The world of Stephen King adaptations runs the gamut across nearly every aspect of filmmaking. You have theatrically released ones and straight to video ones. Stories stretched into TV miniseries and short stories used as segments of anthology movies. Of course, there are features that do well with critics but fail with audiences and vice versa, fail with critics but are eaten up but movie goers worldwide. 1408 came at the beginning of the King renaissance in 2007 and was a success with both critics and audiences but somehow stands alone in the mid 2000s horror pantheon as a successful but forgotten movie. Who was originally going to star in the title role? How many endings does the movie technically have? How meticulous was the production about the number 1408? Grab your room keys as we find out what happened to 1408.
Stephen King had released books in several different ways throughout his career by 1999. These included being published in magazines, standard novels, short story collections, and even a damn calendar in the case of Cycle of the Werewolf. He would break up The Green Mile into easily digestible entries for younger readers and in 1999 he would release an audio collection called Blood and Smoke. It would only include 3 stories but one of them would be the hotel ghost story 1408. That story would move to print in the short story collection Everything’s Eventual along with its Blood and Smoke brethren as well as a handful of others. King properties tend to do well one way, or another so Dimension optioned the story rights at the end of 2003. They sat on it for a bit until October of 2005 when they announced that Mikael Hafstrom was going to direct with a script done by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. These two would eventually be joined by Matt Greenberg.
Hafstrom is a Swedish writer and director who before this movie had done a fair amount of TV and was first seen widely by American audiences when he directed the thriller Derailed starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen. This movie would help him get The Rite starring Anthony Hopkins and Escape Plan with Sly and Arnie. Greenberg has a fun resume including writing the third Children of the Corn movie, The Prophecy II, and Halloween H20. Alexander came from a different part of the film world with things like Man on the Moon, The People vs Larry Flint, and Agent Cody Banks. He does have some horror roots with episodes of both Monsters and Tales from the Crypt on the small screen. The third writer, Karaszewski, is a writing partner of Alexander and has nearly identical credits and recently wrote every episode of the second season of American Crime Storry.
These three were tasked with coming up with the shooting script for 1408 and had a field day making references to both the number 1408 and 13. 1408 is the title of the story and 13 is seen as unlucky in many facets of life to the point where some buildings don’t even have a 13th floor. Many numbers that appear on screen add up to these numbers and it is easy to notice when you know the creators goal. The cast is a small but effective group with John Cusack as writer Mike Enslin, Sam Jackson as the hotel manager and Tony Shalhoub as Mike’s publicist. In smaller roles we have Isiah Whitlock Jr. as a hotel engineer and an Mary McCormack as Enslin’s ex-wife. McCormack wasn’t the first choice and actually replaced Kate Walsh who had to exit due to commitments on the show Grey’s Anatomy. Cusack wasn’t originally attached either as originally Keanu Reeves was to portray the non-fiction horror writer.
Cusack has done other horror and other King properties with roles in Stand by Me and The Cell which also co-starred Jackson. Shalhoub is probably most famous for Monk or Wings but had a large role in the remake of 13 Ghosts from 2001. Jackson had done some horror and horror adjacent titles like a cameo in Exorcist III and Snakes on a Plane and would go on to co-star in Spiral. The basic conceit of a man staying in and being stuck in a haunted hotel room was very short, hence being in a collection of short stories, but it was almost merely a footnote. King originally wrote a very short premise as a sort of guide for one of the many types of horror stories there are for his second nonfiction work On Writing but he liked it so much that he ended up fleshing it out for a proper short story to include in a collection.
The story follows Mike Enslin, a skeptic who makes a living writing about supposed supernatural events. He is a very cynical man who seems to loathe both his audience’s belief in what he writes about and the very subject matter itself. He doubts there’s any such thing as a true ghost story. While promoting his latest release he gets a postcard from a New York City hotel named The Dolphin with an ominous warning not to go into room 1408. He heads there and requests the room before being told no as well as its dangerous and frightening history. He enters the room eventually, with the intention of spending the night, and begins a battle of wits with the very room itself. He faces off against both ghosts from the rooms’ past as well as ones that haunt his own personal history before the whole thing resetting and the room reverting to what it was when he first entered. He is told he can relive the last hour over and over again or he can take himself off the board permanently and “Check Out”. Mike declines this and sets the room on fire with a makeshift firebomb and then, depending on what version you are watching, you would be treated to one of 4 endings. Yes. FOUR.
The original ending that was shot was a downer for audiences according to director Hafstrom. The original shot ending has Mike dying as a result of the fire but killing whatever evil had hold of the room as well. At the funeral, the hotel manager brings a box of tape recordings to try and give to Mike’s ex-woife, but she refuses, and Olin sees a burnt corpse ghost version of Mike before seeing another apparition of a father and daughter walking away together. The scene switches back to the hotel when ghost Mike is pleased that he has beaten the room, but we also get the happy end that Mike and his daughter, who passed from cancer, are reunited at last. Finally, the room being beaten has allowed all the other souls to be freed as well. While this sounds like it has happy written all over it with a reunion of father and daughter and the trapped ghosts being freed, audiences just hated seeing Mike die.
The ending that theaters got and that shows up in a lot of streaming platforms in addition to the theatrical DVD release is Mike actually surviving the ordeal and ending back up with his ex. They play a recording that has them hear their daughters voice which also confirms Mikes account of what happened. A slightly altered version for ending number 3 has only Mike hear his daughters voice which could confirm his journey or confirm that maybe he is a little crazy. The 4th ending that was shot includes Mike still dying but instead of a funeral we get to see his publicist find the manuscript and recordings only to have his office door supernaturally shut and Mikes fathers voice give an ominous warning. While the theatrical ending was the only one available on the DVD release, the two disc Blu-ray has the director’s cut ending as well as all of the other endings as special features on the discs.
Cusack would go on to say that he based his performance of a man going crazy and seeing things that shouldn’t exist on his own experiences tripping on LSD. While his character is certainly tripping in a way throughout the performance, the audience isn’t crazy if they notice an over abundance to both the number 13 and the number 1408. In terms of the number 1408 we have things like the DVD run time being 104 minutes and 8 seconds, the frequency for the clock radio being 104.8 mhz, and an ad on the back of a plane ending in the number 1408. 13 is a lot more prevalent but also takes more detective work on the part of the viewer. These can get into the weeds a little like with the Jim Carrey vehicle The Number 23 but there are still quite a few. Radio clock digits ad up to 13 in multiple scenes, the Bible verse Mike opens up to is Samuel 2:11 which add up to 13, the classical music selection that plays during a scene is Serenade Number 13 and the list goes on. While the movie is called 1408, the number 13 is more prevalent even in that there is no 13th floor due to superstition, and that 1408 also adds up to 13. One last real piece of information is found when Mike threatens legal action against the hotel for not allowing him to go into the room. This is based on fact that hotels can kick people out for infractions or not rent specific rooms due to damage, but they can’t refuse a guest a room for any other reason.
1408 was released on June 22nd, 2007, and was a massive success. While the budget was 25 million, the film opened at number 2 with a take of over 20 million. This is not your typical summer blockbuster fare, but it would go on to gross 133 million in its theatrical run and make millions more with its multiple releases both for rent which gave Blockbuster an exclusive version to get to customers, and its dual platform retail release. When it comes to box office, it’s still in the top 10 for movies based on a story by Stephen King. Considering just how large that list is, that’s no small feat. We may never know exactly what drove the horror in that room in the Dolphin Hotel but we do now know what happened to 1408.
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