When that film came out, I was living in a mountain tourist community that was kind of bats in the first place. We called The Shining "The Cabin Fever Movie."

We even had our own version of the Overlook Hotel.

GratuityIncluded: I blame abuse of marijuana on news like this and similar stories.

Hear, hear! I think that all good, right thinking people in this country are sick and tired of being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being told that all good, right thinking people in this country are fed up with being sick and tired. I'm certainly not, and I'm sick and tired of being told that I am.

jj325: In 1980 I was a senior in high school. My friends and I were smoking lots of weed and taking lots of acid. We went to The Shining at least half a dozen times totally ripped and loved it. We assumed Kubrick must be a major druggie who made the movie specifically for people like us. Nothing I've learned since then has really changed my mind about that

Read Mr. K's playboy interview where he is asked about stoners and 2001. He rightly observes that by getting stoned and groovy one loses the critical judgement that is essential to the creation of his kind of art. I think he valued his mind above all things, and would not want to obscure the clashing of ideas from which his images sprang.

Dr. Whoof: I absolutely love the bits in the article talking about Kubrick's brilliance while describing scenes right out of the book. Yeah, um, Kubrick didn't farking write the story! The hedge maze? Wasn't a brilliant reference to the minotaur in the maze...it was a cheap way to get out of doing FX for the moving topiary.

Kubrick, in fact, pretty much farked the story up entirely, but film hipsters have to worship at his altar.

To that I say, "fark Kubrick, the miniseries was better."

Watch closely as the anti-hipster hipster explains why he was hating this adaptation before you'd even heard of hating adaptations.

I checked out the soundtrack of The Shining from the library shortly after reading the book but before seeing the movie. Scared the everloving sh*t right out of me.

I like this guys analysis.

Film psychology THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design (new window)

Dr. Whoof: The hedge maze? Wasn't a brilliant reference to the minotaur in the maze...it was a cheap way to get out of doing FX for the moving topiary.

Kubrick, in fact, pretty much farked the story up entirely, but film hipsters have to worship at his altar.

To that I say, "fark Kubrick, the miniseries was better."

Yeah, 'cause there are no other uses of the maze in Kubrick's film...like the model of the maze, the road in to the Overlook, the carpeting design, or the layout of the hotel itself. I'm sure Kubrick wasn't actually trying to use a metaphor.

As for the miniseries being better, you must be the biggest troll on earth. No one could genuinely prefer that steaming pile.

Dammit, now I have to root around and see if I have a copy of The Shining in my "bought for resale" DVDs box.

Mugato: SelenaDori: WELL IF YOU DIDNT UNDERSTAND THE MOVIE THE BOOK WOULD PROBABLY CLEAR UP ANY LOOSE ENDS....SHEESH

READ A BOOK, READ A BOOK, READ A MOTHER FARKING BOOK

The book has very little to do with the movie and doesn't offer any answers. That's why King made his own shiatty yet faithful to the book miniseries.

Oh bullshiat. Kubrick's version does alter some details but it tells the story well. The main difference is the hotel blows up in the book but in both the movie and the book the hotel itself is possessed by evil.

9beers: I like this guys analysis.

Film psychology THE SHINING spatial awareness and set design (new window)

I think that was a greenlight a few months ago.

Mugato: Inhale/exhale: How do you feel about the ending to film version of The Mist?

Where he kills his kid and a minute later the cavalry shows up? Slapstick. I half expected a comedic "waa waa waaaaaa".

Really? I thought it was brilliant. They gave into the same fear that doomed the religious nuts in the store.

Mugato: Rye_: Watch closely as the anti-hipster hipster explains why he was hating this adaptation before you'd even heard of hating adaptations.

If I read the word "hipster" one more time on this site I'm going to punch a kitten in the balls.

I don't think it even means anything except "I hate you."

Mugato: If I read the word "hipster" one more time on this site I'm going to punch a kitten in the balls.

I hated this term way before you even heard about it. You don't even know.

The movie is warning not to get married. You'll be stuck in a hell on earth that eventually will drive you to want to murder. The blood is a period thing and when he goes into that room and the hot chick is there, that's the girl you fall in love with, then she turns into an old, gnarly gross chick, which is the women you stay married to.

