Stephen King infamously hates Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of his novel was Kubrick’s 11th feature film, though his first knack at the horror genre. Audiences and critics didn’t immediately take well to Kubrick’s adaptation, even nominating him for the Worst Director Razzie Award. Since then, the movie has been as equally praised as the book as one of the greatest horror movies of all time.
Kubrick adapted The Shining in 1980 with most of the main characters and plot points intact. Both versions include Jack Torrance as a recovering alcoholic who seeks to use his time as the Overlook’s caretaker to work on his writing. Jack’s son, Danny, and wife, Wendy, are also present with most of their major storylines preserved, aside from fewer explanations of Danny’s titular “shining” gift. Kubrick’s version of the story has been praised by audiences and critics alike for its horror and suspense, but fans of King’s novel tend to criticize how the director changed the primary motivating factors of the hotel which changes the self and familial conflicts of the Torrances.
The most significant difference between King and Kubrick’s versions of The Shining is the hotel’s primary motivation for causing Jack’s madness and who is actually the Overlook’s intended victim. The Overlook’s goals are important as they give a reason as to why these supernatural events are occurring for the Torrances, what the hotel succeeding looks like, and Jack’s character arc. In the novel, Danny is the Overlook’s primary victim, and Jack Torrance is simply used as a conduit to get to Danny. The hotel wants Danny dead so that it can absorb his “shining” ability to add to the Overlook’s plethora of dark energies, so it possesses Jack in his vulnerable state to try to kill Danny. In The Shining movie, the Overlook’s motive isn’t as clear, but focuses much more on Jack for the sake of finishing the corruption of another soul.
Kubrick’s version of the Overlook is much more ambiguous in its goals. By not necessarily possessing Jack but using the hotel’s energies to drive him to an unreturnable madness, the movie makes Jack into an insane character that was simply pushed into his darkest self by the hotel. By having the Overlook possess Jack over time and present a slow deterioration of his sanity with certain moments of lucidity, the novel makes Jack a much more sympathetic character. Instead, The Shining makes it seem that it was always Jack’s destiny to come to the Overlook and murder his family, as he is just another reincarnation of the tortured Overlook caretaker soul. In this way, the movie hotel’s goal is to manifest its dark energies into Jack and collect more deaths, repeating a pattern in the hotel’s history. Contrary to The Shining novel’s use of Danny, Kubrick’s movie has Danny much more in the backseat of the plot compared to Jack.
Jack is the Overlook’s true victim in the movie, so by continually driving him into madness and committing atrocious acts until his unsympathetic death, the hotel wins. In the movie, the hotel accomplished its goal, but in the novel, it doesn’t for two reasons. With Jack not being the Overlook’s primary intended victim in The Shining, it never truly wins when Jack dies in the end, especially since his death was selfless as he essentially killed himself to save Danny and Wendy from the hotel. The hotel also doesn’t win in The Shining book because its primary victim was Danny and his shining ability, so even though Jack was taken in the process, Danny’s successful escape meant the Overlook lost.
