In a contextual note that appears before “1408,” Stephen King indicates that “1408” is his rendition of the “Ghostly Room at the Inn” story. This refers to a kind of horror story where the characters encounter supernatural or grotesque phenomena during their stay at a hotel. Other fictionists who have tackled this subgenre include English novelist Wilkie Collins in his 1879 novella The Haunted Hotel: A Mystery of Modern Venice and American writer Robert Bloch in the 1959 novel Psycho. In his contextual note, King suggests that all writers working to elicit “shock/suspense” (365) from the reader should attempt to write a story in this vein.

The Haunted Hotel Room story is an extension of the Gothic Horror genre, which began in Europe in the 18th century. Well-known Gothic stories, such as Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer and the short fiction of Edgar Allan Poe, drew upon the idea that places are haunted by dark presences, whether natural or supernatural, that challenge the sociocultural norms of the times. Thematically, these stories typically critique either an idealized past or indulgent attitudes in the present. As a result, they are often eerie in tone and are set in decrepit and antiquated locations, such as medieval castles and large, empty houses.