Mary McCormack, 1408 deals with everybody's inner demons. What inner demon would terrify you coming out in that hotel room?

Mary: I'm a classic girl on that front. I can't do bugs. No bugs for me. You know real demons are much bigger, sadder things like family and safety and all that. But in terms of just like shallow demons, it's bugs for me. No bugs. No bugs. No rats.Having your second child so recently, did that make it harder to imagine your child dying, like you have to do in this movie?

McCormack: At the time I had one, so it was easy. [Laughs.] No, two ups it. My second one is this big, but she was not around then. My first was. And yeah, it's hard, but it helps, I think. I mean, I think every actor uses their life and their relationships to sort of access their emotional life, and so yeah. I sacrificed her.Did you go home and hug your daughter?

McCormack: A lot. But at work she died a lot of horrible deaths.Mikael Håfström, as director it must have been very interesting having two actors as different as the introverted John Cusack and the extroverted Sam Jackson in the same movie.

Håfström: There's a long scene at the beginning of the film where John Cusack's character meets the manager of the hotel, played by Sam Jackson, and we needed to have a charismatic guy to play opposite someone like Sam Jackson. We had to find an actor who was strong and was able to stand up to him. In the story, King describes the hotel manager as a white guy, a kind of European character, and Sam is obviously neither of those things, but it doesn't make any difference. It's a different kind of Sam Jackson that people are used to seeing. Sam and John never worked together, although they always had the ambition to do so, and as you say, they are different kinds of actors, but they enjoyed the energy they gave each other.Stephen King is often critical of the films made from his writings, and some have been pretty bad. So what were the challenges for you?

Håfström: I know that Stephen King saw the film a few weeks ago, but I have never met him. I am pleased that he seemed to like it. ... I think that Stephen King's short stories lend themselves better to being made into movies, but of course they have to be expanded to some extent ... I, of course, saw The Shining again, as well as Carrie, which I think was his first to be put to film, and then I especially studied Misery, because the very alienated feeling of being isolated in a room was important, because it's a very similar situation that John Cusack's character has with James Caan's character in Misery. ... Stephen King is genius, and in his short stories there is a lot of information. For example, you learn a lot about this guy, and of course as a movie you have to make it longer. We have the heart and soul of the whole story. I don't know why some have worked and some haven't. I'm just very glad that I got to do one.You've done a few movies that are getting remade in America, right? And is there any difference in how to scare an American audience or a Swedish audience?

Håfström: Yes, there are a few of them. [Strandvaskaren English title:] (The Drowning Ghost), and [Ondskan] (Evil) and the action comedy Kopps I wrote will all eventually be made again by American studios. I don't think that there is anything that is different, really, about scaring an American audience or a Swedish audience, and I'm happy that Drowning Ghost and Evil, for example, have had good reactions from American audiences. ... Maybe in humor there is a difference in what cultures laugh at, but as a very general rule, what is scary works everywhere, and the cultural differences are not necessarily a problem. If I make a film, I make it for me and not a specific audience in my little country, or America. ... And I could never imagine remaking my own films. There would be nothing worse. ... I don't know if there's much that can be added to what I did, so I don't really want to do it again. ... I know there're many studios in America that like to buy the remake rights to European and Japanese films, and very few of them see the light of day. We'll see.How was it seeing it with the audience? Did they react the way you expected?

Håfström: The audience got some of the dark humor, the audience laughed at the right places. It's not a comedy, but John Cusack does have a sense of humor. There are some screams, some big reactions, and I think that the audience appreciated it. It's not the graphic violence seen in the last couple of years. ... It's kind of a one-man show. If they don't go with the John Cusack character they won't like it. John gives such a great performance in the film. It was challenging for him because he's so much alone in the film. Have you ever been in a hotel room like this, not where so many people have died, but that have stories about being haunted?

