10 Underrated Horror TV Shows From The '90s You Totally Forgot About

Stephen King has never been a supporter of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, despite it becoming a popular horror flick and frequent source material for parodies. His distaste for the film went so far that, in 1997, he teamed up with director Mick Garris to produce his own miniseries version for ABC.

For those who fell in love with the movie version of The Shining, especially Jack Nicholson's performance as Jack Torrance, it was a bit difficult to adjust to a more modest Steven Weber. Nicholson was a central point of contention when it came to the film, however. King and diehard fans of the novel felt Nicholson's take on Torrance was a little too crazy too quickly. In the book, Torrance started as a loving father and slowly lost his mind. We didn't really explore the family dynamics or see any sign that he cared deeply for them in the movie.

So for purists out there, The Shining miniseries was as close to perfect as it could've been. It had to be - the novelist wrote the teleplay. A more casual audience might have struggled with the episodes running as long as an actual Stephen King book. Still, fans of the original novel were able to rejoice that the TV version of The Shining allowed for characters and relationships to develop further, providing the emotional thrill-ride the Kubrick adaptation greatly lacked.