Stephen King Fans discussion

I thought that this movie was one of the best adaptations from a book that I have ever seen. From "Would you like some Ice-Cream, doc," to "I don't want to hurt you...I just want to bash your brains in!" makes this movie unforgettable. After watching it, I picked up the book and started re-reading it. The suspense is amazing, and they don't leave out that many details from the book. But remember, All work and no play makes YOU a dull boy!

Is this the Jack Nickleson movie?

Angie wrote: "Is this the Jack Nickleson movie? "
Yes, it is. I saw on the Thursday of this vacation and it just grew on me.

I thought they changed A LOT from the book. I mean, I liked it. The remake with Weber was truer to the book but not as exciting.

Kubrick's version of The Shining with Jack Nicholson DID change a lot from the book. So much in fact that Stephen King sued to have his name removed from the movie.

Hehe... You're right Rob. I love Kubrick's version, even with all the liberties he took with the story.

Nobody's saying that it HAS to follow the book word for word... The mini-series version comes as close to this as possible, but is pretty lackluster compared to Kubrick's version.

Agree! Kubrick's The Shining ranks at the top of most favorite horror/fright film lists. My opinion on the mini-series was that it just didn't have the same attitude and feeling. The kid that played Danny was horrible.

I think you HAVE to take a movie adaption as an entirely different animal. You aren't disapointed nearly as often that way, and lots of times can love both even though they may be very different.

while we're on this topic again... has anyone watched the miniseries with commentary from King and Garris and Stephen Weber? it's kinda fun to listen to them dance around the subject of the kubrick film because I guess since the lawsuit was settled King isn't supposed to voice his opinion on it anymore.

While Courtland Mead (Danny) was horrible in the Weber version, I thought it was much better. When you have six hours (instead of two and a half), so much more of the original text can come through. I loved the creepy topiaries and the mallet. Oh goodness the mallet. So much scarier than an axe. Anywho, I thought Weber did a fantastic job, and I prefer Rebecca Demornay over Shelley Duvall (hello, Olive Oil please).

Lauren wrote: "While Courtland Mead (Danny) was horrible in the Weber version, I thought it was much better. When you have six hours (instead of two and a half), so much more of the original text can come throug..."

Oh, I so agree with you! I didn;t think Courtland Mead was too horrible, but yeah, they could have gotten a much better child actor. I loved Steven Weber. He really surprised me because all that I had seen him in were comedies but he did evil really well, too. And Rebecca De Mornay was soooooo much a better Wendy. Strong and determined like the Wendy in the book. Not whiny and weepy like Duvall. Ugh, I WANTED Jack to take the axe to her.

I love the book. It is probably my second favorite of all his books, the first being The Stand. I love Kubrik's movie too. The casting was excellent and it is so totally frightening. The sound of the big wheel in the hallways, the hotel itself, the twins!!! RED RUM, RED RUM. I really need to rent it and watch it on the plasma. SCAREY!

Hey, I have a question about the book. First time that I read it, I was struck by a passage where Wendy is thinking back to college, the apartment that she shared with Jack, her relationship with her parents and a bout of stomach flu that they both got...

I next read The Shining (a couple of years later & a different copy of the book, that passage was missing and I have never seen it since. Has anyone any idea if the passage ever existed and was just edited out in later editions or am I cracking up????

I think it's possible that this was edited out of later editions. I've had several copies of the book but they were all paperbacks and all printed after about 1990 or so, which is still quite a while after the book was originally published - more than enough time for editorial changes to have been made.

I know that Chris has a 1st edition of The Shining, and I want to say that Kandice does too... maybe one of them could check for you. :)

Becky knows me so well! I saw your post, Cathy, and immediately pulled out my book. I paged through a bit in the beginning and didn't see what part you were referring to. I found the section where Wendy is talking about beds they've slept in together and assumed it would be there but didn't see it. Later in the day I'll have time to look a little more thoroughly.

Thank you so much guys, this has been bugging me for years.

I know the feeling. I remember reading a book when I was younger, maybe 11 or 12, and really enjoying it, but I couldn't remember the title of the book or who wrote it or anything... just that there was a blind boy who listened to Pearl Jam and kept hsi bedroom door squeaky so that he knew when someone was entering his room...

