Take Kubrick’s The Shining, a film many have dubbed a horror classic, but I am guessing those people did not read Stephen King’s original book, because I don’t understand how you can enjoy the novel and appreciate the movie.
The Shining is the only Stephen King novel I have read to date. I finished it two days ago and immediately transitioned to the movie. I wanted to compare the two. That was a mistake.
The Shining is fascinating because it is also the first horror novel I have ever read. I watch a lot of horror, but I don’t consume horror literature, and I could not understand how the scares would work in literary format.
The Shining did not answer that question. This book was not even remotely frightening. But I was warned that King excels at generating tension as opposed to outright fear. They did not exaggerate.
This book has two plot threads. Surprisingly, the family storyline is the most intriguing. Jack Torrance is a tortured man, an alcoholic whose temper ruins everything.
After assaulting a child and losing his teaching position, Jack takes his wife, Wendy, and son Danny to the mountains. The Overlook hotel needs a caretaker for the winter, and Jack thinks the isolation will do his marriage and career a world of good.
Wendy wants to believe that Jack has changed, that the family can recapture the good times. But after what her husband did to their son, she’s not so sure.
Leaving Jack means exposing her sanity to the miserable shrew she calls a mother. Meanwhile, the Overlook has a dark past and a diseased heart that won’t stop until it consumes the Torrance family.
The Shining feels predictable at the start. No one would fault you for dismissing the book as a tropey ghost story with a psychotic antagonist (Jack).
This is where the movie fails. The adaptation turned Jack into a mindless beast. Stephen King’s Jack is incredibly nuanced. And initially, you cannot help but hate him.
You know the Overlook will claim him, turning the aspiring writer into a vengeful weapon hellbent on murdering his family. However, after a while, you can’t help but root for him because, deep down, Jack is a good man, fighting tooth and nail to maintain his sanity.
The Shining works because the cast is so small. You have three characters in a large structure that have all the time in the world to explore one another’s weaknesses.
Wendy would kill Jack to protect Danny. In fact, she contemplates murder a lot. And yet, she envies the love her son has for his father, and she cannot take him away from Jack.
Danny can see the anguish wreaking havoc on his parents, but he is too young to fully understand the drama. Besides, the boy has bigger fish to fry.
The Overlook wants him, and Danny knows it. But what chance does he have of attaining victory against a malevolent entity that can raise the dead?
I was still skeptical of King’s ability to deliver genuine scares until that moment in Room 217. The hairs on my arms stood on end as Danny opened the bathroom door, and the scene unfolded.
Was I scared out of my mind? Not really. I don’t know if the written word can create the agitation you experience while watching movies like The Conjuring. But it was a decent attempt. At its core, this is a well-written family drama with mildly disturbing elements. The movie is hot garbage.
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