This is a terrifically thoughtful, personal, touching and insightful piece Daniel. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed it especially as a big King fan. Although The Shining is one I haven't read.
I'd love to read something similar about The Stand, the 1994 mini series and the new adaptation. I've read the book now and watched the very flawed but admirable attempt of the '94 version. Just trying to track down the 2020 version despite its poor reviews.
The Shining is considered to be one of the King loadstones along with The Stand, Salem’s Lot and IT, I guess. It’s a great book but just a little close to home for me
The 1994 TV mini series of The Stand is good fun. Runs out of steam a bit but Gary Sinise is good as Stu. The 2020 series should be avoided at all costs. It’s truly terrible!
I absolutely agree with your statement, "... I would go as far to say, it’s not actually an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining, it’s just a horror movie that Stanley Kubrick made in which the characters have the same names as in the novel." Such miscasting and such poor direction! Kubrick totally missed the point. I like that you interweave your own father's story into this review; a reader's background absolutely affects the interpretation of a story. As writers, we never know how our stories will be taken in and understood.
Yeah, I thought I’d maybe got it wrong on the Kubrick movie as people continue to rate it, but then, on the rewatch, it just proved how right I was! 😁
The novel will always have that close and uncomfortable feeling for me. Because of when I read it and my own experiences, and how King perfectly taps into the scourge of addiction. This is probably my most personal essay but that’s how I’ll always write. Otherwise it isn’t real
A wonderful essay and commentary on the book and film. Your openness and vulnerability make this so powerful. Thank you for sharing; it takes guts.
As a horror writer, it is perhaps taboo to say that the only Stephen King I've read are non-horror books: Hearts in Atlantis and On Writing. But you've piqued my interest in The Shining with this excellent review. (Side note: I did stay for a few nights in The Stanley Hotel, on which The Overlook was based. Nothing interesting happened except that it was really hot for Colorado in April and I couldn't sleep well. lol.)
I'll be checking out your earlier essays that you mention at the top. I love a well-written critical analysis. Excellent work.
Thanks very much Garen. I really appreciate the kind words 🙏
The Shining is well worth a read. It’s when King was at his early writing peak with this, Salem’s Lot, Carrie, The Stand and The Long Walk. All absolute classics. Like I said, I find The Shining difficult to love but it is one of his best.
That would be so cool staying in The Stanley Hotel. I definitely need to go there. Maybe it was the spirits making it too warm! 😁
Thanks again. I think because I grew up with these books, they’re embedded in my psyche so a lot of my life experiences are reflected in them even more so as I get older. Maybe I’m just reading too much into them 🤷♂️
However, my latest essay I’m trying to write is on the four Highlander movies so a slightly different vibe altogether 😁
I'm really looking forward to reading those, although once again I must admit to a pop culture blind spot when it comes to Highlander. I saw that there's a reboot happening soon with the director of John Wick and starring Henry Cavill. Is this good news for you or bad?
Well, I am a big fan of the John Wick movies so it could be OK. It would be nice, after having Christopher Lambert a Frenchman, play Highlander in the original, to have a Scotsman in the role. But Cavill is English so a wee bit closer I suppose. I mean I was available but no one bothered to ask me! 😁
This was so thoughtful and personal, Daniel. The moments about your father are beautiful and sad. Thanks for sharing and being vulnerable. Definitely have some of these ghosts and demons in my family too. Full disclosure, I watched The Shining when young before I got the chance to read the book. That means I never read the book. I can never read a book after I watch the movie. I don't know why. Now, you've made me want to rectify that choice. I've always wanted a more nuanced Jack.
