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Apr 4, 2023 · Featuring a nightmarish atmosphere, 1408 is a simple and effective single-location horror movie based on Stephen King's short story. Rabbit Reviews recommend...
This is how 1408 works, by projecting his own mind and showing him his own demons. The act of free will wasn't him ending his life. That was never the choice, he was going to die either way.
- Grief and Ghosts in 1408
- Horror Hotels
- The MacGuffin
- What 1408 Represents
- Does Enslin Die?
- Wish Fulfilment
- We’Ve only Just Begun
Many horror films are about grief, loss and regret – but is that so surprising? Grief is an obvious response to death, but so is fear and speculation about the afterlife – i.e., the basis of the horror genre. In Håfström’s adaptation of Stephen King short story 1408, embittered author Mike Enslin (John Cusack) checks into a cursed hotel room. Ensli...
The hotel is a motif in King’s work. In his short story, 1922, the protagonist retreats to a hotel and awaits a supernatural death. And of course there’s the demonic Overlook hotel in The Shining, with its cursed room 217 (room 237 in the film). Like 1408, The Shining links psychological horror with creativity and addiction. Both see male writers e...
The film doesn’t reveal who invites Enslin. Instead, he gets an anonymous postcard (supposedly the 13th such invitation) telling him not to enter room 1408. Given similarities with The Shining, it’s possible the hotel itself has somehow arranged this ghostly mailing. Either way, the postcard is a MacGuffin, a device that exists simply to get Enslin...
Enslin’s trial begins before he even gets to the room. The 14th floor winds round on itself in a loop, meaning he passes the same floor sign twice, foreshadowing what’s to come. Once inside the room, time and reality distorts out of all recognition. As the map on the door spells out, the room is a Kafkaesque cell. But the implication is that Enslin...
In some versions of the film, Mike gets out of the room alive. In the director’s cut, Enslin dies after starting a fire. This destroys the cursed room, causing Olin to later tell Lily that Enslin didn’t die in vain. Death isn’t the end, however. Enslin appears to live on in the burned shell of room 1408, just like the hotel’s other ghostly guests. ...
There are plenty of similarities between Enslin and The Shining’s Jack Torrance. Both men are bitter writers. They have young children: Enslin loses his to cancer, Torrance tries to lose his… to a mallet. Both stories take place in a hotel, with each writer first seduced by its gory history. Unable to leave, each then dies in a spectacular blazetha...
In Inception, the song Je Ne Regrette Rien serves as both motif and tool throughout the film. The Carpenter’s song We’ve Only Just Begun has a similar purpose in 1408. When the room’s timer begins, the song – about a young couple just starting married life – is a mocking reference to the fun in store. It also marks the start of the countdown, with ...
1408 Trailer: 1408 movie trailer - starring Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Tony Shalhoub, Mary McCormack, Jasmine Jessica Anthony. Directed by Mikael Hafstrom...
A man writing a book about the paranormal travels to New York and stays in a hotel room that has been said to be responsible for the death of all the guests that come to stay. Based on the short...
