Everyone remembers Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining as one of the greatest feats of cinema of all time, and possibly the single greatest horror film ever made. As with so many horror films, its origin stems from the Stephen King novel of the same name.
For some reason, Stephen King absolutely hated the Kubrick version (and has since signed a contract stopping him from publicly badmouthing it) and decided to create his own TV series adaptation. His version has received pretty negative reviews all-round, but it does have a few redeeming features.
Stephen King’s Is Better: The Alcoholism Is More Prominent
One of the most interesting elements of The Shining is its focus on alcoholism. This is touched on in Kubrick’s film, but it’s effectively left as a side-plot with no real poignance or impact. As the book did, King wanted to bring this to the forefront of his adaptation.
This allowed some creepy, realistic moments to come from things outside of the spooky goings-on at the Overlook and allows the reader to entertain the small possibility that Jack isn’t haunted at all and that everything happening could just be a result of his drinking.
It Definitely Isn’t: Jack Nicholson
One of the greatest actors of all time took on the lead role of the demented Jack Torrance. As such, we were gifted with a stunning performance full of realism and maddening terror, plus, without Nicholson’s improvisational skill, we would never have heard the iconic line “Here’s Johnny!”.
The TV adaptation simply couldn’t hold a candle to Nicholson’s performance, with Steve Weber coming off as wooden and uninspiring in comparison.
Stephen King’s Is Better: Elliot Gould
The character of Stuart Ullman makes relatively frequent appearances in the book, so it seems strange that King relegated his role to a very minor appearance towards the start, especially seeing as he wanted to create the most faithful adaptation possible.
While Barry Nelson did a good job of originating the role, Elliot Gould (known for his own in Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and American History X) plays the scene to perfection. Why King decided to barely feature one of the best parts of his adaptation is baffling.
It Definitely Isn’t: The Music Of The Kubrick Version Is Perfect
Rather than choosing a composer to score the entire film, Kubrick went down a similar path to his own 2001: A Space Odyssey, therefore allowing himself to choose from an extensive catalog of modernist music from well-respected composers.
As such, under the supervision of music editor Gordon Stainforth (who was known for his ability to time the music perfectly with little to no editing), a score featuring the likes of Gyorgy Ligeti, Bela Bartok, and Krzysztof Penderecki take the film to a level no original score could have possibly managed.
Stephen King’s Is Better: Rebecca De Mornay Is Pretty Good As Wendy
Shelley Duvall isn’t exactly bad in her role as Wendy, but her gangly overacting has turned her into more of a joke than a seriously held character.
The portrayal of Wendy in King’s miniseries is genuinely far better, with Rebecca De Mornay giving the character life without overacting every scene. On top of that, King’s characterization allows her to be more than an un-thinking damsel in distress, providing her with much more of an analytical, sensible brain.
It Definitely Isn’t: The Movie Is Capable Of Cutting The Boring Bits
One thing Stanley Kubrick was able to do was cut the bits of The Shining that were boring straight out of the film. The inherent problem with Stephen King being given free-reign over his own creation is that he was never going to cut anything boring because if you think about it, he wouldn’t have left it in his book if he’d thought it was boring in the first place.
As such, we are left with many scenes that don’t need to happen, character developments that don’t actually develop anything, and long scenery shots that don’t quite build the tension in the way King intended.
Stephen King’s Is Better: We Get The Happy(ish) Ending
The bleak misery of the ending of Kubrick’s version of The Shining probably works better with the story. Jack dies, and Wendy and Danny go on to live relatively tormented lives, shown by Dan’s portrayal in Doctor Sleep.
However, King’s version gave Danny and Wendy a relatively happy ending. Halloran doesn’t die, meaning he is able to escort Wendy and Danny away from the Overlook, while Jack has a moment of redemption in which he sacrifices himself to blow up the hotel and everyone in it. In the future, Jack’s spirit watches over Danny.
It Definitely Isn’t: The Show Is Just So Slow
Arguably the biggest problem with the TV adaptation of The Shining is its pacing. Sure, the film can be pretty slow at times too, but it all adds to the tension, with creepy visuals and gloomy music building a haunting atmosphere. In the show, a full 90-minute-long episode one barely sees the family move into the hotel, and Jack doesn’t go full crazy until the final episode.
It creates so much slow build-up to a payoff that just isn’t good enough to warrant three hours of prior commitment.
Stephen King’s Is Better: We Get To See The Hedge Animals
One of the best things about Stephen King’s books were the hedge animals. They were a cool idea, which works really well on paper but ended up being too much of an animation issue for Kubrick to recreate, so the hedge maze ended up being his focal point.
Through King’s adaptation, we see what he wanted these animals to look like, and it shows us how they interact with Jack, further twisting his personality in a way that a hedge maze couldn’t really do.
It Definitely Isn’t: The Effects Are Really, Really Bad In The TV Series
Despite this, the hedge animals look absolutely awful. One of the reasons Kubrick’s film works so well is that he basically completely avoids animation. The very few ghosts and monster-things we see are really there, so it’s all completely believable.
King likes to create some visual spectacles, even if they don’t work so well (see what ended up happening in IT 2 for proof) and his version of The Shining is certainly an example of them not working so well.
