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Novel
- Diagnosed by the Audience: Several readers have theorized from Jack's at times erratic behavior and mood swings that he suffers from CPTSD and/or some kind of personality disorder.
- Draco in Leather Pants: Ullman is regarded by some as a Designated Villain. While it is true to an extent (particularly when it comes to his treatment of Jack), many other characters point out he's legitimately corrupt and undercuts basic safety regulations to cut costs. He's also very abusive to his other subordinates with much less cause than his understandable resentment towards Jack.
- Growing the Beard: Stephen King felt that the point where he wrote Jack Torrance as a sympathetic antagonist was the point where he got better at writing.
- It Was His Sled:
- The Arc Word that Danny keeps seeing, "REDRUM", is "MURDER" spelled backwards.
- Jack going crazy in general — particularly pronounced in the book where Danny has repeated dreams and visions of a monstrous creature trying to kill him and yelling at him to "take your medicine." Most readers know the creature will end up being Jack long before they get to the climax of the book.
- Jerkass Woobie: Jack himself. Even though he was the author of so many of his own failures in life, he and his family are trapped in an impossible situation. If not for the malevolent, supernatural hotel, Jack's caretaking job probably would have gone off without a hitch. Keeping his family at the Overlook leads to disaster, but leaving the hotel would have ultimately been almost as bad for them.
- Never Live It Down: For the game of roque, this is a lot of people's only experience with the sport.This
is what you get if you Google Image what a roque mallet looks like. - Strawman Has a Point: Along with Villain Has a Point, while he's stalking Danny, Jack is at least a little angry that Danny took the master key and went into Room 217, when he'd been expressly forbidden to go into any of the guest rooms, and (although Jack didn't know it), had promised Hallorann he wouldn't. Kid was trespassing, and if he'd kept his promise, he probably would have avoided the encounter with Mrs. Massey.
- Unintentional Period Piece: Like a lot of King's early works, it is very obvious the book was written during the 70's; everything from pop culture references, to Wendy smoking cigarettes around a little kid to some hints to social issues of the day that come up in dialogue.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Jack can be this for people who have suffered under an abusive parent or person and just cannot sympathize with such an individual. Interestingly, Kubrick himself seemed to have this position, which lead to his Adaptational Villainy in the film.
- Values Dissonance:
- Ullman and Al being horrified at the idea of Jack writing a book detailing the hotel's bloody history is a little curious to someone reading the book in the 21st century. For one, it's much harder to keep the dark past of such places a secret in the age of the internet. Secondly, a bloody history is now something of a draw for many guests, what with the explosion of true crime's popularity in the age of podcasts and Netflix documentaries (true crime was a a niche market in the 70's).
- The depiction of LGBT people varies between All Gays Are Pedophiles (a character from one of Jack's short stories), Depraved Bisexual (Horace Derwent), or both (Roger).
- Wendy asks Doctor Edmonds if Danny might "become autistic" and regards this as the worst possible fate a child could go through. Hindsight makes this especially a product of the scientific ignorance of The '70s as opposed to now, because in the years since King has delivered much more nuanced portrayals and commentaries on autism, particularly Holly of Mr. Mercedes and its sequels.
- The characterization of Jack himself can become this if you're someone who's suffered under an abusive parent or person and just cannot sympathize with someone like Jack.
- The Woobie: Roger (in the book at least; his appearances in the movie and the miniseries are just random events). It's hard to not feel sympathetic for a victim of domestic abuse and homophobia to the point of being broken down to thinking he is a pedophiliac dog.
Film
- Adaptation Displacement:
- None of the iconic scenes from the film (the blood in the elevator, "All work and no play...", the "Here's Johnny!" line) are in the book.
- A peculiar case with the Ghost Girls: they were Grady's daughters and are mentioned in the book, but did not appear to Danny. The line "Come and play... forever..." was uttered by a thing in the playground's cement tunnel, in one of the book's creepier scenes. It's never stated what the thing in the tunnel is, but it can be assumed it's the malevolent ghost of a child who died on the playground, making the film girls an example of a Composite Character.
