then scalded when he attempts to wash it in the sink and boiling steam comes out of the faucet instead of regular water. Mike unsuccessfully tries to leave the room: the doorknob falls off the door and when he climbs out onto the window ledge to escape to another room, the windows to the other rooms have all vanished. All the while, Mike is repeatedly assailed by spectral visions of a blade-wielding maniac and former victims of the room killing themselves. He also has hallucinations of his family, including his mentally-ill father and his daughter's time in the hospital before her death.
Desperate, Mike uses his laptop to contact his estranged wife Lily via video chat but the conversation ends abruptly when the sprinkler system shorts out
his laptop. Mike attempts to call for help again by climbing into the air vents. However, he is chased back into the room by a corpse-like figure. 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 new chat window and urges Lily to come to the hotel herself; then double winks at Mike. The room shakes violently and suddenly floods with water. Mike surfaces on a beach, the result of a surfing accident earlier in the film, and after returning to a normal life and reconciling with Lily, he assumes it was a dream. However, he visits the post office and recognizes a construction crew as the hotel staff from his "dream". The workers then destroy the walls of the room, revealing Mike is still trapped in 1408, the walls now burnt and broken. A vision of Katie appears to Mike, and after some reluctance he embraces her in tears, before she crumbles to dust. Mike hears the alarm clock begin to play and searches for it, collapsing onto his side and seeing it under the rubble as it counts down. When the countdown ends, the room is suddenly restored to normal, and the alarm clock resets itself to 60:00.
The phone rings, and the friendly female voice of the hotel operator
informs him that he can relive the hour over and over again, or take advantage of their "express checkout system", that is, death. Mike sees a hangman's knot
and has a vision of himself hanged, but refuses. The operator then reminds him that Lily is on her way to the room, and Mike responds the room cannot have her. Mike uses the bottle of Cognac from Olin to make a Molotov Cocktail
and solemnly sets the room on fire, smoking a cigarette as the flames spread. Meanwhile, the hotel is evacuated
and Lily is seen in traffic on her way to the hotel when the crowd emerges on the street. Mike declares 1408 the scariest site he has ever visited and hurls his ashtray through the closed window, causing a backdraft
that consumes the room and Mike in flames. Firefighters enter the room and pull Mike to safety, while in his office Olin smiles and whispers "Well done, Mr. Enslin." Later, as Mike recovers in a New York hospital, with Lily at his bedside, he tells her about Katie, but Lily doesn't believe him. The two reconcile and Mike moves back in with Lily, and during the move she hands him a box of items retrieved from the rubble of 1408. Mike finds his tape recorder and after some tinkering gets it to play, and the recorder replays his conversation with Katie. Lily overhears and stares at Mike in shock while Mike solemnly stares back.
has stated that the ending for 1408 was reshot because test audiences felt that the original ending was too much of a "downer". The alternate ending is the default ending on the Blu-ray release and on the two-disk collector's edition. Canadian networks Space and The Movie Network
broadcast this version of the film. The UK and Australian single DVD also uses this ending. This is also the only ending on the iTunes version.
The alternate ending sees the backdraft engulfing the room as Mike hides under the table, happy to see the room destroyed as he dies. During Mike's funeral, Olin approaches Lily and Mike's agent where he unsuccessfully attempts to give her a box of Mike's possessions, including the tape recorder. Before being cut off, Olin claims that the room was successfully destroyed and that it will no longer harm anyone ever again, which is why he claims "Mike did not die in vain". Going back to his car, Olin listens to the recording in his car, becoming visibly upset when he hears Katie's voice on the tape. He looks in the car mirror and imagines seeing a glimpse of Enslin's burnt corpse in the backseat. Having heard and seen enough, Olin places the tape recorder back in the box and drives off. The film ends at the gutted room, with an apparition of Mike looking out the window and smoking a cigarette. He hears his daughter calling his name, and disappears as he walks towards the room's door. A sound of a door closing is heard and the screen blacks out.