Håfström: Well, one of my favorite countries to travel in is Scotland, and there you live in old castles and such and you can't go to any hotel where there isn't some talk about ghosts walking around, every single one of them. I can't say I've seen anything, but I've felt a presence. I've not had a close encounter. ... You don't have to believe in it to be fascinated by the phenomena. And everyone is a skeptic until they have seen these things, but that doesn't mean I'm not fascinated by it.So would you go into a room like 1408 even after being warned?

Håfström: Everyone goes into places where they shouldn't. What I want to make this is a kind of personal journey. If I walked into 1408 and you did, then we would have different stories. What would happen to you? What in your past would come up to the surface? Everybody who comes in is different, and that makes it unusual and special.Lorenzo di Bonaventura, does this seem a bit like The Shining?

di Bonaventura: I think it's a little bolder, actually. What I found interesting about it is the examination of man's mental state of mind. I mean, Jack [Nicholson] is phenomenal in The Shining, but he's so far out there so quickly that you don't continue to have revelations in getting caught into his head. It's a thing when I was first attracted to it, and what I think everybody on the stage here is bold to be a part of is it's a pretty tough experiment to try to carry that out.We know that Eli Roth, from the Hostel movies, was going to do this at first. What happened to that?

di Bonaventura: Eli just came out with Cabin Fever when he was signed on to adapt the short story. ... We couldn't set up his take anywhere. It's too bloody to say out loud. It was madness, and an entirely different movie. He has such a love of the bloody parts of the genre I think it scared everybody. ... Eli was attracted to it right away. When Eli fell out, it was a little while later that Dimension bought the rights to this short story and Matt Greenberg came in, and then Scott [Alexander] and Larry [Karaszewski] followed him with Mikael.Why was there a decision to downplay special effects and computer-generated images?

di Bonaventua: It's not about that. This is more about the mental disintegration, as opposed to the physical degradation that's going on.How was Stephen King involved?

di Bonaventura: Stephen pretty much lets the filmmakers make their decisions, so he's not a guy who's looking over your shoulder constantly. And he's very, very clear about there's a difference between the written medium and the moving medium, and as such, a lot of novelists don't understand that. That's when you can get into trouble when you're trying to adapt things, and what's great is he completely got that. And we were able to show him the movie three or four weeks ago, and fortunately it lived up to the short story for him.What did you like about this story?

di Bonaventura: It doesn't force a conclusion. I think that's one of the interesting things about what [King] does, particularly with Olin [Sam Jackson's character], who I find is a fascinating character. Some people will read and see the movie and say Olin's evil. Some people will say he's a doorkeeper. Some people will say that he's really trying to stop him.Sam Jackson, what was the most scary or bad experience you've ever had in a hotel?

Jackson: I don't know if it's bad, but I guess the most interesting thing that's ever happened to me checking into what's called a hotel ... Last year we went to a game reserve in South Africa, and when we checked in, the guy didn't ask for a credit card, he asked us to sign a release. Yeah. That's very bad. Walking from here to my room, the things that could happen. ... So it was kind of like, hmm?Are you skeptical of ghosts?

Jackson: Look, I grew up in Tennessee around people who believe all kinds of things. I was told ghost stories at night by my grandfather and his brothers, and one lady in my neighborhood ... we [went to] when we got hurt or sick or whatever. We ... went to the "root lady," who would actually come over and she'd put very sticky stuff on you and chant and do stuff. And you would get well. She would take herbs and things, and we bought chickens—we didn't buy chickens from the store, we bought chickens off trucks; they were live chickens and we killed them. She got the heads and feet. She did stuff with them. And there were people who died in our neighborhood that we saw long after they were dead. Really, you saw dead people?

Jackson: If you were out at night and looking around the wrong place, doing something wrong, you'd look up and there would be that lady who used to call your house and tell your mother you were doing something wrong, even though she's dead and she's not supposed to be here. But there she is. And you weren't the only person that saw her. It was kind of like we had phenomenon like that that went on throughout my life. We've gone through interesting things. People would tell you stories about places you could go. There was a school bus that turned over in this particular place, and if you go there at a certain time of night, you can hear the kids crying and hear the screeches of the tires. And we'd go there and, sure enough, you'd hear it. So there are lots of things that we can't explain that somebody somewhere has seen these things, and they write about them. Some people remember them vividly enough to write about them. Some people make them up, but there are lots and lots of things that we can't explain that are just part of our culture.So you've seen some of these things?