- An interesting case is the hedge maze, which plays a pivotal role in the movie. In the book, it is not even a labyrinth but a topiary garden which comes to life, sort of. The topiary animals behave like that of the weeping angels. Kubrick was certain he couldn't make this look good with the special effects of the time... and their depiction in the miniseries, made seventeen years later, proves he was right.
- In addition to the "Here's Johnny!" line, Jack attacking his family with an axe has become iconic in its own right. It was a roque mallet in the book.
- Alternate Character Interpretation:
- The Creepy Twins were trying to warn Danny about what will happen to him and his family if they stay in the hotel. Grady does tell Jack that one of them tried to burn the hotel down, which could suggest that they were bored, or it was an accident — or they knew of the hotel's evil even before it drove their father insane.
- Jack finds a beautiful, nude woman in room 237 who allegedly strangled Danny. Instead of informing the authorities... he just says nothing and makes out with her; a complete stranger. Was he just being an asswipe as usual, cheating on his wife with his son's attacker or was he, perhaps, lured by her beauty being under a "spell" of some kind before she turns into an old, cackling corpse? Or was he reliving the previous caretaker's memories (and the rotting corpse represented his guilt)?
- Award Snub: You would think that an iconic Kubrick film would have qualified for several Academy Award nominations in its day, but alas, you would be wrong. It was one of just two films Kubrick made after Paths of Glory to receive no Oscar nominations whatsoevernote . Indeed, the initial backlash was so strong that Kubrick was nominated for Worst Director at the inaugural Razzie Awards ceremony (as was Duvall for Worst Actress, though the nomination would be rescinded in 2022) and the film was mostly panned in its initial theatrical release. Siskel & Ebert outright refused to review the film on their show Sneak Previews, an act which would be unthinkable today (and contrasts starkly with the loving tribute to Kubrick that Ebert presented on his show not 20 years later upon his death, and his glowing 2006 review).
- Awesome Music: Wendy Carlos's iconic synth version of a classical piece for the main theme is most certainly this as is the film's use of "Midnight, the Stars and You" at the end.
- Broken Base:
- The movie did this for King's fans, some of whom feel Kubrick's reinterpretation is valid, even brilliant, despite (or even because of) the liberties he took with King's story. Others feel that Kubrick sacrificed too much of King's Character Development and backstory for a chilly, impersonal adaptation. See They Changed It, Now It Sucks! below.
- Even among people who liked the movie, is it better than the book, just as good, or inferior? No matter what opinion you have, someone will come after you.
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: The "dog/bear costume" scene in the movie. It's actually supposed to be a reference to the Overlook's original hotel manager Horace Derwent and his lover Roger, who in the book have quite creepy scenes concerning their relationship. However, since Kubrick's version doesn't even bother to explain who the characters are, it becomes a completely random moment, which makes it narm for some and an epic Mind Screw for others. His appearance in the miniseries is also rather random, not helped by the fact that he says some rather narm-tastic lines.
- Common Knowledge:
- Despite being commonly referred to as twins, even becoming the most famous example of Creepy Twins, Delbert Grady's daughters are not actually twins and are even mentioned early on as being two years apart in age. The confusion is not helped by the fact that the actresses who play them actually are identical twins in real life.
- A minor case; some fans of the claim Jack's escape from the pantry as the only (apparent) confirmation of the supernatural in the film, with everything else able to be explained by characters imaginations. However, setting aside how the titular ability is clearly just as magical a concept as a haunted hotel, during the climax, Wendy sees the ghosts, including some of the same ones Jack and Danny did. Since there's no way she could know what these ghosts looked or sounded like beforehand in order to hallucinate them no matter how panicked she was, this serves to further confirm the ghosts are real, which suits the action-packed climax. Kubrick claimed that things were meant to be ambiguous until Jack's escape, not that Jack's escape was the only thing that made the magic unambiguous, after all.
- The idea that Kubrick psychologically tortured Shelly Duvall has been dismissed by Shelly herself- while it was a tough shoot, she says Kubrick himself was mostly pleasant to her. Granted, Kubrick doesn't seem to have gone out of his way to make filming stress-free but there's a long way between that and psychological abuse.
- Complete Monster: The Overlook Hotel itself. See Doctor Sleep for its entry.
