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In November 2003, ] optioned the rights to the 2000 short story "]" by ]. The studio hired screenwriter Matt Greenberg to adapt the story into a screenplay.<ref>{{cite news | author=David Rooney | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117895189.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | title=Dimension checking into room '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2003-11-05 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> In October 2005, ] was hired to direct ''1408'', with the screenplay being rewritten by screenwriters ] and ].<ref>{{cite news | author= | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117931616.html?cs=1 | title=Hafstrom to direct '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2005-10-25 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> In March 2006, actor ] was cast to star in the film,<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117939468.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | title=Cusack finds a room in King's '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2006-03-08 | accessdate=2007-05-07 }}</ref> joined by actor ] the following April.<ref>{{cite news | author=Michael Fleming | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117940923.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 | title='1408' gets another guest | publisher='']'' | date=2006-04-03 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> In July, actress ] was cast to star opposite Cusack as the protagonist's ex-wife,<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117946620.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1 | title=Walsh's room is '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2006-07-11 | accessdate=2007-05-07 }}</ref> but she was forced to exit in August due to scheduling conflicts with her role on '']''. She was replaced by actress ].<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117948401.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 | title='1408' books a new tenant | publisher='']'' | date=2006-08-13 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> According to John Cusack, the ] in New York was used for some of the exterior shots of the Serrano.<ref>http://summermovies.fandango.com/roadtripmyfav.php?fid=15</ref> In November 2003, ] optioned the rights to the 2000 short story "]" by ]. The studio hired screenwriter Matt Greenberg to adapt the story into a screenplay.<ref>{{cite news | author=David Rooney | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117895189.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | title=Dimension checking into room '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2003-11-05 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> In October 2005, ] was hired to direct ''1408'', with the screenplay being rewritten by screenwriters ] and ].<ref>{{cite news | author= | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117931616.html?cs=1 | title=Hafstrom to direct '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2005-10-25 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> In March 2006, actor ] was cast to star in the film,<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117939468.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 | title=Cusack finds a room in King's '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2006-03-08 | accessdate=2007-05-07 }}</ref> joined by actor ] the following April.<ref>{{cite news | author=Michael Fleming | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117940923.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 | title='1408' gets another guest | publisher='']'' | date=2006-04-03 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> In July, actress ] was cast to star opposite Cusack as the protagonist's ex-wife,<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117946620.html?categoryid=1238&cs=1 | title=Walsh's room is '1408' | publisher='']'' | date=2006-07-11 | accessdate=2007-05-07 }}</ref> but she was forced to exit in August due to scheduling conflicts with her role on '']''. She was replaced by actress ].<ref>{{cite news | author=Ian Mohr | url=http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117948401.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1 | title='1408' books a new tenant | publisher='']'' | date=2006-08-13 | accessdate=2007-05-06 }}</ref> According to John Cusack, the ] in New York was used for some of the exterior shots of the Serrano.<ref>http://summermovies.fandango.com/roadtripmyfav.php?fid=15</ref>


==Detailed synopsis== ==Detailed synopsis (Spoiler Alert!)==
Mike Enslin (]) is a ] and ] who debunks ] occurrences after the untimely death of his daughter Katie. After finishing his latest successful book, he receives an anonymous ] of the Dolphin Hotel in ] bearing the message "don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Enslin attempts to book a reservation for room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Enslin's ] Sam Farrell (]) that the ] requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms, the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Enslin. Mike Enslin (]) is a ] and ] who debunks ] occurrences after the untimely death of his daughter Katie. After finishing his latest successful book, he receives an anonymous ] of the Dolphin Hotel in ] bearing the message "don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Enslin attempts to book a reservation for room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Enslin's ] Sam Farrell (]) that the ] requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms, the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Enslin.


Revision as of 17:32, 2 December 2007

2007 American film
1408
File:Fourteen hundred and eight.jpgTheatrical release poster
Directed byMikael Håfström
Written byScreenplay:
Matt Greenberg
Scott Alexander
Larry Karaszewski
Short Story:
Stephen King
Produced byLorenzo di Bonaventura
StarringJohn Cusack
Samuel L. Jackson
Mary McCormack
Jasmine Jessica Anthony
Tony Shalhoub
CinematographyBenoît Delhomme
Music byGabriel Yared
Distributed byDimension Films/MGM (USA)
Paramount Pictures (UK)
Release datesUSA : June 22, 2007
UK : August 31, 2007
USA : October 2, 2007(DVD)
Running time106 mins.
CountryUSA
LanguageEnglish
Budget$25,000,000.00 (estimated)
Box office$71,975,611 (USA)

1408 is a 2007 fiction film based on the Stephen King short story of the same name directed by Swedish film director Mikael Håfström. The cast includes John Cusack, Samuel L. Jackson, and Mary McCormack. The film was released in the US on June 22, 2007 although July 13th is mentioned as the release date in the trailer posted on the website. The film has been rated PG-13 in the USA for thematic material including disturbing sequences of violence and terror, and frightening images.