optioned the rights to the 1999 short story "1408
" by Stephen King
. The studio hired screenwriter Matt Greenberg to adapt the story into a screenplay. In October 2005, Mikael Håfström
was hired to direct 1408, with the screenplay being rewritten by screenwriters Scott Alexander
and Larry Karaszewski. In March 2006, actor John Cusack was cast to star in the film, joined by actor Samuel L. Jackson the following April. In July, actress Kate Walsh
was cast to star opposite Cusack as the protagonist's ex-wife, but she was forced to exit in August due to scheduling conflicts with her role on Grey's Anatomy
. She was replaced by actress Mary McCormack. The Hotel Pennsylvania
was used for many of the interior and room shots for the film. According to John Cusack, the Roosevelt Hotel
in New York was used for some of the exterior shots of the Dolphin.
, 78% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 154 reviews. On Metacritic
, the film had an average score of 64 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.
James Berardinelli
awarded the film three stars out of four, praising it as "the best horror film of the year". He offered significant praise for Cusack's performance as Mike Enslin, writing that "this is John Cusack's movie to carry, and he has no problem taking it where it needs to go". He found the film to be a refreshing experience, believing it "reminds us what it's like to be scared in a theater rather than overwhelmed by buckets of blood and gore". Many critics believed the film to be far superior to other adaptations of Stephen King novels and stories. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle
wrote a very positive review, describing the film as "one of the good Stephen King adaptations, one that maintains its author's sly sense of humor and satiric view of human nature". He ultimately believed the film to be a "more genuinely scary movie than most horror films".
Several critics, however, found the film to be underwhelming. Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe
wrote a mixed review, describing the film as "a lot of consonants and no vowels". He went on to compare the film unfavorably to The Shining
, a similar King adaptation, believing 1408 lacked that film's "lunging horror and dramatic architecture". Although he believed the film "conjures a wonderful anticipatory mood of dread in the first 30 minutes", he ultimately believed the film "then blows it to stylish smithereens". Rob Salem of the Toronto Star
awarded the film two stars out of four, believing it to be a predictable, "hit and miss" production. Like Morris, Salem wrote that "Even as haunted hotel King movies go, 1408 is certainly no Shining. Not even the TV-movie version
."
was released on October 2, 2007 with a standard 1-Disc Edition (widescreen or fullscreen), and a 2-Disc Collector's Edition that contains both versions of the ending and 12 more minutes of the film.
Psychological horror
Psychological horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that relies on character fears, guilt, beliefs, eerie sound effects, relevant music and emotional instability to build tension and further the plot...
based on the Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
short story of the same name
1408 (short story)
"1408" is a novella by Stephen King. It is the second tale in the audiobook collection titled Blood and Smoke, released in 1999. In 2002, it was collected in written form as the twelfth story in King's collection Everything's Eventual...
directed by Swedish director Mikael Håfström
Mikael Håfström
Jan Mikael Håfström , known as Mikael Håfström, is a Swedish screenwriter and director.-Biography:Håfström directed the exorcism thriller The Rite, which is based on a novel from Matt Baglio.- Filmography :...
, who earlier had directed the horror film Drowning Ghost. The cast includes John Cusack
John Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
, Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
, and Mary McCormack
Mary McCormack
Mary Catherine McCormack is an American actress. Best known for her work in television, she has had leading roles as Justine Appleton in the series Murder One , as Deputy National Security Adviser Kate Harper in The West Wing and as Mary Shannon in In Plain Sight .Her film roles include Private...
. The film was released in the U.S. on June 22, 2007, although July 13 (a Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
) is mentioned as the release date in the trailer posted on the website.
The film follows Mike Enslin, an author who specializes in the horror genre. Mike's career is essentially based on investigating allegedly haunted houses, although his repeatedly unfruitful studies have left him disillusioned and pessimistic. Through an anonymous warning (via postcard), Mike eventually learns of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, which houses the infamous "Room 1408". Interested yet skeptical, Mike decides to spend one night in the hotel although manager Olin (Jackson) warns him strongly against it. Mike has a series of bizarre experiences in the room.
