As surreal as these 1408 The storyline of the movie may seem, it is based on a true story. Directed by Mikael Håfström, 1408 was released in 2007 and is considered one of the best horror movie adaptations of Stephen King’s books. It featured John Cusack as Mike Enslin, a paranormal skeptic who pens books debunking supernatural events. His latest investigation takes him to a large New York City hotel called the Dolphin that houses a haunted room, 1408. Despite warnings from hotel manager Gerald Olin (Samuel L. Jackson), Mike insists on staying at 1408 and finds his skepticism tested.
The Stephen King movie is based on the short story of the same name. This story was first published in his self-told audio book Blood and smoke and later in his short story collection Everything is 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 mindsBut, The inherently creepy nature of hotel rooms isn’t the only inspiration For the story.
The Hotel del Coronado inspired Stephen King’s 1408
According to reports (by The website of Hotel del Coronado), Stephen King was inspired to write the short story, 1408After 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 in the Roaring Twenties and hosted stars including Charlie Chaplin, Mae West and Greta Garbo. However, it is most famous for a tragic incident that occurred in its vicinity a few years after its grand opening.
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In 1892, a young woman named Kate Morgan checked into the Hotel del Coronado on Thanksgiving under a false name and informed the staff she was waiting for a male companion. Five days after checking, 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 guest room that Morgan occupied. From inexplicably moving objects to disembodied voices and footsteps, the hotel’s staff reported it all.
Are any of the events in 1408 real?
Strangely, Christopher Chacon experienced paranormal incidents in a room that was part of the maid’s quarters at the Hotel del Coronado; Not in Kate Morgan’s original room. After setting up infrared cameras, magnetic meters and other investigative tools, Chacon and his team detected a total of 37 abnormalities in the first maid’s room, including a glass that fell to the floor by itself. Chacon’s experiences aren’t even remotely as terrifying and weird as Mike Enslin’s 1408. However, they still established that Stephen King’s short story and the 1408 Movie adaptations have some semblance of reality to them.
Other Stephen King stories inspired by true events
The Shining, Pet Sematary, The Dark Half, and a Good Marriage
Stephen King’s stories are twisted and haunting, but even some of the scariest have an influence that the author has come up with from real life. One of the most obvious examples is The Shining. Fans still talk about the iconic Stanley Hotel in Colorado, on which King based the Overlook Hotel. King went to stay at the hotel for a vacation with his wife Tabia, and when he heard that it had fallen, it started his imagination. The hotel was preparing to close for the winter, and He flew around the almost empty hotel, and The Shining began to form.
When Stephen King was a “writer-in-residence” at the University of Maine in 1979, he rented a house near a major road where people’s pets were regularly killed by passing trucks. King’s daughter has a cat, and it ends up dying when it was hit by a vehicle. The king learned from a “Pet Sematary“Near his house, and they buried the cat there. When King’s son Owen almost wandered on the road, he came up with the story of Gage dying and being buried and raised in the road. Pet Sematary.
The dark half showed that a writer had given up their own pseudonym.
The dark half is a book that has personal meaning for Stephen King. During this time, King wrote horror novels under his own name and other books under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. Fans seemed to want to see King only write horror novels, and eventually they discovered he was Bachmann. This made King decide to give up that pseudonym, and the dark half showed that a writer had given out their own pseudonym, only for their other “half” to turn around and try to force themselves to be the only one.
There is also a lesser known Stephen King short story that was made into a movie starring Julianne Moore. in A good marriageA woman named Darcy discovers the horrifying realization that her husband, Bob, is a serial killer. He even admits it to her, but she ends up killing him when she gets the chance and saves herself. Stephen King Based Bob on Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, and the outcry against his wife of 30 years for having no knowledge of his killing spree.
Sources: The website of Hotel del Coronado