MORE THAN JUST GHOST LORE IN A B A D P L A C E 61
reflection of his present life, and also of what will happen to him in case he does
not fully process his emotional loss. They symbolize the interconnectedness of
“all that was, that is, and that will be” (Magga 2009).
The fact that towards the end of the film Enslin decides to put his
experiences into writing illustrates this interconnectedness, as well as that it
marks a new beginning in the writer’s life. By writing a story—a story that on
the outside looks like yet another ghost story, but which on the inside actually is
a testimony of Mike Enslin’s grief work—Enslin processes his loss. While
outlining his fears, hopes and pain prior to and after Katie’s death, the author
comes to terms with the death of his only child. The writing of the book then has
to be understood as Enslin’s attempt to free himself “from the lost object”
(Freud, Mourning 252) and to reattach his libido to a new object in order to
being able to accept “consolation in the form of a substitute for what has been
lost” (Clewell 44).
His book becomes the key to unlock and close room 1408; a room “whose
very numerals add up to thirteen” (King, Room 478), which captures everything
that the number 13 comprises, and which has to be understood as the
architectural manifestation of his mind. In addition to superstitious fears of
destruction, suffering, pain, and death, this particular place holds Enslin’s final
step towards transformation. As such, it “symbolizes the death to the matter or
to oneself and the birth to the spirit: the passage on a higher level of existence”
(Desrosiers 2009). In this sense, the book is the explanation for all of Mike
Enslin’s fears, desires, superstitions, and hopes.
Even though 1408 can be classified as a ghost story within the field of
horror fiction, the viewer has to acknowledge that the director adapts and
transforms the long-established folkloristic and literary tradition of ghosts in a
way that its result stands for its own and becomes a fictional expression of
mourning. By doing so, Hafstrom accomplishes three things: First, he creates a
new type of ghost story, which is composed of the traditional, antiquarian
(folkloristic), and psychological ghost story. Second, he reshapes King’s original
text. Third, he turns his film into a “fully independent work” (Cahir 26) of art. In
other words, Hafstrom creates “a work that is second without being secondary”
(Hutcheon 9). It is as Linda Hutcheon would say, “its own palimpsestic thing”
( 9).
Tulane University, New Orleans
Alexandra Reuber
Notes
lmLegend has it that twelve Gods were at dinner, when the evil-spirited God Loki entered
the room and provoked a dispute leading to the death o f the loving God Baldur. Since
then, the number thirteen has been viewed as misfortune, especially “unlucky in terms o f
dinner parties” (Morse 182). Since then this unlucky number has been associated with the
fear o f destruction, o f great suffering, and o f the approaching death.
2. According to ancient Egyptian beliefs, the number 13 represents “the final step or
stage o f earthly existence, in which one was merged into permanence or spiritual
transformation” (de Lys 481).