Plot
Mike Enslin (John CusackJohn Cusack
John Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
) is a skeptic and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
who, after the death of his daughter Katie (Jasmine Jessica Anthony
Jasmine Jessica Anthony
-Early life:Jasmine Jessica Anthony was born in Tarzana, California to Art Anthony. She began stage dancing at the age of two, and announced her intentions to act at the age of three, and got her first agent a few months later. From there, she began to audition for roles.-Career:Anthony made her...
), writes books appraising supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
vacation spots as real, despite knowing they are fake. After his latest book, he receives an anonymous postcard
Postcard
A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an envelope....
from The Dolphin, a hotel on Lexington Avenue in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, bearing the message, "Don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Mike attempts to book a reservation for room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Mike's agent
Literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
, Sam Farrell (Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub
Anthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
), that the Fair Housing Act requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms, the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Mike. After arriving at the Dolphin, Mike is pulled aside by the hotel manager
Hotel manager
A hotel manager or hotelier is a person who holds a management occupation within a hotel, motel, or resort establishment. Management titles and duties vary by company. In some hotels the title hotel manager or hotelier may solely be referred to the General Manager of the hotel...
, Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
), who warns him that no one has lasted more than an hour in 1408. He attempts to bribe Mike not to stay in the room, giving him expensive Cognac
Cognac
Cognac is a commune in the Charente department in southwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Geography:Cognac is situated on the river Charente between the towns of Angoulême and Saintes. The majority of the town has been built on the river's left bank, with the smaller right...
and a file folder of information on the room to try to convince him, but Mike refuses. Olin reluctantly agrees to let him stay.
Once inside the room, Mike pulls out his Mini-Cassette recorder
Recorder
The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...
and speaks into it, describing the room's dull and tired appearance and its unimpressive lack of unusual phenomena. During his examination, the radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
suddenly starts blaring "We've Only Just Begun
We've Only Just Begun
"We've Only Just Begun" is the signature song of The Carpenters, written by Roger Nichols and Paul Williams , and is often used as a wedding song. The song was ranked at #405 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".The song was recorded by Smokey Roberds, a friend...
" by the The Carpenters
The Carpenters
Carpenters were an American vocal and instrumental duo, consisting of sister Karen and brother Richard Carpenter. The Carpenters were the #1 selling American music act of the 1970s. Though often referred to by the public as "The Carpenters", the duo's official name on authorized recordings and...
, but Mike assumes this is just a trick of Olin's. Later, the song plays again and the digital display flickers and changes to read "60:00," echoing Olin's warning that no one lasts in the room more than an hour. Shortly after this, Mike becomes deafened by a loud ringing and his hand is crushed by a window sash. His hand is then scalded when he attempts to wash it in the sink and boiling steam comes out of the faucet instead of regular water. Mike unsuccessfully tries to leave the room: the doorknob falls off the door and when he climbs out onto the window ledge to escape to another room, the windows to the other rooms have all vanished. All the while, Mike is repeatedly assailed by spectral visions of a blade-wielding maniac and former victims of the room killing themselves. He also has hallucinations of his family, including his mentally-ill father and his daughter's time in the hospital before her death.
Desperate, Mike uses his laptop to contact his estranged wife Lily via video chat but the conversation ends abruptly when the sprinkler system shorts out
Short circuit
A short circuit in an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path, often where essentially no electrical impedance is encountered....
his laptop. Mike attempts to call for help again by climbing into the air vents. However, he is chased back into the room by a corpse-like figure. 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
Doppelgänger
In fiction and folklore, a doppelgänger is a paranormal double of a living person, typically representing evil or misfortune...
of Mike appears in a new chat window and urges Lily to come to the hotel herself; then double winks at Mike. The room shakes violently and suddenly floods with water. Mike surfaces on a beach, the result of a surfing accident earlier in the film, and after returning to a normal life and reconciling with Lily, he assumes it was a dream. However, he visits the post office and recognizes a construction crew as the hotel staff from his "dream". The workers then destroy the walls of the room, revealing Mike is still trapped in 1408, the walls now burnt and broken. A vision of Katie appears to Mike, and after some reluctance he embraces her in tears, before she crumbles to dust. Mike hears the alarm clock begin to play and searches for it, collapsing onto his side and seeing it under the rubble as it counts down. When the countdown ends, the room is suddenly restored to normal, and the alarm clock resets itself to 60:00.
