NextFact wrote:
slowmutant wrote:
I read somewhere that Stephen King hated the movie.
i dont blame him! stephen king only writes horror novels doesnt he? the director of the shining should have focused more on scares other than irrelevant dialogue, i mean this is supposed to be a horror movie RIGHT? thats what genre netflix had it under, and yet 3/4 of the movie was dialogue with no action/scares, and the intended scary parts werent scary at all, some naked old lady? a room full of skeletons? a room full of blood coming out an elevator(i think?)? pathetic, NOT SCARY!
One of the most popular movies of all time was effectively written by Stephen King, and contained only the usual horror elements one gets in a prison - The Shawshank Redemption.
Stephen King rightly hated The Shining, as the spirit of the story had been lost. The scary aspect in the book was a male authority figure with a history of hurting himself and hurting his family trapped with them in a huge building, with the weather and the location making it impossible to leave. Most of the supernatural aspects work in the book but seem silly in the movie. In the book, the spirit of the house is fairly mysterious throughout (though obviously it is malevolent). There was massive buildup in the book for the 'redrum' thing, which when spoken out loud in the movie seems silly or annoying. There's plenty more to mention, but its all the same sort of thing. The movie fails to celebrate the book's best aspects.
The reason that I like The Shining movie is that it is minimalist. You only get to see what the director wants you to see and nothing is out of place or untidy. The effects shots are all real, no CGI. The shots at the start from a helicopter following a car winding along a road, and the steadycam shots following the child on the tricycle around the hotel were revolutionary, when the film was made. These days you can create any scene that you can imagine with CGI, so those bits have lost a lot of their magic.
Once you understand the difference between modern horror and psychological horror, you stand a chance of appreciating it. Modern horror is based only on instinct - Eyes and teeth suddenly zooming at the viewer, or exploiting fears of disfigurement (damaged faces, or physical gore), whereas this genre requires that your brain be intact, and that you relate to characters and feel for them. Admittedly, the greatest flaw in the The Shining, and indeed in most Stanley Kubrick movies is that its hard to relate to the characters. So maybe thats my whole argument shot down