He dies alone happy with a smile on his face.

DrBenway: Dr. Whoof: I absolutely love the bits in the article talking about Kubrick's brilliance while describing scenes right out of the book. Yeah, um, Kubrick didn't farking write the story! The hedge maze? Wasn't a brilliant reference to the minotaur in the maze...it was a cheap way to get out of doing FX for the moving topiary.

Kubrick, in fact, pretty much farked the story up entirely, but film hipsters have to worship at his altar.

To that I say, "fark Kubrick, the miniseries was better."

Oh, just listen to yourself.

Doctors, Doctors! Don't you have some patients you need to check up on?

// see? because they're both doctors...

grinding_journalist: I'm sure little Jeff Cocks didn't get made fun of in grade school.

Have some respect. His son's name is Peter. Middle name Love.

I know Cocks, and he is a warm and upstanding pillar, firmly pushing through the hairy bits of life and seeding efforts in various nether regions of the old empire.

alternative girlfriend: Why can't it just be a really freaky movie? Why can't it just be bizarre for bizarre's sake?

Because that's not what's great artist does. So much thought went into every detail, every shot every idea that to pass it off as freaky just for freaky's sake is just not right

One Bad Apple: Using Stephen King as the source material "The Shining" is a continuation of a theme first used by him in"Salem's Lot" That being can an inanimate object like a house or hotel actually contain evil. The peak of this theory is reached in "Needful Things"


What else do all three of these have in common?
They're all significantly better as books than their respective film adaptations.

funktilious_j: I think the greatest endorsement of this film ever is the fact that Stephen King hates it.

Some of the worst, I mean worst, movies ever made were the ones King had a hand in. Langoliers should be on MST3K.

He's quite Happy with the film version of The Body (Stand by Me).

DeaH: Why did the Times caption the flood of blood as a "sanguine river"? I cannot think of any meaning of that word that would fit a bloody indoor river.

You don't know what it means to "die of exsanguination?"

I thought the sentence in TFA was a nice pun.

Personally I liked the book more than the movie, but various creepy imagery from the movie (including the bloody elevator and the quick shots of the killed sisters - you can see those scenes on YouTube and pause at the right moment, he really did a nice gory still shot of them all horribly murdered and bloody, though it only flashes for an instant) is quite awesome.

Part of why I liked the book is BECAUSE it's about a just plain evil, "wrong" place. I'm not much for supernatural fiction, usually, but if it has to be supernatural stuff I just like places that are "wrong," the rules don't work, things are subtly off, people go crazy and do crazy things to each other there. Jack's descent into madness in the hotel is wonderfully written, with the metaphor of the boiler slowing reaching high pressure being a nice mirror of it, and the way he gets drunk without any alcohol is great.

I will say though I saw the movie on HBO at someone's house sometime around 1981 (LONG before I read the book, but hey, an English language movie, awesome, let's watch it!!) and had nightmares about the woman in the tub for quite some time... didn't understand the whole thing at the time, too young, but yeah, that creeped me out but good.

Wayne 985: Really? I thought it was brilliant. They gave into the same fear that doomed the religious nuts in the store.

I haven't seen the movie, but I read the full spoiler which is pretty much word for word. Personally? While the changed movie ending is horrible for the individual characters we were following, it's FAR more optimistic of an ending than book. Why? In the book it might be the entire end of the world, then can run but reality permanently changed and no going back ever. In the movie, we know the army can take care of it, sure, it was terrible for the victims of that local disaster but the normal life of the earth returns.

funktilious_j: Langoliers should be on MST3K.

Loved the short story, never saw the movie. But you are definitely not the first person to tell me to skip it... no plans to see it anytime soon.

people who feel the need to explain art
deserve a punch in the head


and by the way, stephen king is not a good enough writer to offer up hidden meanings and subtexts
he writes for morons and they like it that way

LadyHawke: 1921

I was reading about this the other day on Wikipedia. It was said that Kubrick deleted a scene that supposedly indicated at the end that his body had never been found in the frozen maze. One interpretation is that he had been absorbed into the past, or into the hotel itself or something. I caught the miniseries when it came on NBC about 15 years ago or so - couldn't really get into it, but I guess it was supposed to be more true to the book.

mmmm, pecan log...

