Here’s the creepy true story behind horror movie 1408. Directed by Swedish filmmaker Mikael Håfström, 1408 was released back in 2007 and hailed as one of the best horror movies of that year. It starred John Cusack as Mike Enslin, a paranormal skeptic who pens books debunking supernatural occurrences. His latest investigation takes him to a grand New York City hotel named The Dolphin that’s home to an infamously haunted room; the titular 1408. Despite warnings from hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson, Deep Blue Sea), Mike insists on staying in 1408 and soon finds his skepticism tested in terrifying ways.
1408 is based on the short story of the same name penned by master of the macabre Stephen King that first appeared in his self-narrated audiobook Blood And Smoke, and later in his short story collection Everything’s Eventual. In the movie, Mike records his thoughts on room 1408, stating “Hotel rooms are a naturally creepy place, don’t you think? I mean, how many people have slept in that bed before you? How many of them were sick? How many of them lost their minds?” That line is ripped almost verbatim from the foreword King wrote for “1408” in Everything’s Eventual, but the inherently creepy nature of hotel rooms wasn’t the only inspiration for the story.
According to an IMDb trivia tidbit, Stephen King was inspired to write “1408” after reading about an investigation conducted by parapsychologist Christopher Chacon at San Diego’s Hotel del Coronado. Built in the late 1880s, the luxurious hotel was a playground for Hollywood’s elite back in the Roaring Twenties and hosted stars including Charlie Chaplin, Mae West, and Greta Garbo but it’s most famous for a tragic incident that took place there a few years after its grand opening.
In 1892 a young woman named Kate Morgan checked into the Hotel del Coronado on Thanksgiving under a false name and informed staff she was waiting for a male companion. Five days after checking in, however, Kate’s body was found on a flight of stairs leading to the beach after she took her own life. Since then, hotel guests and employees have reported several spooky incidents mostly centered around the third-floor guestroom Morgan occupied, like objects inexplicably moving by themselves or disembodied voices and footsteps.
Funnily enough, it wasn’t Kate Morgan’s original room in which Christopher Chacon experienced paranormal goings-on but another room that was part of the maids’ quarters. After setting up infrared cameras, magnetic meters and the like, Chacon and his team detected a total of 37 abnormalities in the former maid’s room including a glass that fell to the floor by itself. Chacon’s experiences weren’t quite as terrifying as what poor Mike Enslin endures in 1408, but they’re still pretty creepy and – unlike the titular room in Stephen King’s story – guests can stay in the haunted rooms at Hotel del Coronado … if they dare.
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