John Cusack plays a famous author who is about to meet the ghosts that inhabit room 1408 in New York City's Dolphin Hotel.
Novelist Mike Enslin (John Cusack) has spent many nights in haunted houses. He's made a career out of travelling the country and staying in cemeteries and homes where entire families have been murdered or committed suicide and then writing about what he thinks. Actually, he doesn't believe in ghosts at all. In this new film based on the short story by Stephen King, Enslin is in for the most terrible nightmare of his life when he unwisely chooses to spend one night in room 1408 in the Dolphin Hotel in Manhattan.
Samuel L. Jackson appears as Gerald Olin, the hotel manager who, unsuccessfully, tries to persuade Enslin to accept a penthouse suite. Olin then lays it all out for the unknowing writer. People have met horrible ends in that room, he says. One man drowned in a bowl of chicken soup, another guest jumped to his death from the bedroom window, and yet another man slit his own throat. Olin has all the evidence, all the documentation in a neat file folder. Completely unfazed and just as cocky, Enslin insists Olin hand over the room key. He'll be the first guest to stay in 1408 in a long time. It will be a long night too.
In the elevator, Olin informs Enslin that there was once a maid locked in the bathroom for just a few minutes. When she came out both of her eyes were gouged out with a pair of scissors; she had done that herself. Olin makes one final plea to Enslin not to do this, but to no avail.
Everything seems normal at first. The room looks unremarkable with a sofa, chairs, a bed and TV. No ghosts yet. Enslin calls for somebody to come fix the thermostat, and the employee refuses to enter the room. The door's open, and there's one chance for Enslin to get out. But he shuts it.
From that point it's all downhill for Enslin. First, it's the clock radio turning off and on and the bathroom sink shooting out thick jets of boiling water. But then he begins to see things that he wouldn't normally see, such as his ex-wife and deceased daughter on television, and his senile father in the bathroom. Guests from the past are walking toward the window and jumping out. The walls begin to crack and give off a deep inhuman growl, and leak a crimson liquid that looks very much like blood.
Enslin is now praying that he's having a nightmare or that he's hallucinating. The bedroom window disappears in an instant so his only escape route is cut off. The room collapses and fills with water, and Enslin begins to sink.
He awakens in a hospital room with his ex-wife beside him. Was it a dream? Yes, a horrible one.
Every good horror film makes you think the nightmare is over, even when the main character is not out of the woods yet. The illusion within a nightmare comes crashing down and the unearthly forces that are at work in room 1408 bring Enslin back to the Dolphin. Those same forces penetrate deep into his subconscious mind and make him see his dead daughter, Katie. Suddenly she appears in front of him and all of his guilt and anguish over losing her at such a young age comes pouring out. As a last resort, he sets fire to the room. He gets pulled out, warning the firefighters not to go in the room.
His ex-wife urges him to get rid of some things that survived the blaze. One of the items is a tape recorder and Enslin plays some of his notes from that evening. They both hear the voice of their daughter, just as clearly as if she were alive.
Maybe now Enslin is a believer.