Jackson: It's not necessarily evil, either. I remember doing a movie in New Mexico and just being freaked out because I was in New Mexico, and we shot in Alamogordo and when we finished we had to go back to Santa Fe. And for some strange reason I drove myself from Santa Fe to Alamogordo, and when we were going back I was in my car alone because nobody wanted to ride back with me. So I'm on a lonely New Mexico highway that's just straight, just saying to myself, "Please let nothing show up in the sky and beam me up." Because it's New Mexico and you're always seeing [stuff] that's in the sky that goes "Zzzzzzzzzz," stops, and then goes "Zzzzzzz, zzzzzz, zzzzzz," and zoom, it's gone. What was that? All I could say was "Please let nothing pull in front of my car and just hover. Just let me get back to Santa Fe, please!"Does that make you fearless?

Jackson: Fearless? No. No. I'm quite the opposite of fearless. Well, yeah, I'm the guy that sits in the horror movie and says, "Don't go in the dark room. You're safe in this particular place right here, stay there until it gets light and call somebody or do something, but don't go in the dark room. Don't go down the stairs. Don't go see what the noise is." Even in my house, if I'm at home by myself in my house here in Beverly Hills, my house is big enough that if I hear something down the hall, I'll just stay in my room ... I'm not going to go down the hall to see if something's not right. I'm not that interested.You're not the heroic type?

Jackson: Well, I got a gun, too. I will take the gun out and I'll put the gun on the bed and I'll sit there, and if somebody comes in the room that's not supposed to be in the house, I'll just start shooting.Sam, you have the great line about 1408, calling it "an evil f---ing room." Did you ever have the inclination to call it "an evil mother-f---ing room," like some of your other characters may have said?

Jackson: Nah. It never occurred to me. No. Not at all.

John Cusack: I was pissed off about that, because it's PG-13 and I was tortured in this room for 15 weeks, and you're being tortured, and all you want to do is just swear. You want to go "F---!", "S---!", right? But you can't, because Sam's got the great room. It's got to be "evil f---ing room." We get one f--- [to avoid an R rating], and they give it to Sam, and I get tortured.John Cusack, would you be considered more of a skeptic like your character, Mike Enslin?

Cusack: I thought one of the fun things about this piece was that King had written this very terrifically cynical character that is basically daring the gods or the devils to come and show themselves. Houdini used to go around and debunk all the people who were the mystics, but secretly it's because he had, like, this thing with his mother who died, and he really wanted to have proof that there was another world. And I think Mike Enslin is a lot like, he's a paranormal debunker, but he's really, he's just screaming, "Show me there's something out there in the universe," because he suffered the loss of his daughter. So to go from a very worldly, cynical, "bring it on" kind of a guy and to totally break him down and have him be a true believer by the end is a pretty fun journey. Me, myself, I would never be that cynical with it. I think there's definitely stuff going on beyond our senses. I probably start where he ends up. So I don't relate to it that way. I definitely think there's much more than meets the eye here.Do you have a spooky hotel-room story?

Cusack: I did a movie in upstate New York, and there was this very, very scary old hotel, and I found out that's what Stephen King based The Shining on. ... It was supposed to be haunted, and we were staying up there. And then when we'd go walking back at night after one too many cocktails, it was a little frightening in there. Do you have any experience surfing [like] your character?

Cusack: Yeah, I've actually done it a little bit, but I'm not a big surfer. The water's kind of scary, especially those big waves. I have some friends who do it, and I've gone out with them a few times. Not a big surfer.John, it would seem like there was a big challenge in acting all alone all those weeks.