The film follows Mike Enslin (Cusack), an unpopular author who specializes in the horror genre. Enslin's career is widely based on investigating alleged haunted houses, although his continuously unsuccessful searches have left him bored and pessimistic. Enslin eventually learns of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City, which houses the infamous "Room 1408." Interested, Enslin decides to spend one night in the hotel and is surprised by the supernatural behavior occurring within the room.

The film was a critical and financial success, proving to be one of the most profitable films of 2007 and inspiring interest in the adaptation of other stories written by King.

Cast

Production

In November 2003, Dimension Films optioned the rights to the 2000 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. According to John Cusack, the Roosevelt Hotel in New York was used for some of the exterior shots of the Serrano.

Detailed synopsis (Spoiler Alert!)

Mike Enslin (Cusack) is a skeptic and author who debunks supernatural occurrences after the untimely death of his daughter Katie. After finishing his latest successful book, he receives an anonymous postcard of the Dolphin Hotel in New York City bearing the message "don't enter 1408." Viewing this as a challenge, Enslin attempts to book a reservation for room 1408, but the hotel will not rent him the room. However, after being informed by Enslin's agent Sam Farrell (Shaloub) that the Fair Housing Act requires hotels to rent unoccupied rooms, the Dolphin reluctantly reserves room 1408 for Enslin.

Arriving at the Dolphin, Enslin is pulled aside by the hotel's manager Gerald Olin (Jackson), who warns him that no one has lasted more than an hour in 1408. Olin offers Enslin an upgrade to the penthouse suite, access to documents regarding the deaths in 1408, and an $800 bottle of cognac if Enslin abandons his plan to stay in 1408. Enslin accepts the documents and the cognac but insists on staying in the room, frustrating Olin. The manager gives him the key, warning him that "It's an evil fucking room."

Once inside the room, Enslin pulls out his Mini Cassette recorder and dictates on the unremarkability of room 1408. As he examines the room, the clock radio suddenly starts blaring We've Only Just Begun by The Carpenters; he is startled, but dismisses it as a gag cooked up by Olin. Later, Enslin is startled again as the clock radio begins to play the same song. When he rips the clock's electrical cord from the wall the display flickers and changes to read "60:00", then starts counting down from 60 minutes. Suddenly, Enslin is unable to hear anything, apart from a tinnitus-like ringing in his ears, and opens the window to check his hearing; the window slams down, cutting a large gash in the top of his hand. His hearing quickly returns and he bandages his hand using a bandana from his bag. Wishing to go to a hospital, Enslin attempts to leave the room; however his key breaks off in the door, followed by the knob breaking off, trapping him inside 1408.

Enslin begins to see and hear things, including visions of his daughter's time in the hospital shortly before her death, but he initially dismisses them as hallucinations. He makes several attempts to free himself from the room, such as crawling through the air vents or trying to crawl outside on the ledge to the next room, but all end in failure. He manages to contact his estranged wife Lily (Mary McCormack) via video chat, but the conversation ends abruptly when the sprinkler system shorts out his laptop. All the while the room temperature drops, eventually to subzero temperatures. However, his laptop starts working again and he hears Lily calling out to him via video chat, but a doppelgänger of him hijacks the conversation, urging Lily to come to the hotel immediately and enter room 1408. As Enslin desperately tries to tell his wife not to come the room begins to shake violently, and the interior cracks and explodes as water fills the room, pulling Enslin under the surface.

Enslin wakes up on the beach, the result of a surfing accident depicted earlier in the film. He soon finds Lily at his bedside in a hospital near his home in L.A.; she tells him that he was hospitalized after sustaining a concussion, leading him to conclude 1408 was just a dream. This reprieve is short-lived, however, when at the post office a construction crew made up of hotel staff and guests begin to destroy the interior, revealing the walls and floor of 1408 underneath, now fire gutted. He is still trapped inside 1408. Enslin then encounters his dead daughter, but as he emotionally embraces her she dies in his arms, then crumbles to dust as the clock radio's countdown approaches zero; when it finally reaches zero the room changes back to its original, undamaged appearance.

The clock radio resets for another 60 minutes and the phone rings; when Enslin answers, the friendly female voice of the hotel operator informs him that he can relive the hour "again and again" or choose to take advantage of their "express checkout system." A hangman's knot appears in the bedroom and Enslin has a vision of him hanging himself; he tells the operator that he will not be checking out that way. The phone rings again, and the operator reminds him that his wife will be arriving in 5 minutes and will be sent right up to his room. He responds he is done arguing and is going to end the experience.

Turning the cognac he got earlier from Olin into a Molotov Cocktail, Enslin sets the room on fire, causing the hotel to be evacuated. Lily arrives just seconds afterwards and is stopped from entering the hotel, but tells the firefighters that Enslin is in 1408. Enslin throws an ashtray through the room's windows, intentionally causing a backdraft to overtake the room just seconds before firefighters batter down the door. They get him out and, though burned, Enslin is told that he will be all right. Enslin attempts to tell the firefighters not to enter the room, as it is "evil." A short while later, a smiling Olin is seen in his office, smoking a cigar and praising Enslin for surviving.