Gyrfalcon: They were both bad.

You're good at nothing.

Wayne 985: Really? I thought it was brilliant. They gave into the same fear that doomed the religious nuts in the store.

Not just that they gave into fear - they gave up on hope. I don't think the ending was perfect (as mentioned upthread, they may have shoveled it on a bit too thickly when you see the mom from the beginning), but it's certainly not any worse than the ambiguity of the original story. The big problem for me was the music choice during the "cruising through the mist" sequence that leads up to the end.

Mulchpuppy: Wayne 985: Really? I thought it was brilliant. They gave into the same fear that doomed the religious nuts in the store.

Not just that they gave into fear - they gave up on hope. I don't think the ending was perfect (as mentioned upthread, they may have shoveled it on a bit too thickly when you see the mom from the beginning), but it's certainly not any worse than the ambiguity of the original story. The big problem for me was the music choice during the "cruising through the mist" sequence that leads up to the end.

I've heard people object to that before, and I don't understand it. I like Dead Can Dance, and I feel it matched the bleak mood. Host of Seraphim. (new window)

To me the most amazing thing about Kubrick isn't just the attention to detail, it's that all his movies are so wildly different. Other great directors like Hitchcock or Spielberg and have a very narrow range compared to Kubrick. Even when he revisited subjects he never repeated himself.

funktilious_j: I think the greatest endorsement of this film ever is the fact that Stephen King hates it.

Some of the worst, I mean worst, movies ever made were the ones King had a hand in. Langoliers should be on MST3K.

Pretty much THAT.

IIRC, the trailer for Maximum Overdrive ended with King standing on a dark, foggy highway saying "I'm going to scare the HELL out of you." Ha!

a weird guy in a bear suit doing something untoward with a gentleman in a tuxedo.

This scene is specifically mentioned in the book, relating to specific characters from the history of the hotel. Kubrick didn't pull it out of thin air.

Mugato: Inhale/exhale: How do you feel about the ending to film version of The Mist?

Where he kills his kid and a minute later the cavalry shows up? Slapstick. I half expected a comedic "waa waa waaaaaa".

I saw it as confirmation that Mrs. Carmody was right all along, that when hh shot the kid, he changed the universe to allow humans to beat back the monsters. If he had not shot the kid, he would have been stuck in the monster dimension for the rest of his short life.

Shady_Short_Busser: [1.bp.blogspot.com image 640x512]



I've always thought that I sure hoped they had a party during or after filming that scene.

Here is MY Shining theory:


Kubrick is a FAR superior director than Stephen King is a writer.

That is why he changed stuff. It needed to be changed.

Kubrick didn't change A Clockwork Orange much at all. Better book by a better writer.

I utterly despise Stephen King fans.
Here is why--
Meet someone who says "Faulkner is my favorite author" Look at his/her bookshelf. Yeah,all the Faulkner stuff is there,but so is Mellville,Conrad,Steinbeck,Hemingway,Fitzgerald....etc....etc.
Someone who says "Stephen King is my fav"
They ONLY read goddamned Stephen hackass King books.

craigdamage: Here is MY Shining theory:


Kubrick is a FAR superior director than Stephen King is a writer.

That is why he changed stuff. It needed to be changed.

Kubrick didn't change A Clockwork Orange much at all. Better book by a better writer.

I utterly despise Stephen King fans.
Here is why--
Meet someone who says "Faulkner is my favorite author" Look at his/her bookshelf. Yeah,all the Faulkner stuff is there,but so is Mellville,Conrad,Steinbeck,Hemingway,Fitzgerald....etc....etc.
Someone who says "Stephen King is my fav"
They ONLY read goddamned Stephen hackass King books.

Why do you care what other people read?

I thought the message of The Shining was try not to be the black guy.

Black guy always dies first.

That was a hell of a long trip just to get an axe in the back.

Poor bastard should have stayed chilling in that biatching pad in Miami.