- Creepy Awesome: Jack Torrance on the rampage is frightening, but is also a riot of energy and laughs.
- Death of the Author:
- There are countless interpretations of what the movie is about and what happens in it. Kubrick revealed his true intentions in an interview with Michel Ciment, where he says that the ghosts are real, that Grady rescuing Jack from the storeroom is intended as proof that the ghosts are real, that the indications that it's all in the characters' heads are a giant Red Herring and that Jack is a reincarnation of the man who was at the July 4th Ball. For the most part, this interview has been ignored by theorists, either because of this trope, because Kubrick was known to lie and misinform, or out of genuine ignorance of its existence.
- What doesn't help is that Kubrick has also stated, "It's just the story of one man's family quietly going insane together," which implies a more mundane explanation for the film's events, so make of that what you will.
- For what it's worth though, the film version of Doctor Sleep (a sequel to the Kubrick film) explicitly aligns with the idea of the Overlook's ghosts being real and was produced with heavy involvement from the Kubrick estate.
- There are countless interpretations of what the movie is about and what happens in it. Kubrick revealed his true intentions in an interview with Michel Ciment
- Delusion Conclusion: It's not uncommon for some viewers (especially those who put Doctor Sleep into Fanon Discontinuity) to interpret the haunting at the Overlook Hotel as a combination of Danny's imagination and Jack's, or even Wendy's, escalating madness.
- Epileptic Trees: There are a few theorists who are genuinely convinced that Stanley Kubrick was responsible for faking the film of the moon landing, and that The Shining is his attempt at coming to terms with his guilt and confessing his fakery to the world. According to this interpretation, Jack Torrance (an artist living in extreme isolation from his family while working on a project of great personal importance) is meant to be a Author Avatar for Kubrick, who was forced into extreme isolation while filming the fake moon landing for NASA. Also, the number "237" is a reference to the supposed 237,000 miles in the average distance between the Earth and the Moonnote , Room 237 is a stand-in for the soundstage where the landing was filmed, and Danny's "Apollo 11" sweater◊ is a clue to the film's true meaning.
- Genius Bonus: At one point, Danny is watching TV. The TV is showing the Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoon Stop! Look! And Hasten!, specifically, the scene where Coyote is chasing Road Runner over a maze of railroad tracks. While you can't see the image on the TV, you can hear the distinctive musical cue, which fans will no doubt be familiar with. It serves as subtle Foreshadowing for the chase in the finale.
- Harsher in Hindsight:
- Shelley Duvall revealing that she'd long been suffering from severe mental illness in 2016 hits this one in-universe and out, as the psychological torment Kubrick put her through may have exacerbated it (though she personally denies such allegations or his involvement in her current state). This also makes the constant complaints critics had at Duvall's performance in the film, especially the Razzies for infamously "nominating" her for Worst Actress, feel crueler. The Razzies came to regard nominating her as an Old Shame for that reason and ultimately rescinded the nomination in 2022.
- The use of the Timberline Lodge as a stand-in for a hotel with a history marred by death and tragedy became this just two years after The Shining's release, when director Boris Sagal died following a horrific helicopter accident in the Lodge's parking lot while filming World War III.
- Hype Backlash: After years of this being hyped as not just one of the scariest films ever made, but one of the best films period — there's a number of detractors who view the film as overpraised and nonsensical. Then there are book fans who hate it for the liberties taken with the source material, and some who even disagree with Stephen King's opinion (he thinks it's a poor adaptation but still a good film).
- I Am Not Shazam: Thanks to the "Here's Johnny!" scene, the uninitiated would often believe Jack's name is "Johnny" when it's actually a time-appropriate reference to Johnny Carson's intro. It doesn't help that 'Jack' used to be a very common nickname for people named John.
- Jerkass Woobie: Jack, a very flawed man (an abusive alcoholic specifically) who deep down does truly love his family, is turned into an absolute murderous monster by the sinister influence of the Overlook, resulting in his murder of an innocent man, the intense traumatization of his family, and his own lonely death.
- Memetic Mutation:
- Jack busting down the bathroom door with an axe and shouting, "HERE'S JOHNNY!"