Enslin recovers in a New York hospital, Lily at his bedside. He swears that he saw Katie, but Lily refuses to believe him. After his recovery Enslin moves back in with Lily, beginning work on a new, non-horror novel. While sorting through a box of items from his night in 1408, Enslin comes across his Mini Cassette recorder. After some difficulty he manages to get the tape to play; it begins with Enslin's dictation of 1408's appearance, but cuts in with audio from his interaction with the apparition of his daughter. Lily freezes in shock as she hears her dead daughter's voice coming from the hand-held tape recorder, and the film closes on Enslin meeting her shocked stare with one of grim vindication.

Alternate ending

Director Mikael Håfström has stated that the ending for 1408 was reshot because test audiences felt that the original ending was too much of a "downer". The original ending, available exclusively on the Director's Cut edition, sees the backdraft engulfing the room as Enslin hides under the coffee table, happy to see the room destroyed as he dies. Olin later approaches Lily and Enslin's agent at his funeral, where he unsuccessfully attempts to give back a box of Enslin's possessions, including his tape recorder. Olin listens to the recording in his car, hearing Katie's voice on the tape and catches a quick glimpse of a horribly burnt Enslin in his rear view mirror. The film ends at the gutted room, with an apparition of Enslin disappearing after being called away by the voice of his daughter and the sound of a closing door.

References to the number 13

Several places in the movie have allusions to the supposedly superstitious number 13. See 1408 (short story) for more on this. The most common reference is the room number itself, 1408 (1+4+0+8=13) as well as the fact that the room is really on the 13th floor (the overhead elevator numbers show that there is no floor numbered 13, and the manager states that the hotel's 14th floor is really a renumbered 13th floor). However, other numbers allude to 13. According to hotel manager Gerald Olin, the Dolphin opened in October 1912 (1+9+1+2=13). In one scene, the temperature shows 45-40 (4+5+4+0=13). On the inside of the lock of the hallway door to 1408, the number 6214 can be seen (6+2+1+4=13). When Mike first opens the Bible, he turns to 2 Samuel chapter 11 (2+11=13). When Mike is trying to get his wife Lily to send police, he gives the address as 2254 Lexington (2+2+5+4=13). At the end of the film, the voice from the telephone says "we are 5...we are 8" (5+8=13). Even something as innocent as Mike asking the "engineer" to just walk in the room "6 or 7 feet" (6+7=13). The only time that the actual number 13 appears is when Olin is taking Enslin to room 1408 and he says that "The owners don't think that 1408 is evil, they just pretend that it doesn't exist like the 13th floor.", and when Mike first gets the postcard telling him not to go to the room, he writes down that the numbers 1408 equal 13. Towards the end of the film (end of chap 17), the clock in the room is on 3:38, changes to 3:37 but only for a split second, then changes to 3:36 and continues to run normally (3+3+7=13). The references are similar to the movie The Number 23.

Reception

1408 opened on June 22, 2007 to generally positive reviews. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 77% 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 ." 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 "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 unfavorably the film 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 "as haunted hotel King movies go, 1408 is certainly no Shining. Not even the TV-movie version."

Box office performance

In the film's opening weekend, it opened in second place at the box office, grossing $20.6 million in 2,678 theaters. Although the film grossed less than fellow opener Evan Almighty, 1408 proved to be a far more profitable film. 1408 had a production budget of $25 million while Evan Almighty cost $175 million to produce and opened to just $31.1 million.. 1408 went on to gross $71.9 million in the United States and Canada. The film has not been as successful in other territories, grossing $27.3 million with a worldwide gross of $99.3 million as of October 11, 2007.

International release dates

References

  1. Box Office Mojo (2003-11-05). "1408". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-05-06.
  2. David Rooney (2003-11-05). "Dimension checking into room '1408'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. "Hafstrom to direct '1408'". Variety. 2005-10-25. Retrieved 2007-05-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. Ian Mohr (2006-03-08). "Cusack finds a room in King's '1408'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  5. Michael Fleming (2006-04-03). "'1408' gets another guest". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  6. Ian Mohr (2006-07-11). "Walsh's room is '1408'". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-07. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. Ian Mohr (2006-08-13). "'1408' books a new tenant". Variety. Retrieved 2007-05-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. http://summermovies.fandango.com/roadtripmyfav.php?fid=15
  9. http://www.cinemablend.com/dvdnews/Advance-Hint-At-1408-DVD-Contents-4676.html Advance Hint At 1408 DVD Contents - DVD News
  10. "1408 - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
  11. "1408 (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
  12. http://www.reelviews.net/movies/f/1408.html
  13. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/22/DDGMVQHUUE14.DTL&ytpe=movies
  14. http://www.boston.com/movies/display?display=movie&id=9186
  15. http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/228197
  16. "Weekend Box Office Results for June 22-24, 2007". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
  17. ^ "1408 (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
  18. "Evan Almighty (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-11-03.
  19. http://www.castellolopescinemas.com

External links

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