This week, we are reviewing the prequel to Doctor Sleep, Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, and Stephen King's least favorite adaptation of his work: The Shining. Plue we have a big announcement in "It Came From Social Media" and play another round of "Horror or Porno".

https://youtu.be/5Cb3ik6zP2I

Synopsis of The Shining

The Shining is the tale of an aspiring writer Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) taking his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and son Danny (Some kid named Danny) to The Overlook Hotel. It lies secluded, deep within the heavily forested mountains of Colorado. He is hired to be the caretaker of The Overlook in the winter off-season. While there he intends to write the next great american novel whose protagonist is worn down by the pressures of capitalism and the lack of leisure time. Meanwhile Danny Torrence is tutored by a magical negro about Danny’s ability to see the future and read minds. Also, the hotel is haunted and Jack goes crazy. Do you really not know the plot to THE SHINING?

https://youtu.be/WJfhB3Vj_G8

Review of The Shining

OK, here we go. I appreciate this movie. It is one of Kubrick’s masterpieces. It’s visually stunning and meticulously crafted. It’s undeniably an great and important movie.

I just don’t like it.

It’s slow. The characters are empty shells of people that lack most semblance of humanity and motivation, other than to:

be scared, or

be menacing.

To be frank, I couldn’t figure out what was going on and why most of the time. The book was better.

COME AT ME HORROR FANS, I don’t like your precious SHINING.

Original artwork by Dustin Goebel whose Instagram you should follow @Dgoebel00

Score for The Shining

Score 8/10

FIGHT ME.

(It should be noted that this is the opinion of only one of the hosts of Horror Movie Talk, David gives it a 10/10)

The ShiningAdd The Shining to your collection or rent the full movie on Amazon.Buy/Rent from Amazon

Spoilers for The Shining

Expand for Spoilers

Differences Between the Book and the Film

The start out, I wanted to talk about the differences between the book The Shining, and the movie The Shining.

Dick Halloran

In the book, Dick Halloran lives and ends up being instrumental in saving Wendy and Danny

In the film, Dick gets pretty much instantly murdered, and only helps circumstantially by bringing up the snow cat.

The Overlook

The hotel is a real entity in the book, it is very literally trying to consume the Torrence family

In the film, the hotel seems to be haunted and there are hints that it is steering Jack, but the connection between Jack's psychosis and the hotel is unclear.

Tony

Tony in the book is Danny's "imaginary friend" that talks to him and shows him things. But really, Tony is a spirit that is more of a guardian angel.

In the film Tony is... What is tony? He seems to be Danny's subconscience or a spirit possessing him... or something.

Hedge Animals (The one welcome change)

In the book, there were a bunch of topiary animals that would move and eventually attack Wendy, Danny, and Dick.

In the film, the hedge animals don't exist, but there is a hedge maze, which figures into the ending.

The Ending

In the book, Jack is distracted by trying to kill his family and forgets to release pressure from the aging boiler in the basement. As a result, the boiler explodes, ripping a hole through the Overlook, and causing it to be burned down to the ground.

In the film, Jack gets lost in the hedge maze and freezes to death.

https://youtu.be/uGOd_cM_voY

Needless to say, Stephen King wasn't a huge fan of the film.

Differences in the Doctor Sleep Movie/Book

The differences are very interesting given that a sequel to the book and a sequel to the movie were created.

So the sequel to the book The Shining includes Dick Halloran being a personal mentor to Danny, and the Overlook no longer existing.