- Jack's frozen corpse is popular for use in image macros joking about snow or the cold.
- Narm: Given how beloved the film is, there's a surprising amount.
- Narm Charm: At the end of the movie, Jack trades his angry tirades and threats for childish taunts and pop culture references, quoting the Big Bad Wolf from The Three Little Pigs and Johnny Carson from The Tonight Show as he hacks at the door to reach Wendy. It should come across as silly, but it somehow works and shows just how terrifyingly batshit crazy he now is.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- The guy in the dog/bear costume and his lover. Completely out of nowhere, yet incredibly memorable due to sheer WTF-ness.
- Aside from a brief cameo at the start, the Grady sisters only appear in one scene, but it's easily one of the most iconic and unnerving scenes in the whole film.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: While the film is now considered a horror classic and one of the greatest films of all time, it's difficult to discuss it without bringing up not only the immense Creator Backlash by Stephen King as a result of the film's heavy deviations from the original book, but also and more significantly Kubrick's abusive treatment of the film's cast on-set, particularly his psychological tormenting of Shelley Duvall. While Duvall eventually did dispel the severity of Kubrick's actions and denied him being abusive, the perception of his grueling enforcement of method acting really isn't a great look, especially since Kubrick never expressed regret over his actions to the day he died.
- One element that shows Kubrick in a slightly better light is the way he treated Danny's actor, Danny Lloyd; he was kept from being aware he was in a horror film, and simply believed he was making a drama about a family in a hotel.
- Questionable Casting: Stephen King certainly felt this way about both Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, although most audiences wouldn't necessarily agree. Nicholson was often typecast in insane and/or villainous roles at the time, which King felt would destroy the sympathy audiences would feel about him going insane and turning evil, as well as ruining the surprise. Sure enough, he's menacing from nearly the beginning and, beyond his horrified and tearfully emotional breakdown upon having a nightmare about killing his family, almost never shows resistance against what the hotel is doing to him like the book character does. This has partially contributed to the Adaptational Villainy described above. Duvall was more for her appearance being homely compared to the version described in the book (to the point where the miniseries went for the more conventionally attractive Rebecca De Mornay).
- Realism-Induced Horror:
- Defenders of the Kubrick version of The Shining often feel that the more ambiguous nature of the Overlook Hotel's supernatural qualities combined with the flatter and less sympathetic take on Jack's character make the film scarier in this way, in that it adds to a believability that Jack's actions could happen with or without any Demonic Possession.
- Even those who belief the Hotel is supernatural commend that Jack is less sympathetic, as the Hotel is instead treated as more of an enabler and a rewarder of Jack's actions than the root cause of it, which can certainly hit close to home for some viewers.
- Retroactive Recognition: A forest ranger is played by Manning Redwood, who would later be best known for playing Bob Conley in A View to a Kill.
- Signature Scene:
- Jack chopping down the door with an axe and then going "Heeeere's Johnny!" is the film's most famous scene and has repeatedly been parodied in other works.
- The wave of blood rushing out of the elevator was famously used as a trailer for the film.
- Spiritual Adaptation: Cracked claimed in its article that the film is an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's 1968 Swedish film Hour of the Wolf.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: The movie for many of the book's fans. Outside of them, in both mainstream audiences and horror movie geeks, it's considered one of the best horror films ever made. On the other hand, Stephen King explicitly feels this way about it, mainly because Kubrick took out Jack's redemption. Specifically, King has stated that he thinks the film is a good horror film but a poor adaptation.
- Tough Act to Follow:
- It was impossible for the miniseries to try to stand above the grounds of a highly respected classic like Kubrick's take on the book. While most agree that the miniseries follows very well with the original book, it's peppered with heavy Special Effects Failure, and the resulting Narm therein, from it being a '90s product with nowhere near the craftsmanship of Kubrick and some usage of Padding. Director Mick Garris himself understood and acknowledged this, taking the job with the intention of making a faithful adaptation for those who wanted one, while being well aware that Kubrick's movie was always going to be the quintessential filmed version of the story.
- Same goes for the film sequel Doctor Sleep, although most find the sequel to be a good follow-up that is just overshadowed by Kubrick's adaptation.