It’s definitely my most personal piece of writing and I was unsure about sharing it at all, but the feedback I’ve had has been lovely so it’s been worth it ❤️
Sorry to hear that you’ve had similar troubles in your family. It is a devastating affliction that is heart breaking for everyone involved
As for the book and film, I totally get where you’re coming from. However, this is one case where there is so much more to the story in the novel. Don’t get me wrong, Jack is still not a nice guy, but you can see the pathway to how he got to where he was, rather than just having Nicholson staring blankly out the window after 20 minutes. It’s a classic, even if I’ll never love it like I do IT or Salem’s Lot 👍🏼
I wish it was uncommon but unfortunately, many people suffer through it in one way or another. Society's drinking culture doesn't help at all. I think it's worth me getting a copy and checking it out. I love IT and Salem's Lot. My favorite (read a very long time ago) was the horror/fantasy collab with Peter Straub, The Talisman. I never read the follow-up novel, and I just saw that there is a third one coming soon that King wrote without Straub but with the blessing of the fam.
I’m currently listening to the audio book of The Talisman. I think it was my gateway from fantasy to horror all those years ago. Wolf remains one of my favourite ever King characters
Black House, the sequel, is good but a bit strange. However, I am very excited about the final part of the trilogy. Should be great 👍🏼
I read “The Shining” when I was eleven. I had the paperback copy with a yellow cover and photographs from the movie. To this day I remember being confused by the phrase “He flashed a PR smile.” I was too young to understand what PR meant, and the one or two friends I asked were equally mystified. All of the references to alcoholism went over my head as well, because I had no alcoholic relatives at the time. And I don’t know if you had this experience, but in the 70s and 80s, alcoholism was regarded as something funny. TV shows like Andy Griffith had drunks as stock characters whose hallucinations and antics were meant to be funny. The reason I read “The Shining”—and that was my first Stephen King book—was because I found the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation so incredibly unsettling. The labyrinthine nature of the hotel, the twins and silent footage of the blood pouring from the elevators (cut to bloody hatchet and twins’ corpses). And all of this done with that masterful soundtrack full of moans and sighs. To this day, the film gives me chills. But after reading your review, I think I’m going to return to that novel. I had completely forgotten about the wasp nest and the delirium Jack experiences as the combined effect of the alcohol and the haunted overlook.
On a separate note, I stayed at the hotel in Colorado that the Overlook was based on, and had a spooky encounter with a herd of Elk that I was expecting to be standing in the parking lot at 2:00 am when I went outside to fetch something from the car. I was about ten feet into the lot when this happened and the elk did not act threateningly per se. But a buck stomped its hoof and waggled its antlers as if to warn me that I should probably go back inside because I was not meant to be privy to whatever topic the herd was negotiating before I interrupted them. I was more than happy to oblige.
I never read “Dr. Sleep,” but I did see the movie. I found it entertaining. I also thought it was interesting that the visuals it used were based on the Kubrick interpretation, instead of that made-for-TV miniseries from the 90s.
Thanks very much for your thoughts as always, Daniel 🙏
Yeah, I think a lot of us read these books at far too young an age and there was quite a few things that sailed right over my head too!
Alcoholism or “having a drink” as we’d say in Scotland was something to joke about when I was growing up. There was never any discussion about it being something to be challenged or discussed. Men worked hard so they deserved a drink. If that turned out to be a whole bottle of whisky then that’s the way it was. Drink driving was also very common. Drive to the pub, have drinks and then drive home. Again it was never really frowned upon. Utterly ridiculous but that’s how it was 🤷♂️
The movie is hugely popular and the points you make are valid. Maybe it’s just me 😁
That’s so cool you stayed in the actual hotel and had that encounter. You should definitely turn that into a story!
I really enjoyed the directors cut of Doctor Sleep and the merging of the two sources was well done. I’m a huge fan of Mike Flanagan 👍🏼
What a brilliant piece. Thank you for your honesty and openness about your past and your personal experiences. You've brought so much depth and insight to these stories.
This is a fucking phenomenal post. I'm communicating before I've even finished reading it. Your words following "On this re-watch, I don’t think I just disliked the film, I think it actively infuriated me. It’s like this was the first attempt at doing that most hated of things, “elevated horror.”, etc, are bang on how I feel about the film and the term and concept of elevated horror generally. You nailed it.
