I think the remake was closer to the book, and scarier. But the original movie was just a lot of fun.
As for Pet Sematary, it was also inspired by his daughter’s cat being hit by a car, I think. King says it was his most disturbing book and it gave Tabitha the creeps when she read it. I STILL cannot read that book to this day without being scared shitless. The movie-forget it! I watched part of it when I was twelve and had nightmares for a week. Three years later I tried to watch it with my friends and managed to see the whole thing. I had nightmares for two weeks. (Zelda…oh gods, NOT ZELDA!!!)
I’m not sure I agree with those of you who say that The Shining is King’s best book, but I really liked it. In fact, I have a sorta funny story that goes along with my first reading of the book. I was about 16. I was laying across my mother’s bed, on my stomach, facing away from the door of the room. Reading the part about the topiary hedges. My aunt came into the room very, very quietly, and tickled the bottom of one of my feet. eeeeek! My mother almost had a new hole in her ceiling!
As for the movies, I hated the Kubrick one, too. Jack Nicholson looked so nuts to begin with that I never got the feeling of his downward spiral into insanity. Also, Shelly Duvall was so pathetic that I was totally supportive of his desire to kill her! The mini-series version, while it didn’t capture the complexities of the book, I found very enjoyable.