Yes! That is my #1 complaint about Kubrick’s movie. The tragedy of the story was Jack’s steady decline and Danny’s hero-worshipping awareness of it. To have Jack start out batshit doesn’t allow for any decline.
And oh God, do I hate the Wendy in that movie! That snivelling doormat!
More like she understands it could suddenly drop to the bottom. After all, it is an old elevator that looks about as reliable as the boiler.
You have to look at it from the perspective of a 1970s audience. When a contemporary audience sees Jack Nicholson, we expect him to be bat-shit crazy, because that’s what he always plays. When an audience from 1980 saw Nicholson, they would have identified him with Cuckoo’s Nest, Chinatown, or Easy Rider (all dramatic roles), not The Shining, Witches of Eastwick, or Batman (batshit crazy).
For me, the scariest scene ever filmed is Shelly Duvall leafing through page after page after page of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”
The place in Oregon is Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, and it is most assuredly NOT set in the midst of a cute little resort town, but isolated near the top of the mountain and nestled in an extensive pine forest. You most definitely get that “isolated” feeling when you as you are rounding the highway to the top of the mountain and see glimpses of this “monster” thru the trees as you go, and then when you take the final curve and see the whole building spread in front of you, across the massive parking lot, it’s…very striking indeed. Timberline Lodge is a huge ski resort, rustic and stunning inside, with a very fine restaurant and a lounge or two for apres ski. It has to endure some harsh winter conditions, exactly as were shown in the movie with the wind blowing snow into huge drifts, etc. I recall nearly having a stroke when I first saw that motel after seeing the movie, and praying that the interiors were NOT the same as in the movie, although I knew better. I wasn’t sure I could even go inside if the lobby looked even remotely the same. Of course, it did not.
Ditto on the kid in the mini-series being a HUGE distraction for me. Ruined the whole thing IMHO.
–Beck
I think the point was that the Stanley is not terribly isolated from the cute little tourist town of Estes Park.
But the old hotel is creepy. I dared myself to go stand outside of room 217 and I got the total screaming heebie jeebies. Then we checked into our room- the one right below 217. I barely slept. Hubby thought it was hilarious and kept making wierd noises and poking me. HE was lucky to survive the night! 
They should charge extra to let people stay in 217.
Yeah, that’s what I thought the point was, sorry if I wasn’t clear. Seems Kubrick might have chosen the exteriors at Timberline Lodge for its more “remote” feeling, as opposed to the Stanley, but of course I am just speculating. I was simply confirming that it is indeed remote and almost “alien” feeling to see that gigantic building, especially in the middle of winter when the snow is stacked against the walls similarly to how you see it in the movie. Creepy!
I don’t think I could have handled sleeping in the room right below 217 at all. That you even tried is beyond what I could have done. Hubby sounds like boatload of chuckles, however.
–Beck
-Grin- In the film, Danny is told by Dick Halloran that there’s nothing to be afraid of in Room 237.
Apparently the entire hallway was haunted by naked decaying women !
Word, on Nicholson. The film was shot in 1978. He had serious chops and had not descended at all into the batshit phase. One might argue that this film was his watershed batshit performance, except that Jack Torrance really does go batshit.
In the Kubrick film- the totally cool sound of Danny riding his Big Wheel through the halls, alternating between carpet and hardwood- hissssssssssss brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr hssssssssssssssss brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr hsssssssssssssssssssssssss brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
You couldn’t be righter. I drove up to the Timberline Lodge one fall in what started off as a light rain. As I went further and further up the mountain it was like traveling forward in time into winter. Light rain turned into sleet, turned into slush, turned into snow. As we got higher and higher the road became more closed in and claustrophobic, snow bending the trees to meet above the road. By the time I got to the top, I wanted to run. It scared the crap out of me.
I’ll continue this Timberline hijack if no one minds.
I stayed at Timberline for the first time last winter. They only used a few of the outside shots of Timberline in the movie.
The others (Like when Danny goes out the window in the snow) are not at the Timberline. I think that was a set.
The gentleman who taught me my craft, and has become a good friend, is the man who shot Steadicam on the film. His name is Garrett Brown, and he has told me face to face that that particular sound was wholly unplanned. Nobody had thought about what it would sound like.
When he shot that footage, he was sitting in a specially modified wheelchair, with the Steadicam Model II in Low-Mode so the camera was lower to the ground and the monitor was higher up. Once they started shooting the first of those shots, they all heard- and dug- that shifting from silent to brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Accidental brilliance. 
Awesome! I love stuff like that! My dad thought it was one of the best pieces of film ever, seriously.
I have been away from my old craft for far too long, which is why I am such a geek about stuff.
What is your old craft ?
Actress. A long time ago, in another life.
Well, I am a big Kubrick fan, and my problem with “The Shining” is that it is arguably his worst movie (well, until “Eyes Wide Shut” came along, but I pefer to think he was getting demented by that time). That being said, it is still better than 90% of the crap that is out there. The problem is that it isn’t very frightening. Let’s see: a not very scary horror movie of little substance, made by a Director who is known for much greater things. Points for style, yes, but that doesn’t get you into the hall of fame.
And as for the person that says that projects that King was involved with come out poorly, I would offer “The Stand” as a great translation to screen of a difficult book. The only problem I had was when Trashcan Man was blowing up things in the midwest, you could plainly see a huge mountain behind him 
but on a show as massive as that we can forgive a few things.
Plus, how can anything be scarier than this:
“Live, from Broadway, it’s the Tony Awards, with your hosts Tyne Daly and Hal Linden!”
SHUDDERS IN TERROR
Oh man. I saw that movie when I was about 12 years old, and I have never been more terrified by any film, ever. Scary, scary. The little boy on his big-wheel in that big old empty hotel, accidentally coming upon frightening unreal shit that he can never describe or express to anyone else … that’s what horror is all about, for me. When I watch it as an adult, I still find it frightening.
I think Shelly Duvall was good in it, actually. She was such a wet blanket all the time, which is why she is so effective in that scene after she reads his manuscript. Jack is tormenting her and she’s sobbing and weeping and stabbing ineffectually at him with the baseball bat, and he’s mocking her and laughing and backing her up the stairs – and then she just clocks him one, hard. Most satisfying movie moment ever.
Jack Nicholson was totally ruined for me, forever, by that film. I cannot watch him in any movie without expecting him to pick up an axe and start swinging. Remember when he was in *As Good As It Gets * with Helen Hunt? In the end he gets together with Helen Hunt? I was all, “Run, Helen, my God, run! Get away before it’s too late!”
She didn’t listen. Poor Helen. We haven’t heard from her since.
My favorite part is when Scatman Crothers gets chopped in half. That dude always annoyed me.
I saw the film when it premiered in 1980 and thought it was decent, but as others have said it has since grown on me.
I did miss the hedge animals though, but I understand Kubrick didn’t think they were technically feasable what with with the budget (around 20 million IIRC) and available special effects at the time.