I was sorry to hear about your father and his father, but I appreciate your sharing it very much. It certainly adds a great deal to your feelings and thoughts about the novel and adaptations - high respect to you.
Yeah, this is my most personal post so I really appreciate your kind feedback 👍🏼
I ran this past my brother before I published because it’s so close to the bone. Sometimes with the past you don’t see inflection points until they’re in the rear view mirror. So it was with my dad and his dad. I wish I’d done more but I was just a kid
The book captures that childish frustration. The movie doesn’t even try. It’s too obsessed with the visuals and the film making of it all
Ooof, weaving the real world into things with aplomb here Dan! Fantastic stuff.
We're pretty aligned on The Shining(s), I think I might be kinder to Doctor Sleep after my recent re-read. Rose is one of my favourite King antagonists (Rebecca Ferguson was perfectly cast) and I enjoy the weird, slightly sketched True Knot family. I haven't properly ranked late era King, but I think I'd have Doctor Sleep fairly high up the list. Not 11/22/63 levels though, obviously.
Doctor Sleep is a strange one because it starts so strongly, but then I felt it just lost its way. The movie is fantastic though. Particularly, the 3 hour directors cut
11/22/63 is a great book. I watched a wee bit of the TV show with James Franco but didn’t go back to it
Late era King is a mixed bag, but there are some crackers in there. Looking forward to Talisman 3 which I reckon could be out next year if we’re lucky 👍🏼
This is a terrifically thoughtful, personal, touching and insightful piece Daniel. Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed it especially as a big King fan. Although The Shining is one I haven't read.
I'd love to read something similar about The Stand, the 1994 mini series and the new adaptation. I've read the book now and watched the very flawed but admirable attempt of the '94 version. Just trying to track down the 2020 version despite its poor reviews.
Thanks very much Chris 🙏
The Shining is considered to be one of the King loadstones along with The Stand, Salem’s Lot and IT, I guess. It’s a great book but just a little close to home for me
The 1994 TV mini series of The Stand is good fun. Runs out of steam a bit but Gary Sinise is good as Stu. The 2020 series should be avoided at all costs. It’s truly terrible!
If you do watch it, don’t say I didn’t warn you 😁
I absolutely agree with your statement, "... I would go as far to say, it’s not actually an adaptation of Stephen King’s The Shining, it’s just a horror movie that Stanley Kubrick made in which the characters have the same names as in the novel." Such miscasting and such poor direction! Kubrick totally missed the point. I like that you interweave your own father's story into this review; a reader's background absolutely affects the interpretation of a story. As writers, we never know how our stories will be taken in and understood.
Thanks very much Sharron 🙏
Yeah, I thought I’d maybe got it wrong on the Kubrick movie as people continue to rate it, but then, on the rewatch, it just proved how right I was! 😁
The novel will always have that close and uncomfortable feeling for me. Because of when I read it and my own experiences, and how King perfectly taps into the scourge of addiction. This is probably my most personal essay but that’s how I’ll always write. Otherwise it isn’t real
Really appreciate you reading and commenting 👍🏼
A wonderful essay and commentary on the book and film. Your openness and vulnerability make this so powerful. Thank you for sharing; it takes guts.
As a horror writer, it is perhaps taboo to say that the only Stephen King I've read are non-horror books: Hearts in Atlantis and On Writing. But you've piqued my interest in The Shining with this excellent review. (Side note: I did stay for a few nights in The Stanley Hotel, on which The Overlook was based. Nothing interesting happened except that it was really hot for Colorado in April and I couldn't sleep well. lol.)
I'll be checking out your earlier essays that you mention at the top. I love a well-written critical analysis. Excellent work.
Thanks very much Garen. I really appreciate the kind words 🙏
The Shining is well worth a read. It’s when King was at his early writing peak with this, Salem’s Lot, Carrie, The Stand and The Long Walk. All absolute classics. Like I said, I find The Shining difficult to love but it is one of his best.
