Mike Anselm is an author of poorly-selling books; his pen is his livelihood. One day, he abandoned his original writing genre and turned to creating horror novels. Unfortunately, his horror stories have almost no fans, and he can barely sell a few copies.
Not long ago, at the end of an embarrassing book signing for his "10 Series" horror collection, the few fans in attendance didn't care at all about his upcoming "10 Horror Hotels." Instead, most were interested in his "death-defying" experiences.
"Damn it! If those guys had actually read my books, how could they ask me such questions? These stories are adapted from my 'personal experiences'!" Mike thought at the time, smiling on the outside while cursing them in his heart.
Unfortunately, he couldn't flip out on his bread and butter right then and there.
To complete the final story of his next work, Mike happened to receive a postcard from the "Dolphin Hotel." The postcard told him, "Don't enter 1408."
The sender of the postcard seemed to be deliberately provoking his rebellious streak. Perhaps that person was one of his "troll fans" who knew he would seek out horror hotel experiences as writing material and did it on purpose.
"Playing ghost!"
Mike snorted inwardly with contempt, but he still specifically looked for information regarding Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel.
Only after searching did he realize that such a sinister place existed in this world. Mike's interest was piqued. He first called the hotel to book the room, but the front desk flatly refused and was very secretive about it, which only increased his interest further.
After explaining his next destination and plan to his publishing editor, he drove directly to the hotel. He wanted to record the material for the final story of his latest collection there.
Upon arriving at the Dolphin Hotel, Mike still insisted to the front desk that he must stay in 1408. Faced with his persistence, the front desk was somewhat overwhelmed. The hotel manager, Gerald Olin, appeared on the spot and stated he wanted to have a chat.
That Olin had a way with words, trying to persuade him to leave multiple times. First, he tried to trick him into stopping with fine wine. Seeing that Mike wasn't buying it, he immediately brought out the death records of fifty-six guests who had stayed in Room 1408 to intimidate him.
But Mike remained undaunted by all of this. He confidently cited the latest federal hotel management regulations, leaving Olin with no choice but to yield.
Helplessly, Olin could only hand over the key.
Now, Mike was in the elevator, having reached the 14th floor, about to get his wish and stay in that phantom room.
"Mr. Anselm, please listen to my advice one more time. Don't stay in there, okay?" Olin, having accompanied Mike to the 14th floor, did not intend to follow further. He just stepped one foot out of the elevator, leaning half his body out to warn the completely indifferent Mike.
Looking at Olin, whose eyes were filled with dread, Mike's heart was actually not as relaxed as he appeared. He had been to many places that claimed to be haunted, but there had never been a place where the staff was so terrified, as if some truly vicious demon really resided in that legendary phantom room.
But Mike's mind was made up. He turned and walked a few steps, but accidentally bumped into a stool in the hallway. After going around it for a few more steps, he saw an empty elevator arrive just at his floor. All sorts of irrational anomalies deepened the doubt in his heart, and his heartbeat couldn't help but quicken.
It was as if something terrifying was truly watching and following him in the dark. It wasn't until he was about to reach Room 1408 and saw a beautiful young woman in white pushing a stroller enter the room next door that Mike breathed a slight sigh of relief. He thought, "If 1408 were really as terrifying as the legends say, there's no way anyone would dare stay next door."
"I've heard things about Room 1408. Is that place really so dangerous?" After his persuasion failed, Olin sighed and stepped back into the elevator. However, before he could catch his breath, a black-haired Easterner in the elevator spoke a sentence that made his tension spike again.
Olin looked at Richard, knowing this was one of the two young men from out of town who had checked in a few days ago. This morning, the two had even asked him about tourist attractions and such. He didn't want to say much, but his professional ethics made him decide to follow his professional spirit. He said, "Yes, Mr. Li. Because of that room, most of the suites on the 14th floor of our hotel are not open to the public unless it's the peak tourist season and we have no choice, but we always specifically leave the rooms near 1408 vacant."
Richard smiled slightly. "Speaking of which, your Western culture is really sensitive to the number 13. Whether it's the calendar marking the 13th of every month as a black day, or buildings skipping the 13th floor label and calling it the 14th floor."
"Yes, sir," Olin explained. "Every culture has its taboos, just as the East doesn't like the number 4 very much."
Richard nodded with a smile. Soon the 15th floor arrived, and the elevator doors opened. As he and Steve were about to step out, he paused at the exit, looked back, and laughed. "I just realized, the digits in 1408 add up to 13 as well. Perhaps that makes it doubly ominous."
Olin froze in place, a chill rushing from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Watching the departing figure, the hotel manager felt increasingly uneasy.
[Established a relationship with the story character Gerald Olin of the Dolphin Hotel. plot points +5]
After the elevator doors closed, Steve, who hadn't spoken while inside, leaned in to talk. His eyes held a bit of excitement and curiosity for the bizarre. "Chade, did you discover something? Is Room 1408 really as wicked as you and that manager said?"
"I'm not sure, I just have a feeling." Richard didn't really want Steve to get involved in the business of that phantom room, because that room was truly not a place ordinary people could go. To some extent, that place might be far more dangerous than facing Henry's consciousness intrusion.
If Richard hadn't guessed wrong, during the day, he had unintentionally observed an anomaly from another dimension, causing the story world of '1408 Phantom Room' to overlap with the plot world of 'stranger things.'
Although he didn't quite understand why the two dimensional worlds would overlap, regardless, this undoubtedly threw a large bucket of cold water on Richard.
He thought he could develop steadily and quietly in this world, but he didn't expect the anomalies of this world to far exceed his imagination.
"1408 Phantom Room" originated from a short story by Stephen King, and the movie plot expanded on the original story. The story mainly tells the death-defying experience of an experiential writer. After stubbornly checking into Room 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel, he encounters a series of strange events and eventually engages in a life-and-death struggle with the demonic room.
However, Richard found this quite a headache because the movie has four different endings. He didn't know which ending the Mike of this world would move toward. In two versions of the ending, Mike survives, and in the other two, he dies. In other words, without Richard's intervention, Mike's survival probability was fifty-fifty.