A haunted hotel room is the setting for this fun Stephen King thriller, writes Donald Clarke

At some point in the latest of many Stephen King adaptations (by our reckoning, the 457th such beast), John Cusack, playing one of the writer's characteristic alter egos, remarks that he appears to be trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare.

Well, maybe. The claustrophobic scenario of 1408 is - if highbrow writers are to be invoked - a tad more reminiscent of the work of Samuel Beckett than that of the Czech miserablist. Heck, there's even something of Jean Paul Sartre's play Huis clos about the thing.

Let us not, however, drift too close to Pseud's Corner. 1408 is pure King from beginning to end and, as such things go, is pretty darn entertaining. Cusack plays a writer who, having once been something of a literary sensation, has allowed himself to fall into hackwork.

Now famous for writing cynical investigations of haunted hotels, he becomes intrigued when he receives a postcard directing him towards one particular room - 1408 is actually on the 13th floor - of an upmarket Manhattan establishment. The manager (a sober Samuel L Jackson) does everything possible to dissuade the hero from checking in, but Cusack perseveres and, after experiencing no end of weirdness, soon wishes he hadn't.

Mikael Håfström's enjoyably ludicrous film has to cope with a challenging scenario: a good two-thirds of the drama features Cusack alone in the same small room. Remarkably, the picture never quite flags and only seems claustrophobic when it intends to be. The film-makers find something unsettling to do with virtually every item and service associated with the modern hotel room: wireless internet, mini-bar, air conditioning, even the playing cards. Cusack handles his transformation from glib confidence to abject terror with aplomb, and the twists are rationed out judiciously.

Does it make sense? Of course not. The final few scenes only serve to further muddy waters that are already troublingly clouded. But if high-class hokum is your bag, you need look no further.