- Unintentional Period Piece:
- The film shows Jack using a typewriter and workplaces (the hotel office and the Park Service station) being devoid of personal computers, coming out just a couple of years before PCs came into wider use.
- The hotel's interior decor and everyone's appearance (namely clothing and hairstyles) specifically dates the film to late 1979-early 1980 when it was shot.
- Vindicated by History:
- Kubrick's film was panned by contemporary critics on release to the point that it got Kubrick nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director.note Nowadays, it's generally considered a masterwork of horror.
- Shelley Duvall's acting was heavily criticized when the film came out, and she also secured her own Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. With the benefit of hindsight and the now-common knowledge of Kubrick's (mis)treatment of her during production, modern audiences tend to view her performance more favorably, and these days it's common for people to say that Duvall's performance is one of the highlights of the film. Even the Razzies themselves officially rescinded Duvall's nomination in 2022.
Mini Series
- Author's Saving Throw: Especially considering Stephen King himself worked on the miniseries. In regards to the 80s film, some do like how the Jack and Wendy in this version are shown to be an actual loving but still flawed couple compared to the obviously tense relationship of the 80s Jack and Wendy. Whether this works or not depends on your side of the Broken Base.
- Broken Base: The miniseries tends to attract rather... divided opinions, too. A huge division is whether or not the mini series did a good job adapting what King wanted or if Kubrick truly was right that adapting such a vast detailed story would result in a large, garble mess. Most do agree these days that the mini series's biggest strengths are Steven Weber's performance as Jack and while flawed, the mini series does adapt the book's supernatural elements faithfully well, the 90s CGI notwithstanding.
- Hilarious in Hindsight: Stephen King based the Overlook Hotel on a certain real life hotel he visited... The Stanley Hotel. Stanley Kubrick of course used another setting altogether, but the TV miniseries was filmed in the actual hotel.
- He Really Can Act: While a far cry from the beloved Jack Nicholson performance, even detractors will praise Weber's performance as Jack Torrance due to making him sympathetic, likable, and more or less a Woobie who tries everything in his power to care and love his family only to be reduced into a monster by the hotel.
- Narm: Near the end of the Miniseries, Jack rides an elevator into the basement while yelling, "Noooooooo!". What makes it amusing is that he seems to wait to yell until he passes by Wendy and Dick. Seconds later, Danny shows up and tells both that they have to get out, but the way he pronounces "Dick" is amusing.
- Tony, the "boy" who represents a manifestation of Danny's powers, goes from a distant, spooky figure to...a dorky teenager floating in midair. In the novel, some of the more frightening scenes involve Tony showing visions to Danny. Tony's presentation here makes him unintentionally hilarious.
- Nightmare Retardant: The biggest criticism of the miniseries was that it simply was not scary. The miniseries was more dedicated to "fixing" the Kubrick film and being faithful to the book than actually scaring people.
- One-Scene Wonder: Ullman only has one big scene here, but Elliott Gould turns in a memorable, if melodramatic, performance that makes every bit of it count.
- So Okay, It's Average:
- General consensus on the miniseries is that it's pretty decent, if a bit goofy and mixing in with the Special Effects Failure. One of the most liked things of the miniseries is making Jack a borderline Woobie, who really does love his family and wants to make amends with them, even going out of his way to give up drinking, completely different from the semi already unstable Jack within Kubrick's version.
- The miniseries is also Better on DVD, with a few viewings, particularly the characterization of Wendy and the fact that we get to spend some time with a nice family. This is one thing that's missing from the Kubrick version: the good part of the Jack and Wendy relationship, and an understanding of why she stays with him, especially in regards to Jack's regret and sadness over what he did to Wendy and Danny.
- Special Effects Failure: The animated topiary animals are shown with utterly hideous CGI. Looks like Kubrick was right.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: At one point, Wendy is investigating the elevator and ends up inside it. It would have made a great scary moment to have it start to rise or lower so Jack and Danny would have to pull her out before she got decapitated.
- Vindicated by History: In a sense. While most agree that it's not at the level of the beloved Kubrick film, it can be argued the miniseries works well with Weber's performance as Jack and following the novel well, Narm and Special Effects Failure not withstanding.