For years, every time I heard a PJ song, I'd think of this mystery book... and it was driving me crazy!

Then finally I found Abe's Booksleuths and they told me what it was... and now I can sleep at night. :)

By the way, it's What Zoey Saw by Katherine Alice Applegate if you're now wondering... :P

Of course we were! Thanks:D

Definitely Kubrick's version for me. Jack Nicholson will always be Jack Torrance to me.

Jack Torrance: You've had your whole FUCKING LIFE to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?

Here's something cool i found on youtube. It's a montage of Kubrick's movies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6RzJF...

The movie for me wasn't the best adaption from a book. Obviously not all the details from the novel could be transfered to the on-screen version, but I was displeased when the hedge animals were not included. The ending was the most bothersome part of the movie for me. It seemed a complete change and almost a different feeling after finishing the movie, than when I had finished the book.

I hated how they were all dead all seperate and not really a family at all. I found Shelley duvall grating. I like the movie but barely consider it a SK adaptation because of the lack of characterization and emotion outside of anger and rage.

I just watched this yesterday after picking it up on sale for $3.99! (I gotta love when I find cheap DVDs) Granted it's been about 8-10 years since I read the book, but I really enjoyed watching it, Nicholson is just such a good creepy asshole. Yea, Wendy got on my nerves as a bit spineless and wimpy, shaking and crying all the time, especially the scene where he comes up on her after she seen his "manuscript" and she's weakly swinging the bat, backing up the stairs all "please, stay away"... but really, if my husband went crazy on me all of a sudden, I'd probably be shaking and crying too, especially since I wouldn't want to hurt him or kill him y'know.
I watched the Weber version a few years ago, and it was definitely truer to the book, but not as scary, and C. Mead is an alright kid actor, but I don't think he clicked into the role right for me.

OK so I have never read this book before, but I just finished the movie. It is awesome, probably one of the best horror movies I have ever sen and one of the oldest (judging that I am fifteen years and it was made in 1980.) Anyway, it was awesome as heck.

David wrote: "OK so I have never read this book before, but I just finished the movie. It is awesome, probably one of the best horror movies I have ever sen and one of the oldest (judging that I am fifteen years..."

Ooooh wait til you read the book! Its tons better!

Ah sweet lol

The book is much better than the movie and has so many differences the movie will not spoil the reading experience (I saw the movie before reading the book).

One thing I missed in the movie was the moving topiary. That was so scary in the book

Terri wrote: "One thing I missed in the movie was the moving topiary. That was so scary in the book"

I think that it happens in the mini series,

This is great! check it out http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/9/27/...

Check this out too: http://geektyrant.com/news/2012/10/8/...

Terri wrote: "One thing I missed in the movie was the moving topiary. That was so scary in the book"

Couldn't agree more. Even though the book has A LOT of terrifying moments to choose from, but the topiary was creepy as hell. Something about the subtle scares (the stuff that seems pretty plausible in the middle of the night, when I'm half asleep) really frighten me!

I tried to watch this movie 3 times.
At first, I told myself : ,,I will turn the TV off when I will start feeling scared''.
Then, I watched as their car was riding up that mountain and I turned the TV off;)
Second time I was more determinated and I managed to watch until the twins appeared.
FINALLY I watch all movie. Third time!

Should there be a prequel? http://geektyrant.com/news/2013/2/7/s...

Old TV guide article! http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com/2...

Some neat posters... http://geektyrant.com/news/2013/2/27/...

What does everyone think of all this talk about a prequel. Of course King isn't on board:

http://insidemovies.ew.com/2013/04/11...

I'm kinda ambivalent about it. Good luck following up a Kubrick movie, though! If it happens, it happens; I don't think there should've been a sequel to The Shining, but it's happening, so....

I don't know what to think about this!... I mean the characters we have grown to love won't even be in it.

But you can put Jack's image in there as a backgound figure to connect it all. CGI is a neat tool!

