History Film / FourteenOhEight

* DeadlyEuphemism: The room keeps asking Enslin if he wants to "check out", i.e. forcefully commit suicide.

** And yet he was probably the very first occupant of the room who'd got to know all the backstory ''before'' checking in. In retrospect, despite all this skepticism it could well be that this pre-existing knowledge that allowed him to endure what must have completely smitten completely unsuspecting guests within minutes.

* TooDumbToLive: Enslin counts. Even if he is a skeptic in the supernatural, it should have been disturbingly obvious with the extensive history of mysterious deaths and mutilations that Olin provides him that room 1408, regardless of nature, was dangerous, he still insists on staying the night. Olin even offers him access to all his files on the room's history and suggests that Enslin photograph room 1404 with its identical layout, pointing out that his readers wouldn't even know the difference; Enslin refuses because he want it to be "authentic". It ends up costing him dearly. An argument of Enslin acting this way can be argued that he has become so jaded with desperation of hotels playing off ghost stories, to say his ''own'' jadedness with not believing in ghosts and religion, is arguably why he thinks Olin is lying. That being said, considering the amount of evidence against the room, Enslin should have been a lot more wary.

* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler: How the room put the screws to its residents' sanity.]] There's a variation though, in tht the time itself isn't reset after the loop - it just repeats over and over.

* GroundhogDayLoop: [[spoiler: How the room put the screws to its residents' sanity.]]

* UpToEleven: Used shortly before the ending, and with two endings out of three:
** Near the end, for all versions, you think the room has done its worst to Enslin--tricking him into thinking that [[spoiler:he had actually been out of the room for ''weeks'' before bringing him right back]]. Then it does [[DiedInYourArmsTonight that thing with Katie]], and you can't possibly imagine it doing ''anything'' more horrible than that, as Enslin looks like [[DespairEventHorizon a textbook example of a broken man.]] Then it [[spoiler:rewinds to the beginning and tells him he's going to relive the experience over and over and over until he kills himself.]]
** The ending of the theatrical release has [[spoiler:his wife overhearing their daughter's voice on the tape at the end of the movie, begging to be allowed to stay with her parents, before the room reclaims her.]] Remember this was the ending the studio forced so it wouldn't be such a DownerEnding.
** Another ending has Olin, who has seen a lot of the horror the room can do, [[spoiler:hearing the dead daughter's voice as one last proof that he was right.]]

* MistakenForSuicidal: Enslin pre-empts this when he attempts to crawl along the outslide ledge to the next room over. He tells his tape recorder that should he fall, he wants it to be known it was an accident, not the room winning.

* AdaptationalBadass: Mike's results, as mentioned in the above trope, are far more impressive in the film than in the short story. There's also a weird [[InvertedTrope inversion]] in terms of Mike's writing career; he's a bestseller in the story, but is struggling in the film to the point that, when he hosts a book signing, he has to explain to the library clerk who he is to get things running.

** The hotel doesn't have a floor marked 13, to accommodate superstitious guests (actually a pretty common thing in the hotel business). This means that the 14th floor, where the room is located, is actually the 13th floor.

* FauxAffablyEvil: The room itself. It offers Mike, in a very polite manner, the option to ''take advantage of its express checkout system'': showing him a rope to hang himself.

* CompartmentShot: We see the hotel room's mini-bar from the inside when Enslin opens it. He looks baffled and we assume it is because the fridge is empty but it turns out, the fridge's backside is open and leads into the next room from where an illusion of the hotel manager starts to berate Enslin.
** There are several throughout the film. Other examples include a shot from the inside of Mike's PO Box, the compartment from which the key is produced at the hotel, and the locking mechanism of the door itself.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: After his narrow return from his failed AirVentEscape, Mike immediately makes a beeline for the fridge while muttering alcohol under his breath. Unfortunately, the room has long since stopped bothering to be subtle with its machinations and doesn't even allow him this minor reprieve, creating an illusion of Olin [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech taunting him about how he has no one but himself to blame for his situation]] when he opens the fridge. Luckily Mike still had the whiskey the real Olin had given him and, underlying how badly he's unravelling, he doesn't even bother with a cup and swigs several gulps straight from the bottle.

Through an anonymous recommendation, Enslin learns about the Dolphin Hotel, in which no one has been able to stay even a single night (or even one hour) in one particular room - the eponymous 1408. According to his research, everyone who tries has committed suicide or died from anything from heart attacks to drowning. The manager, Gerald Olin (Jackson), tries to warn him away from staying in that room, to no avail; Enslin is unconvinced by his warnings and tales, preferring to see things for himself.

After all, [[TemptingFate what's the worst that could happen?]]