That would be so cool staying in The Stanley Hotel. I definitely need to go there. Maybe it was the spirits making it too warm! 😁
Thanks again. I think because I grew up with these books, they’re embedded in my psyche so a lot of my life experiences are reflected in them even more so as I get older. Maybe I’m just reading too much into them 🤷♂️
However, my latest essay I’m trying to write is on the four Highlander movies so a slightly different vibe altogether 😁
I'm really looking forward to reading those, although once again I must admit to a pop culture blind spot when it comes to Highlander. I saw that there's a reboot happening soon with the director of John Wick and starring Henry Cavill. Is this good news for you or bad?
Well, I am a big fan of the John Wick movies so it could be OK. It would be nice, after having Christopher Lambert a Frenchman, play Highlander in the original, to have a Scotsman in the role. But Cavill is English so a wee bit closer I suppose. I mean I was available but no one bothered to ask me! 😁
A missed opportunity for sure!
Loved this piece, Daniel. Really well done--it'll have me thinking all day. <3
That’s mean a lot, Sean. Thanks very much 🙏
This was so thoughtful and personal, Daniel. The moments about your father are beautiful and sad. Thanks for sharing and being vulnerable. Definitely have some of these ghosts and demons in my family too. Full disclosure, I watched The Shining when young before I got the chance to read the book. That means I never read the book. I can never read a book after I watch the movie. I don't know why. Now, you've made me want to rectify that choice. I've always wanted a more nuanced Jack.
Thanks very much for the kind words, Jessica 🙏
It’s definitely my most personal piece of writing and I was unsure about sharing it at all, but the feedback I’ve had has been lovely so it’s been worth it ❤️
Sorry to hear that you’ve had similar troubles in your family. It is a devastating affliction that is heart breaking for everyone involved
As for the book and film, I totally get where you’re coming from. However, this is one case where there is so much more to the story in the novel. Don’t get me wrong, Jack is still not a nice guy, but you can see the pathway to how he got to where he was, rather than just having Nicholson staring blankly out the window after 20 minutes. It’s a classic, even if I’ll never love it like I do IT or Salem’s Lot 👍🏼
I wish it was uncommon but unfortunately, many people suffer through it in one way or another. Society's drinking culture doesn't help at all. I think it's worth me getting a copy and checking it out. I love IT and Salem's Lot. My favorite (read a very long time ago) was the horror/fantasy collab with Peter Straub, The Talisman. I never read the follow-up novel, and I just saw that there is a third one coming soon that King wrote without Straub but with the blessing of the fam.
I’m currently listening to the audio book of The Talisman. I think it was my gateway from fantasy to horror all those years ago. Wolf remains one of my favourite ever King characters
Black House, the sequel, is good but a bit strange. However, I am very excited about the final part of the trilogy. Should be great 👍🏼
I read “The Shining” when I was eleven. I had the paperback copy with a yellow cover and photographs from the movie. To this day I remember being confused by the phrase “He flashed a PR smile.” I was too young to understand what PR meant, and the one or two friends I asked were equally mystified. All of the references to alcoholism went over my head as well, because I had no alcoholic relatives at the time. And I don’t know if you had this experience, but in the 70s and 80s, alcoholism was regarded as something funny. TV shows like Andy Griffith had drunks as stock characters whose hallucinations and antics were meant to be funny. The reason I read “The Shining”—and that was my first Stephen King book—was because I found the Stanley Kubrick film adaptation so incredibly unsettling. The labyrinthine nature of the hotel, the twins and silent footage of the blood pouring from the elevators (cut to bloody hatchet and twins’ corpses). And all of this done with that masterful soundtrack full of moans and sighs. To this day, the film gives me chills. But after reading your review, I think I’m going to return to that novel. I had completely forgotten about the wasp nest and the delirium Jack experiences as the combined effect of the alcohol and the haunted overlook.
On a separate note, I stayed at the hotel in Colorado that the Overlook was based on, and had a spooky encounter with a herd of Elk that I was expecting to be standing in the parking lot at 2:00 am when I went outside to fetch something from the car. I was about ten feet into the lot when this happened and the elk did not act threateningly per se. But a buck stomped its hoof and waggled its antlers as if to warn me that I should probably go back inside because I was not meant to be privy to whatever topic the herd was negotiating before I interrupted them. I was more than happy to oblige.