The phone rings, and the friendly female voice of the hotel operator
Telephone operator
A telephone operator is either* a person who provides assistance to a telephone caller, usually in the placing of operator assisted telephone calls such as calls from a pay phone, collect calls , calls which are billed to a credit card, station-to-station and person-to-person calls, and certain...
informs him that he can relive the hour over and over again, or take advantage of their "express checkout system", that is, death. Mike sees a hangman's knot
Hangman's knot
The hangman's knot or hangman's noose is a well-known knot most often associated with its use in hanging. For a hanging, the knot of the rope is typically placed under or just behind the left ear. When the condemned drops to the end of the rope, the force is supposed to break the neck...
and has a vision of himself hanged, but refuses. The operator then reminds him that Lily is on her way to the room, and Mike responds the room cannot have her. Mike uses the bottle of Cognac from Olin to make a Molotov Cocktail
Molotov cocktail
The Molotov cocktail, also known as the petrol bomb, gasoline bomb, Molotov bomb, fire bottle, fire bomb, or simply Molotov, is a generic name used for a variety of improvised incendiary weapons...
and solemnly sets the room on fire, smoking a cigarette as the flames spread. Meanwhile, the hotel is evacuated
Emergency evacuation
Emergency evacuation is the immediate and rapid movement of people away from the threat or actual occurrence of a hazard. Examples range from the small scale evacuation of a building due to a bomb threat or fire to the large scale evacuation of a district because of a flood, bombardment or...
and Lily is seen in traffic on her way to the hotel when the crowd emerges on the street. Mike declares 1408 the scariest site he has ever visited and hurls his ashtray through the closed window, causing a backdraft
Backdraft
A backdraft is an explosive event at a fire resulting from rapid re-introduction of oxygen to combustion in an oxygen-starved environment, for example, the breaking of a window or opening of a door to an enclosed space. Backdrafts present a serious threat to firefighters, even those with a high...
that consumes the room and Mike in flames. Firefighters enter the room and pull Mike to safety, while in his office Olin smiles and whispers "Well done, Mr. Enslin." Later, as Mike recovers in a New York hospital, with Lily at his bedside, he tells her about Katie, but Lily doesn't believe him. The two reconcile and Mike moves back in with Lily, and during the move she hands him a box of items retrieved from the rubble of 1408. Mike finds his tape recorder and after some tinkering gets it to play, and the recorder replays his conversation with Katie. Lily overhears and stares at Mike in shock while Mike solemnly stares back.
Alternate Ending
Director Mikael HåfströmMikael Håfström
Jan Mikael Håfström , known as Mikael Håfström, is a Swedish screenwriter and director.-Biography:Håfström directed the exorcism thriller The Rite, which is based on a novel from Matt Baglio.- Filmography :...
has stated that the ending for 1408 was reshot because test audiences felt that the original ending was too much of a "downer". The alternate ending is the default ending on the Blu-ray release and on the two-disk collector's edition. Canadian networks Space and The Movie Network
The Movie Network
The Movie Network is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service, owned by Astral Media. The service is licensed to operate east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, excluding the territories...
broadcast this version of the film. The UK and Australian single DVD also uses this ending. This is also the only ending on the iTunes version.
The alternate ending sees the backdraft engulfing the room as Mike hides under the table, happy to see the room destroyed as he dies. During Mike's funeral, Olin approaches Lily and Mike's agent where he unsuccessfully attempts to give her a box of Mike's possessions, including the tape recorder. Before being cut off, Olin claims that the room was successfully destroyed and that it will no longer harm anyone ever again, which is why he claims "Mike did not die in vain". Going back to his car, Olin listens to the recording in his car, becoming visibly upset when he hears Katie's voice on the tape. He looks in the car mirror and imagines seeing a glimpse of Enslin's burnt corpse in the backseat. Having heard and seen enough, Olin places the tape recorder back in the box and drives off. The film ends at the gutted room, with an apparition of Mike looking out the window and smoking a cigarette. He hears his daughter calling his name, and disappears as he walks towards the room's door. A sound of a door closing is heard and the screen blacks out.
