This was Stephen King's third published book and firmly established him as the King of Horror literature. I have read a lot of Stephen King, and I have often been scared stiff in the process, but it was The Shining that affected me the most. Jack Torrence is a man whose life is in a mess. An unpredictable alcoholic, he has lost his job in a prep school due to violence against a student. He also accidentally broke his son's arm whilst trying to beat him and his marriage is a mess. Jack has always had aspirations to be a writer. He accepts a job at the Overlook Hotel as a winter caretaker. He hopes to rebuild his little family, stay off the sauce and write his novel. Little Danny, who is psychic - 'The Shining' of the title, has premonitions and visions in the Overlook. He doesn't tell his parents because he wants them to be happy, but he gradually realises that his presence in the Hotel is actually bringing out negative things. The hotel becomes alive, and since it cannot possess Danny, it goes after his father Jack, whose sanity begins to disintegrate. He goes to the hotel bar and it is stocked with alcohol. He gets drunk and falls into the clutches of a ghost called Lloyd. He also becomes homicidal - as the hotel urges him to kill his wife Wendy and Danny. They are however, on top of him and lock him in the pantry. Alas, the ghost of the previous caretaker, who killed his family, then himself, lets Jack out. There commences a fight to the death between Jack and his family. The chef of the resort, Dick Hallorann, who shares Danny's telepathic talents, receives a psychic distress call from Danny and goes to the hotel to help out. Can he end the malevolent spirit of the Hotel? And can he rescue Danny and Wendy from the possessed and murderous Jack? Psychic phenomena is always scary, and poor little Danny sees things that no child ever has any business seeing. Because we see these phenomena through the eyes of a child, it is even more horrifying. The hotel's gradual possession of Jack is terrifying. He is already a violent drunk so we know he is prone to the hotel's advances. The scenes where he is in the bar talking to Lloyd are both surreal and scary. At the end of the book, Jack becomes almost super human in his villainy - like all good bad guys, just when you think he is dead, he resurrects himself for more mayhem. I think that Kubrick did an excellent job of adapting the book for the screen. However, the book is far scarier because you are left to imagine what Danny's visions look like and also because it goes more in depth into Jack's psychopathology and literal possession by the Hotel. The detailing of Jack's demise in the book makes it scarier than the film. It will stay with you for days. Everything about The Shining screams terror, plus it is expertly written and perfectly handles the storyline in a way that would flummox a lesser writer. Definitely King's crowning achievement.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
This was Stephen King's third published book and firmly established him as the King of Horror literature. I have read a lot of Stephen King, and I have often been scared stiff in the process, but it was The Shining that affected me the most. Jack Torrence is a man whose life is in a mess. An unpredictable alcoholic, he has lost his job in a prep school due to violence against a student. He also accidentally broke his son's arm whilst trying to beat him and his marriage is a mess. Jack has always had aspirations to be a writer. He accepts a job at the Overlook Hotel as a winter caretaker. He hopes to rebuild his little family, stay off the sauce and write his novel. Little Danny, who is psychic - 'The Shining' of the title, has premonitions and visions in the Overlook. He doesn't tell his parents because he wants them to be happy, but he gradually realises that his presence in the Hotel is actually bringing out negative things. The hotel becomes alive, and since it cannot possess Danny, it goes after his father Jack, whose sanity begins to disintegrate. He goes to the hotel bar and it is stocked with alcohol. He gets drunk and falls into the clutches of a ghost called Lloyd. He also becomes homicidal - as the hotel urges him to kill his wife Wendy and Danny. They are however, on top of him and lock him in the pantry. Alas, the ghost of the previous caretaker, who killed his family, then himself, lets Jack out. There commences a fight to the death between Jack and his family. The chef of the resort, Dick Hallorann, who shares Danny's telepathic talents, receives a psychic distress call from Danny and goes to the hotel to help out. Can he end the malevolent spirit of the Hotel? And can he rescue Danny and Wendy from the possessed and murderous Jack? Psychic phenomena is always scary, and poor little Danny sees things that no child ever has any business seeing. Because we see these phenomena through the eyes of a child, it is even more horrifying. The hotel's gradual possession of Jack is terrifying. He is already a violent drunk so we know he is prone to the hotel's advances. The scenes where he is in the bar talking to Lloyd are both surreal and scary. At the end of the book, Jack becomes almost super human in his villainy - like all good bad guys, just when you think he is dead, he resurrects himself for more mayhem. I think that Kubrick did an excellent job of adapting the book for the screen. However, the book is far scarier because you are left to imagine what Danny's visions look like and also because it goes more in depth into Jack's psychopathology and literal possession by the Hotel. The detailing of Jack's demise in the book makes it scarier than the film. It will stay with you for days. Everything about The Shining screams terror, plus it is expertly written and perfectly handles the storyline in a way that would flummox a lesser writer. Definitely King's crowning achievement.