“Welded it seamlessly”: The movie that “redeemed” Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ for Stephen King
These days, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is considered one of the most popular and iconic horror movies ever made. From the unforgettably terrifying axe-wielding “Here’s Johnny!” scene to the ominous Grady twins, The Shining contains plenty of imagery that has become highly familiar to even the most casual movie fans.
The movie was released in 1980, five years after Kubrick made the historical epic Barry Lyndon. The Shining was completely different in setting and tone, but the movie continued Kubrick’s thematic exploration of the descent of man. At the Overlook Hotel, we witness Jack Torrance succumb to supernatural forces, becoming a horrifying psychopathic killer who attempts to murder his family.
Kubrick based the movie on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name, but the author was not pleased with the adaptation. Upon the film’s release, King criticised the movie for failing to stick to the original story, as well as finding the performances and casting of the main actors unsatisfactory.
Jack Nicholson, who had recently starred in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, felt like the wrong choice to play Jack, according to King. He wanted a friendlier face, someone who we truly couldn’t picture turning into a killer – Nicholson didn’t convince King. The writer thought that character development was extremely limited, and in a 2016 interview with Deadline, he delved deeper into his thoughts. “The character of Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie. Absolutely no arc at all,” he explained.
Moreover, he was insulted by the portrayal of Wendy, calling her (via BBC) “one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film.” King believed that Shelley Duvall’s portrayal of Wendy presented her as nothing more than an overly emotional, hysterical wreck, whereas he thought his book did a better job of depicting the complexities of Wendy’s situation.
For King, Kubrick’s version of The Shining was a betrayal. However, in 2013, King penned the sequel Doctor Sleep, which was transformed for the big screen in 2019 by Mike Flanagan. It would prove to be the saving grace for the author’s reflections on The Shining.
The film follows an adult version of Danny Torrance, years after surviving the events of The Shining, with Ewan McGregor playing the leading role. Despite the film receiving mixed reviews – failing to achieve the same cult status as The Shining – King much preferred the sequel, going as far as to say (via Entertainment Weekly), “Everything that I ever disliked about the Kubrick version of The Shining is redeemed for me here.”
King explained, “I read the script to this one very, very carefully. Because obviously, I wanted to do a good job with the sequel because people knew the book The Shining, and I thought, I don’t want to screw this up.” The author believed that Flanagan did a fantastic job of exploring the complexity of themes such as trauma and alcoholism, adding that he “weld[ed] it seamlessly to the Kubrick version of The Shining.”
Doctor Sleep might not have been as successful as The Shining, but King finally feels satisfied with the depiction of his characters on screen.
