Searching For The True Ending To 1408

1408 is one of the best horror movies out there. The pure dread and human drama shown makes you fear the experience w/o ever being in that room yourself.

the scene where he finally gets the person who's across in the buildings' attention, only to find out its a shadow, just mimicing him was terrifying

"Its an evil fucking room" is such a simplistic but effective line. It portrays to the main character that this isn't the same song and dance

I always found it interesting how the room never kills you. It just tortures you mentally to the point of wanting to kill yourself. Which parallels what it's like living with a mental illness. Even with the imagery of drowning or the feeling of maybe feeling better only to realize that the illness is still there. You're still in the room. And Mike has PTSD from his daughters death which the room can represent because he can no longer run away from the thoughts.

Easily one of the most chilling and best endings is when Lily realises Mike wasn't lying about his stay at 1408 and that he saw his daughter. One of my favourite Stephen King stories adapted into a movie

Skipping the 13th floor is an actual thing in most western buildings that are tall enough to have 13 floors because of the superstition surrounding the number. They also don't have 13th rooms either the numbers skip from 112-114, 212-214, etc. In Asia a lot of buildings skip the 4th floor and 4th rooms but not the 13th because 4 is the unlucky number there.

I love how, at first, you may be thinking "Oh, the room is trying to teach him a lesson to be a better person". But no. The room is just a pure, unbridled sadist that wants you to suffer.

The movie does such a good job establishing just how f***ing dangerous it is to enter that room, to the point where you don't even want to be on the same floor as it. The fact that they have to send maids in there to clean it just makes my skin crawl. They're basically sending them into the Leviathan's gaping mouth, hoping that it won't chomp down on them

As someone who used to watch this movie everyday for weeks on end, I still don't know why. The Theatrical offers such a powerful ending. With Lilly hearing hear dead daughter's voice, and finally understanding what Mike went through in that room. There is no other choice for then the Theatrical imo. It is the perfect ending.

I’ve never forgotten the scene where he thought it was over but ended up still in the room. The line “I WAS OUT!” has stayed with me all this time.

There’s a line his father says that has always really stuck with me. “As I was, you are. As I am, you will be.” Really disturbing on a psychological level, especially seeing the father in that state. Great review and analysis, Mista GG!

1408 is perfect horror with no answers. You will never find out why is the room evil, what is haunting it. But it doesn’t matter, and that makes it so good.

I prefer the theatrical version the most because Lilly hearing her daughter's voice again after her death is a lot more impactful to me compared to the other versions' endings. Edit: Okay, context, the comment isn't about the Mike's character arc or even me saying I prefer it to be revealed that at least something that happened in the room was real. It's simply me saying that between the theatrical version and the director's cut, I prefer the scene in theatrical because of Lily being the one to hear her daughter's voice on the recorder as it feels like it brings more of an impact than Olen hearing Katie's voice as he has no connections to her and no idea who she is either.

I love how there's a filter over the movie clips whenever you're talking about the story from the book, small touches like that makes a lot of difference and it's really appreciated. If I can suggest a movie it would be House[House] (1977) this thing is a masterpiece

I always get nervous when he's able to open the door for the handyman to help fix the thermostat and he doesn't just leave. Because once that door shuts it'll NEVER open again.

This reminds me of the true story I once heard where a guy had a wife and 7 year old daughter and he lived a happy life. But then one day they managed to wake him from his coma and his family wasn't real. He had to go through grief trauma therapy as for him, he'd spent 8 years with his family/daughter and they were very real to him. When he woke from his coma, he never had a wife and daughter. He was just at university as a young man who had hit his head hard after a prank went wrong. That's scary!

Fun fact about the story 1408: Steven King included the first draft and second draft of the opening scene in 1408 as part of his memoir/how to write book, "On Writing" as an example of what kind of edits and adjustments he makes between drafts.

1408 is one of my favorite horror movies, I periodically come back to it to watch again. "It's an evil fucking room." And John Cusack was flawless in his role. I love the character archetype he plays and he does it so, so well. That part where he's screaming "I was out!" Felt so real and raw and frustrating. I like how the movie ends and you can somewhat come to your own conclusion about what ending feels best to you. Its underrated in the psych horror space.

"Mike was not happy about the situation" Comedic Understatement of the day

The room sounds horrifying. Constantly trapped in a nightmare. The part where it makes it seem that mike escapes and then brings him back into the room was pure horror. This is one of the few horror movies that actually left me startled.