Cusack plays horror writer Mike Enslin, who specializes in investigating supposedly haunted houses and other sites of supernatural activity, which he has documented previously in books like ''Ten Haunted Graveyards'' and ''Ten Haunted Mansions''. However, these investigations have yet to bear fruit in the form of confirmable sightings, leaving him pessimistic and jaded. Through an anonymous recommendation, Enslin learns about the Dolphin Hotel, in which no one has been able to stay even a single night (or even one hour) in one particular room - the eponymous 1408. According to his research, everyone who tries has committed suicide or died from anything from heart attacks to drowning. The manager, Gerald Olin (Jackson), tries to warn him away from staying in that room, to no avail; Enslin is unconvinced by his warnings and tales, preferring to see things for himself. After all, [[TemptingFate what's the worst that could happen?]]

* FourIsDeath: 1+4+0+8=13---> 1+3=4

* IfJesusThenAliens: Mike doesn't believe in the supernatural, claiming even if it was real, there isn't a God to protect them from it. This comes back to bite him ''hard'' when, at the near of his rope, he desperately resorts to praying from the hotels bible only to see that the good book is now completely blank.

* AdultFear: For Enslin, when Katie was dying of a terminal disease, and not only could he not do anything to prevent it, but as an atheist, he couldn't even take refuge in prayer.

** [[spoiler: The theatrical ending has Enslin burn down 1408, destroying it completely and survived his ordeal. He reunites with Lily and moves in with her, finally moving on with a better writing career. While playing his old burnt tape recorder, it plays the recording of when Enslin reunited with Katie, shocking Lily at the realization that the events of 1408 weren't really in his mind]].
** [[spoiler: The Director's Cut has Enslin die, but destroy 1408 in the fire. Olin tries to deliver Enslin's items to Lily at his funeral, but fails to do so when attempting to explain Enslin's actions destroyed the Room. While in his car and hearing the recording of Enslin's encounter with Katie, Olin encounters Enslin's charred ghost, but chalks it up to his imagination. The film then ends with Enslin's spirit in 1408, before being called by Katie and walking to the door and fading away, the sound of a door slamming shut]].

** The reality-warping nature of the titular room affects even electronic devices in there, causing them not to work properly or act strange. The one example where this trope is played completely straight, though, is when Enslin tries to contact his wife via laptop, only for a doppelganger of him to appear in the chat window and goad Lily into entering the 1408.

* MysteriousNote: The postcard that starts it all. Really mysterious, since who sent it remains [[TheUnreveal unknown]].

** The room also keeps fiddling with the thermostat to extremely hot or cold temperatures, the digits of which always add up to thirteen.

* BribeBackfire: Mr. Olin offers Enslin a bottle of 1939 cognac (worth about 800 dollars), as well as upgrading his room and Lakers tickets in his attempt to keep Enslin out of the room. Enslin accepts the cognac, [[{{Jerkass}} then says he's still staying]].

* AdultFear: For Enslin, when Katie was dying of a terminal disease, and not only could he not do anything to prevent it, but as an atheist he couldn't even take refuge in prayer.

* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: For the most part the room seems content to slowly drive its inhabitants to the brink of madness through slowly escalating its use of [[AlienGeometries incomprehensible alterations to the room]] or attacking their inner demons but, every so often, it adds a little variety by dispensing with the ambiguity and communicates directly either via a telephone call or, in one case, using the form of Olin as an avatar and conversing with Mike "face to face".
* AirVentPassageway: Subverted. Not only are the vents incredibly cramped, not only does he fail to escape, but ''something chases him in the vents''...

* AllJustADream: [[spoiler:Subverted in the film.]] And done remarkably well, too--at the point in the film where this happens, [[spoiler:enough running time has elapsed that you might actually believe the movie was coming to an end.]]

* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: [[spoiler: Mike wanted to avoid contacting Lily while he was in New York. But when he's in a desperate situation he calls her. While at first dismissive and annoyed she quickly takes it seriously and calls the police. Unfortunately the police say [[WhamLine the room is empty.]] Lily is desperate to help Mike, which the Room [[KickTheDog takes advantage of and creates a doppelganger who begs her to come.]]]]

* BribeBackfire: Mr. Olin offers Enslin a bottle of 1939 cognac (worth about 800 dollars), as well as upgrading his room and Lakers tickets in his attempt to keep Enslin out of the room. Enslin accept the cognac, [[{{Jerkass}} then says he's still staying]].

* DeadpanSnarker: The Room itself.

** [[spoiler:The room itself]] in both cuts. In the short story it's still in good shape by the end--if rather [[AlienGeometries non-Euclidean at times]].

* DespairEventHorizon: Enslin reaches this after the vision of Katie dying in his arms. And ''the room keeps going''.

* EyeScream: A cleaning lady who found herself locked in 1408's bathroom for four seconds used a pair of scissors to cut her own eyes out. What had she seen? No one knows. In the short story it was subtler yet in its own way scarier. She simply goes temporarily blind while cleaning the room, and yet she says "she's blind, but she can see the most awful colors".

* YearInsideHourOutside: Time is one of the many things that don't function normally in room 1408. [[spoiler:At one point Mike is lulled into thinking it was AllJustADream, and he goes on with his life for about a week on the "outside" before the room reveals that he never left at all. In truth, he barely spent an hour in there.]]