Cast
- John CusackJohn CusackJohn Paul Cusack is an American film actor and screenwriter. He has appeared in more than 50 films, including The Journey of Natty Gann, Say Anything..., Grosse Point Blank, The Thin Red Line, Stand by Me, Con Air, Being John Malkovich, High Fidelity, Serendipity, Runaway Jury, The Ice Harvest,...
as Mike Enslin - Samuel L. JacksonSamuel L. JacksonSamuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
as Gerald Olin - Mary McCormackMary McCormackMary Catherine McCormack is an American actress. Best known for her work in television, she has had leading roles as Justine Appleton in the series Murder One , as Deputy National Security Adviser Kate Harper in The West Wing and as Mary Shannon in In Plain Sight .Her film roles include Private...
as Lily Enslin - Tony ShalhoubTony ShalhoubAnthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
as Sam Farrell - Len CariouLen CariouLeonard Joseph “Len” Cariou is a Canadian actor, best known for his portrayal of Sweeney Todd in the original cast of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street...
as Mike's father - Jasmine Jessica AnthonyJasmine Jessica Anthony-Early life:Jasmine Jessica Anthony was born in Tarzana, California to Art Anthony. She began stage dancing at the age of two, and announced her intentions to act at the age of three, and got her first agent a few months later. From there, she began to audition for roles.-Career:Anthony made her...
as Katie Enslin - Tony ShalhoubTony ShalhoubAnthony Marcus "Tony" Shalhoub is an American actor of Lebanese descent. His television work includes the roles of Antonio Scarpacci on Wings and sleuth Adrian Monk on the TV series Monk. He has won three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe for his work in Monk...
as Sam Farrell - Isiah Whitlock, Jr.Isiah Whitlock, Jr.Isiah Whitlock Jr. is an American actor.He is most famous for his role on the HBO television series, The Wire as corrupt state senator Clay Davis. He also is notable for appearing in Spike Lee films She Hate Me and 25th Hour as Agent Amos Flood...
as the Engineer - Kim ThomsonKim ThomsonKim Thomson is an English actress who has appeared on stage, television and film since the early 1980s in both the United Kingdom and the United States.-Early life:...
as Hotel Desk Clerk - Benny UrquidezBenny UrquidezBenny Urquidez is an American kickboxer, martial arts choreographer and actor. Nicknamed, The Jet, Urquidez was a non-contact karate competitor who later pioneered full-contact fighting in the U.S. He made the transition from point to full-contact karate in 1974 – the year of its inception...
as Claw Hammer Maniac - Andrew Lee Potts as Jackson
- Jules de JonghJules de JonghJules de Jongh , born in California, United States is an American voice actress, singer, television and radio presenter...
as the Female Front-Desk Voice on the Phone (Uncredited)
Production
In November 2003 and 2004, Dimension FilmsDimension Films
Dimension Films is a motion picture unit currently a part of The Weinstein Company. It was formerly used as Bob Weinstein's label within Miramax Films, to produce and release genre films...
optioned the rights to the 1999 short story "1408
1408 (short story)
"1408" is a novella by Stephen King. It is the second tale in the audiobook collection titled Blood and Smoke, released in 1999. In 2002, it was collected in written form as the twelfth story in King's collection Everything's Eventual...
" by Stephen King
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King is an American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction. His books have sold more than 350 million copies and have been adapted into a number of feature films, television movies and comic books...
