20 Things You Didn't Know About The Shining

The Shining has all but eclipsed the book it was based on, in contrast to other King adaptations where the awfulness of it makes you actually appreciate the novels a bit more (looking at you, Dark Tower).

So it may come as a shock to you if you've only seen the movie that Dick Hollaran not only LIVES to the end of the story, he becomes a surrogate father figure to Danny as he grows up, and is even there to see him graduate from college as a young man. A clearly very important character to our protagonist's character arc.

So why did they kill him off in the movie?

There are a few reasons, besides the obvious pattern of black guys NEVER living to the end of horror stories. In the book, Jack doesn't use an ax, he uses a large wooden mallet. And anyone who thinks that sounds silly should try being hit by one of those things. It isn't fun.

Kubrick obviously felt that an ax would be scarier, and following that logic, Dick IS attacked by Jack when he gets to the hotel in the book and it would be weird for someone to be chopped up by an ax and survive, so see ya Dick.

Since the film cuts out the book's epilogue, Dick's importance to the story goes with it, so it ultimately doesn't matter with the film. But it's still easily one of the movie's biggest changes, and something sure to shock any fan of this movie.