Cusack: I think Mikael [Håfström] and I, we sort of had Stockholm syndrome, where the room was keeping us captive, but then as soon as we got out of the room and we got to work with Mary and Sam and stuff ... It was kind of strange, and we did scenes in the lobby, and there were all these extras, and then you'd go out to Venice Beach and there'd be surfers and things. We just thought, "We got to get back in the room, get back in the room where it's safe and horrible." Just me staring at the walls, and I get tortured, and we started to think that made more sense than dealing with people after a while. It was pretty fun.What was your first experience with Stephen King's works?

Cusack: My parents took us to Nantucket and it was 1978, somewhere around there, to visit some cousins, and that was about 1979 or 1978 and The Shining had come out, and it was already sort of a classic. It was in all the revival houses, and I snuck into a theater at around 6 o'clock because it was an R movie. And I had to walk back to this cottage where we were staying at, and when I got out it was night and it was a pretty windy road with these lamps and stuff. That was the scariest walk home I've ever taken after a movie. I saw The Shining when I was about 12 years old, and that freaked me out. I snuck in alone and then I had to walk home for like 20 minutes by myself. That was a bad, bad, bad, bad walk. I thought I heard Jack Nicholson around the corner of every bush. So that was my first entree into Stephen King. Then I saw Carrie as I got older and read The Stand in about one sitting over a whole night, because you can't put it down. I think he's very underrated as a writer. Also his sense of character, I think, is very underrated. He writes terrific characters. And I think somebody told me he uses a lot of pop-culture references, and so he doesn't say, "The man poured the detergent into the laundry." He says, "He poured the Tide into the laundry." And everybody sort of dismisses him as not the kind of literary talent that he is because he's so pop-cultured, but I think he's pretty damn good.Would you go into a room like this?

Cusack: I wouldn't. The cool thing about this movie is the thing where you say, "Don't go in the room." That happens at about minute 16, and then we go for another hour, and then we see if we can top it or see if we can sustain that kind of thing.

Jackson: You're always afraid that once you go in there you end up doing what you did, the key gets sucked in the lock, doorknob breaks off, and you can't get out. And then it's like, "Damn, I'm in here with it. Why? I never had to go in here in the beginning."

McCormack: There's still a lot of "Don't go in the room" in that room.

Cusack: Like "Don't go in that vent."

McCormack: Don't open the shower curtain.

Cusack: Don't go in the bathroom. Don't turn that corner.

Jackson: Don't go out the window.

Cusack: Don't go out the window. ... The only times I've had kind of weird paranormal events, the only times I've had them, I had a couple of times where I thought things had moved ... whatever it was, it wasn't a bad spirit, because I've never really been in the presence of, I don't think, anything truly evil that I couldn't explain. ... I met people in New Orleans, people that do voodoo and rituals. They said it was for good, but they weren't dark.Are there recurring nightmares that you have?

Cusack: Well, one of them is about the Iraq war, so I think that's a perfectly reasonable response to the world we're in here. And this one was, this is just a nice one, because a lot of times when things have worked out for me in my career, it's because there were really smart people who came by and said, "You should do this." And then there were people like Lorenzo and Mikael around here who said, "Oh yeah, we're going to do this and you're going to do this and then we're going to get Sam Jackson and Mary, and then all of sudden it's there for you." So this was just kind of blind luck to be able to get invited into this crew to do this film. But the one about Iraq is about this country and people going through shattering grief, so it seemed appropriate to make a movie about the times you live in once and a while.Do you think Sam Jackson's character, Olin, is evil?

Cusack: There's a debate about that. The guys think Olin's evil and the girls think he's not, which is interesting. All the girls I've talked to said, "No, he's a good guy. He's trying to help you out." And the guys are like, "No, he isn't. He's the crypt keeper. He's the one who set you up for all this."

Jackson: Hopefully, I can be the crypt keeper for the next three incarnations of this film. 1408 Returns.

McCormack: 1409. 1410.

Jackson: Yeah, that's right. 1408 Junior. Junior suite.