. The studio hired screenwriter Matt Greenberg to adapt the story into a screenplay. In October 2005, Mikael Håfström
Mikael Håfström
Jan Mikael Håfström , known as Mikael Håfström, is a Swedish screenwriter and director.-Biography:Håfström directed the exorcism thriller The Rite, which is based on a novel from Matt Baglio.- Filmography :...
was hired to direct 1408, with the screenplay being rewritten by screenwriters Scott Alexander
Scott Alexander
Scott Alexander is a British millionaire and nouveau riche socialite featured in Britain's Biggest Spenders and often quoted as being "the most vain man in Britain". Alexander is frequently seen in media...
and Larry Karaszewski. In March 2006, actor John Cusack was cast to star in the film, joined by actor Samuel L. Jackson the following April. In July, actress Kate Walsh
Kate Walsh (actor)
Kathleen Erin "Kate" Walsh is an American film and television actress, currently known for her role as Dr. Addison Montgomery on the ABC dramas Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice.-Early life:...
was cast to star opposite Cusack as the protagonist's ex-wife, but she was forced to exit in August due to scheduling conflicts with her role on Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy
Grey's Anatomy is an American medical drama television series created by Shonda Rhimes. The series premiered on March 27, 2005 on ABC; since then, seven seasons have aired. The series follows the lives of interns, residents and their mentors in the fictional Seattle Grace Mercy West Hospital in...
. She was replaced by actress Mary McCormack. The Hotel Pennsylvania
Hotel Pennsylvania
The Hotel Pennsylvania is a hotel located at 401 7th Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from Pennsylvania Station and Madison Square Garden in New York City.- History :...
was used for many of the interior and room shots for the film. According to John Cusack, the Roosevelt Hotel
Roosevelt Hotel (New York)
The Roosevelt Hotel is at Madison Avenue and 45th Street in midtown Manhattan, named in honor of President Theodore Roosevelt. The New York City hotel opened on September 22, 1924. The hotel closed in 1995 and reopened in 1997 after a $65-million extensive renovation.-Guest rooms:There are a total...
in New York was used for some of the exterior shots of the Dolphin.
Reception
1408 opened on June 22, 2007 to generally positive reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 78% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 154 reviews. On Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
, the film had an average score of 64 out of 100, based on 27 reviews.
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Personal life:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey and spent his early childhood in Morristown, New Jersey. At the age of nine years, he relocated to the township of Cherry Hill, New Jersey...
awarded the film three stars out of four, praising it as "the best horror film of the year". He offered significant praise for Cusack's performance as Mike Enslin, writing that "this is John Cusack's movie to carry, and he has no problem taking it where it needs to go". He found the film to be a refreshing experience, believing it "reminds us what it's like to be scared in a theater rather than overwhelmed by buckets of blood and gore". Many critics believed the film to be far superior to other adaptations of Stephen King novels and stories. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...
wrote a very positive review, describing the film as "one of the good Stephen King adaptations, one that maintains its author's sly sense of humor and satiric view of human nature". He ultimately believed the film to be a "more genuinely scary movie than most horror films".
Several critics, however, found the film to be underwhelming. Wesley Morris of The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
wrote a mixed review, describing the film as "a lot of consonants and no vowels". He went on to compare the film unfavorably to The Shining
The Shining (film)
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King. A writer, Jack Torrance, takes a job as an...
, a similar King adaptation, believing 1408 lacked that film's "lunging horror and dramatic architecture". Although he believed the film "conjures a wonderful anticipatory mood of dread in the first 30 minutes", he ultimately believed the film "then blows it to stylish smithereens". Rob Salem of the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
awarded the film two stars out of four, believing it to be a predictable, "hit and miss" production. Like Morris, Salem wrote that "Even as haunted hotel King movies go, 1408 is certainly no Shining. Not even the TV-movie version
The Shining (TV miniseries)
The Shining is a three-part television miniseries based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. Directed by Mick Garris from King's teleplay, the series was first aired in 1997.-Plot:...
."
Box office
In its opening weekend, the film opened in second place at the box office, grossing US$20.6 million in 2,678 theaters. 1408 had a production budget of US$25 million. The film went on to gross US$132 million, of which US$71.9 million was from Canada and the United States.Home media
The DVDDVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
was released on October 2, 2007 with a standard 1-Disc Edition (widescreen or fullscreen), and a 2-Disc Collector's Edition that contains both versions of the ending and 12 more minutes of the film.