I never read “Dr. Sleep,” but I did see the movie. I found it entertaining. I also thought it was interesting that the visuals it used were based on the Kubrick interpretation, instead of that made-for-TV miniseries from the 90s.
Thanks very much for your thoughts as always, Daniel 🙏
Yeah, I think a lot of us read these books at far too young an age and there was quite a few things that sailed right over my head too!
Alcoholism or “having a drink” as we’d say in Scotland was something to joke about when I was growing up. There was never any discussion about it being something to be challenged or discussed. Men worked hard so they deserved a drink. If that turned out to be a whole bottle of whisky then that’s the way it was. Drink driving was also very common. Drive to the pub, have drinks and then drive home. Again it was never really frowned upon. Utterly ridiculous but that’s how it was 🤷♂️
The movie is hugely popular and the points you make are valid. Maybe it’s just me 😁
That’s so cool you stayed in the actual hotel and had that encounter. You should definitely turn that into a story!
I really enjoyed the directors cut of Doctor Sleep and the merging of the two sources was well done. I’m a huge fan of Mike Flanagan 👍🏼
What a brilliant piece. Thank you for your honesty and openness about your past and your personal experiences. You've brought so much depth and insight to these stories.
Thanks very much Kimberly. I really appreciate your kind words 🙏
This is a fucking phenomenal post. I'm communicating before I've even finished reading it. Your words following "On this re-watch, I don’t think I just disliked the film, I think it actively infuriated me. It’s like this was the first attempt at doing that most hated of things, “elevated horror.”, etc, are bang on how I feel about the film and the term and concept of elevated horror generally. You nailed it.
I was sorry to hear about your father and his father, but I appreciate your sharing it very much. It certainly adds a great deal to your feelings and thoughts about the novel and adaptations - high respect to you.
This is, as I say, excellent.
Thanks very much Harry 🙏
Yeah, this is my most personal post so I really appreciate your kind feedback 👍🏼
I ran this past my brother before I published because it’s so close to the bone. Sometimes with the past you don’t see inflection points until they’re in the rear view mirror. So it was with my dad and his dad. I wish I’d done more but I was just a kid
The book captures that childish frustration. The movie doesn’t even try. It’s too obsessed with the visuals and the film making of it all
Thanks again for your kind words 🙏
Of course. It's seldom easy to write about things like this, so power to you.
This was such a good essay. Seeing how the book affected you personally especially.
It’s crazy how stories can affect us so differently depending on our own experiences, but especially in horror.
Amazing job ❤️
Thanks very much Skyla 🙏
Ooof, weaving the real world into things with aplomb here Dan! Fantastic stuff.
We're pretty aligned on The Shining(s), I think I might be kinder to Doctor Sleep after my recent re-read. Rose is one of my favourite King antagonists (Rebecca Ferguson was perfectly cast) and I enjoy the weird, slightly sketched True Knot family. I haven't properly ranked late era King, but I think I'd have Doctor Sleep fairly high up the list. Not 11/22/63 levels though, obviously.
Thanks very much Lewis 🙏
Doctor Sleep is a strange one because it starts so strongly, but then I felt it just lost its way. The movie is fantastic though. Particularly, the 3 hour directors cut
11/22/63 is a great book. I watched a wee bit of the TV show with James Franco but didn’t go back to it
Late era King is a mixed bag, but there are some crackers in there. Looking forward to Talisman 3 which I reckon could be out next year if we’re lucky 👍🏼
terrific essay- the personal really sharpening the insights. thank you for sharing so openly.
Thanks very much EJ. I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙏
Great essay!
Thanks very much George 🙏
A great essay Dan.
Thanks very much Jason. Was a tough one to write 🙏👍🏼
This is a great, extremely detailed and personally framed discussion! I doff my hat to you!
Thanks very much Gregory. I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙏