Although not the most popular, “Room 1408” is one of the most successful film adaptations of Stephen King’s work. To discover on Netflix.
Transposing a work of Stephen King to the screen is often the promise of a terrifying moment or, at best, that of a great movie. Room 1408 by Mikael Hafstrom is not a masterpiece, strictly speaking, but remains, even today, one of the most solid – and little-known – adaptations of the author’s work.
Based on a short story published in 1999, this horrific thriller follows the story of Mike Enslin, a best-selling horror novelist who absolutely does not believe in the paranormal. His Cartesian mind will be put to the test when he rents room 1408 of the New York hotel Dolphin Hotel. Within these walls, many people have tragically lost their lives. The novelist will soon, too, become one of the victims of this infernal chamber.
Chambre 1408 is a highly masterful closed-door film that takes up the atmosphere of haunted house films to better shake up the codes. John Cusack plays an author very inspired by Stephen King opposite a Samuel L. Jackson as a hotel manager.
TFM Distribution John Cusack in “Room 1408”.
If the film remains rather faithful to the short story by respecting its main lines, it manages to deviate from it thanks to many interesting choices, in particular the end – different from the original text – which comes to dig into several themes, such as the mourning that must go through the main character.
To write this story, Stephen King was inspired by a real hotel, the Coronado, located in San Diego. It was in this luxury establishment, renowned for hosting former movie stars, that the lifeless body of a young woman, Kate Morgan, was found in 1892. Since then, the place has been considered haunted.
Room 1408 is available on Netflix.