I read the book, i just loved it, but i really hated the movie. Jack Nicholson started acting scary since the very beginning, Stephen King said about Wendy on the movie "She was there to scream and look stupid", he also said the movie was cold, and that book was warm. I loved the drama and the psychology of Jack Torrance, how he is strugging to get his life back and how he became obsessed with the hotel, and even when he lost his mind he was fighting himself. In the movie he looked crazy since the beginning, he didn t find the papers about the hotel, so many details were lost on the movie, the end on the book was a little different and extended. It was just a horror movie, the book was a lot more than that.

Aymen wrote: "I read the book, i just loved it, but i really hated the movie. Jack Nicholson started acting scary since the very beginning, Stephen King said about Wendy on the movie "She was there to scream and..."

I think both are wonderful for very different reasons. You have to view them as completely separate pieces of work.

Kings' comment about warm and cold couldn't be more true. Kubrick's ended in ice and King's ended in fire. What more need be said?

Aymen: Couldn't have said it better myself. I'm with you 100%

Kandice: It's been years since the time I first read The Shining and watched Stanley Kubrick's HORRIBLE movie right after (I was about 15/16 the first time and that's almost 20 years ago). I've been wanting to give it another shot but while I do remember some really great shots, it left such a bad taste in my mouth that I don't think I can make myself watch over-acting Jack Nicholson's cold mean Jack Torrance from the get-go and Shelly Duvall's pathetic Wendy. :|

Thanks Brenda, i think the most convincing actor was the kid playing Danny, even though his character was more interesting in the book, but the kid did a good job, i didn t feel that he was acting, like others...

Ayman that have something to do with the fact that they didn't tell him what kind of movie they were making during filming. Apparently he had no idea he was part of a gruesome haunted house horror film.

Maybe you re right Sara, I just didn t like how Jack Nicholson was acting scary from the beginning, or maybe the director wanted so... I respect that many people loved that movie, i just felt that the book deserved a lot better.

I just finished Doctor Sleep and on the writer's note you can see how King's still bitter about that movie, which when the book came out was already more than thirty years old. He has a point in a couple of things but I think he should pay a little more respect to the work of another accomplished genius

I think it is hard whe the writer and the movie director have completely different visions, and the writer might not like the way his original story is presented to the public on the movie. Btw Andrea did you like Doctor sleep ? I haven't read it yet.

Andrea I kind of agree but I've always felt that other than having it take place at the Overlook and keeping the character names they might as well be two entirely different stories.

I've always felt that the Kubrick film is really a movie about a man losing his mind. Nicholson is completely out of his mind from open to close and Wendy is this pathetic, mousey dishrag who's primary function is to freak out. Danny has always come off to me as having sort of autism rather than being the precocious, chatty kid full of imagination and feeling he is in the book.

The movie is a visual treat and yes it's scary as hell but in the way walking through a haunted house is scary. You see something scary and you jump but then it's over. There's no depth and Nicholson is so one note scary I can never figure why Shelley Duvall married him to begin with.

The book on the other hand is about all sorts of stuff. It's another foray into King's favorite notion about a place that can just BE evil because it is. How horrible actions can leave a stain behind that can be seen and felt forever.

And it's about a good man, a loving husband and father becoming a murdering psychopath because of an addiction. I literally had no idea who Jack Torrence even was before I finally read the book a few years ago. He adores his family and that makes what happens to them and him all the more frightening and tragic. I don't want to spoil the end for anyone who hasn't read it but there's a point where, in the midst of his madness/possession he breaks free for a moment to tell his son he loves him and I seriously cry like a baby every time. Because that's exactly what addiction is like. The real person who loves his wife and kid is still in there but the need is just too strong for him.

The book, for me, is all about passionate emotion. Deep resonating evil but also love so strong it can conquer all the demons in hell or at the bottom of a bottle.

Sara you just expressed all i wanted to say and more. I really liked Jack Torrance on the book, a man struggling to be a better husband and a better father. And i remember that scene when he tells Danny to run away from him. It took my breath away. I was expecting to see it on the movie, but of course it didn t happen, anything with emotions and feelings were ignored in the movie. The director wasn t interested on that, he just wanted to make a scary horror movie.