10 Facts You May Not Have Known About THE SHINING

Back on October 30^th, I had the opportunity to see my personal favorite film on the big screen for the first time, and what an experience it was. To experience The Exorcist in that fashion was a beautiful experience, but The Shining… that was borderline religious. I spent All Hallows Eve with a packed house of eager faced people, some who had never seen the film, others just as big a fan as I am, and the Torrance family, and it could not have been more perfect. 

I had yet to see it in this format, it’s true format, and after seeing The Exorcist, I couldn’t wait. In honor of that, let’s take a look at the iconic film by Stanley Kurbick and some facts about the film that may surprise you.

Now, I’ve been wanting to write a series about King for a while. I’m sure a few of you may remember me discussing this a while back, but it’s been a daunting task. I mean, I have so many thoughts about his work, that’s it’s hard to express in a length that would be tolerable to read. You can absolutely expect a very in depth analysis of this film in the future, but for now, let’s celebrate it with this list of facts and trivia about the 1980 classic.

HORROR IN PRINT - Stephen King Calls Out Kubrick's Vision of THE SHINING

 
Those who know me know that I am a very devout Shining fan. It's my favorite book, it's my favorite film, I've dressed as Torrance for Halloween, carved Shining inspired pumpkins, decorated my house with a variety of memorabilia and spent an 2 hours crying over that particular section at the Kubrick exhibit this year at LACMA. You get the point. 

Yet, I am still the first to admit that in terms of an book to screen adaptation, The Shining is a fucking horrible movie. Just about the only thing that the book and film have in common are the names of the characters, Kubrick had his own vision and while it was stunning, he completely shut King out of the production. Low blow, bro. 

King has never kept it a secret that he is not a fan of Kubrick's interpretation of the book. However, with Dr. Sleep looming over us now of course his views of the film are starting to come out in interviews. He recently shared some more insights that I had never heard before and I thought it was interesting enough to share on here.

In a recent interview with BBC: “[It's] cold, I’m not a cold guy. I think one of the things people relate to in my books is there’s a warmth, there’s a reaching out and saying to the reader, ‘I want you to be a part of this.’ And with Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’ I felt that it was very cold, very ‘We’re looking at these people, but they’re like ants in an anthill, aren’t they doing interesting things, these little insects.’”

When the subject of the two main characters was brought up: “Jack Torrence, in the movie, seems crazy from the jump. Jack Nicholson, I’d seen all his biker pictures in the 50s and 60s and I thought, ‘He’s just channeling The Wild Angels here,’” he said, “Shelley Duvall as Wendy is really one of the most misogynistic characters ever put on film, she’s basically just there to scream and be stupid and that’s not the woman that I wrote about.”

While right now isn't the right time for me to spew off my thoughts about the film (trust me, it'll take a while and that post is coming soon anyway) I've always said these things about the film, so it's nice to see the man himself reinforce my sentiments. 

More importantly, have you read the book and what do YOU think about the translation from book to film? Share those thoughts!

Get Dr. Sleep in a bookstore near you next Tuesday, September 24th. 

- Rg Lovecraft

Yesterday a couple friends and I had the opportunity to visit LACMA for the Stanley Kubrick exhibit where they had an immense display of props and artifacts from the set of The Shining. I had an amazing time, took pictures of everything I could and there will most definitely be a post coming tonight giving a full recap of all the amazing things they had on display.

For now I’ll leave you with, what I consider, to be the greatest horror prop of all time, Jack’s typewriter. 

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