12 Movie Deaths You Knew Were Coming (That Still Broke You)

This one is an unusual case, as many readers who only caught this underrated 2007 chiller in cinemas will have no idea what we’re talking about in this entry. In fact, anyone who is only familiar with this spooky flick’s source material, the Stephen King story of the same name, will be equally lost.

You see, John Cusack’s likeable everyman Mike Enslin, a sceptical paranormal investigator, survives his brush with the haunted room 1408 in both King’s original story and the film’s executive-mandated cinematic cut. But as anyone who has seen the director’s cut can attest, the film makes it clear from the beginning that Mike’s fate is sealed as soon as he steps into the Dolphin. It’s underlined by countless small details such as the lone cigarette he brings, used to set the room ablaze in a heroic self-sacrifice, and the bottle of brandy gifted to him by Samuel L Jackson’s stern hotel manager, which becomes a Molotov cocktail for the same purpose.

So, some very clear and well-established foreshadowing then. Doesn’t make us any less delighted every time Mike somehow implausibly escapes in the cinema version, though.