1408

[Täpa]

Anybody here seen this movie? Years ago i saw the movie for the first time and because of one, spiritually appealing, scene i wanted to look it again. So today was that day. And what i found out is it is almost a full blown buddhist movie about the death proces and bardo experience.
I like to share the clues with you. Let me know what you think. (if you like to find out yourself do not read any further)

First it starts about what Mike does. He visits haunted houses and graveyards to stay and find paranormal activity, in which he does not believe. So here is the first parallel with buddhism i see, meditating at haunting sites/places with corpses.

Around 6:20 He tells: I love paranormal events..to get a glimpse of that lucid light at the end of the tunnel.
So, instead of telling i like to see ghosts or other paranormal activity he jumps right to the clear light experience.
Right after this is shown a book he wrote called "the road home". No coincidence i think.

10:00 In a restaurant he is sitting behind a big shipsteeringwheel. With the same characteristics as the dharmawheel.

20:24 At this point he is arguing whether or not to enter room 1408. A list of all the 56 people are handed over to him, almost presented like a lineage of all the persons who died there.

24:00 When in the elevator to room 1408 the manager explains the 13th floor does not exists. So infact 1408 is not at floor 14 but 13, thus makes it room 1308. 1308 is the birth year of Longchen Rabjam.

27:40 Mike tells to the recorder he wants to see a river of blood. Buddhist symbology of the sea of blood.

35:54 He tells something like: It is not that what i see is real, but it is not as real as it seems.

37:02 Now another one i found: The thermostat is not working well, the mechanic tells him to remove the lid and to tap against the mercury.
He steps out the room and enters back in. Suddenly the clock starts counting down one hour, which is the time no one lasts longer in that room.
This indicates the death process is started. In buddhism at the start of the death process tigles come up at death, touching/moving the mercury is an analogy for this, it think.

38:55 He loses hearing, which indicates the elements are dissolving.

39:27 one drop of blood falls down the sink. I remember something about a red thigle in the deathprocess.

43:00 From here he is in the bardo. All the terrifying visions come up.

1:21:00 He sees a door. He walks to it and carefully opens it. There is a void. He looks at it and becomes curious. (this was his way out) But at the very moment his deceased daughter appears talking behind him. He gets distracted from the void and turns around. When he does the door is completely vanished. He missed the clear light bardo and cant return to it and continues to suffer in the horror of samsara. From here the bardo of becoming starts.

[Ayu]

It's a psychological horror movie after a short story of Stephen King.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)

I assume, the intention of the story is to create fear?

[FiveSkandhas]

I liked this movie for some reason. There were some unsettling details…i.e., he picks up the bottle of alcohol and takes a swig. He puts it down on the bedside table and there is a very fast momentary closeup of the bottle. The label is upside-down.

[Kim O'Hara]

It's a psychological horror movie after a short story of Stephen King.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)

I assume, the intention of the story is to create fear?

That's what Stephen King usually does.
It seems that a lot of people are scared by things that they know aren't even real, and a lot of them enjoy being scared. It seems kind of childish to me but maybe I'm missing something.


Kim

[Johnny Dangerous]

It's a psychological horror movie after a short story of Stephen King.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1408_(film)

I assume, the intention of the story is to create fear?

That's what Stephen King usually does.
It seems that a lot of people are scared by things that they know aren't even real, and a lot of them enjoy being scared. It seems kind of childish to me but maybe I'm missing something.


Kim

Most good horror stories also deal with themes like loss, uncertainty,etc. and often ( though certainly not always) end with someone having made it through a traumatic event and lived to tell the tale. In that sense, they are like many other genres which touch on common experiences and actually make people feel better, rather than worse. That, and the adrenaline rush.

[FiveSkandhas]

It’s a shame that King got pigeonholed as a “horror writer” because so many of his tales defy that description…Shawshank Redemption, Firestarter, the Dark Tower, and Apt Pupil come to mind. His work is a bit dated and riddled with cringeworthy sexist and racist tropes by today’s standards, as well as shoddy clichés. But he has has moments. 1408 was a short story that fit neatly into the horror genre and made for an entertaining movie imho.

(Slumps a little in shame recalling various Buddhist injunctions against “wild words” and “frivolous tales”…yes, if I were a better practitioner I wouldn’t be wasting time that could be spent in Dharmic study on such fripperies…mutter mumble)