Dan Torrance as an adult is haunted by his past. The True Knot cult of psychic-energy vampires stalks children to remain alive and feed on their shine. A girl with immense power contacts Dan and the psychic network converges.
The film follows a book structure, juggling viewpoints and taking an epic scope with the shining allowing the stories to be tied together before characters meet face to face. There are drawbacks, though. A few bits of characterization or theme are delivered through verbal exposition, which lessens their impact, and it can feel like the film has too much to put on the table.
Unlike the Kubrick film, this story is clearly supernatural throughout, with the shining being the basis on which everything stems, making it quite different. It still fuels themes of addiction and hero/villain parallels are strong. The use of surrealism as characters interact psychically is great, and the villains and the young girl, Abra, are really well-performed. There are stakes and surprises. One trick that wore super thin super fast is a heartbeat in the soundtrack, which loses novelty and power each time it shows up. The casting of returning characters was mostly good, with Wendy in particular standing out. While looking almost nothing like Shelley Duvall, she somehow utterly became her in her short scenes.
I've heard of this film reconciling Kubrick's movie and King's novels, but I don't think it quite succeeds. On the one hand, Kubrick's film gave this story a massive asset by leaving the Overlook Hotel standing as an available climactic setting, and the ending of the first novel works well transposed here. The film Shining stories feel like a nice extended duology.
My problem is that the True Knot/Abra story feels like one film and the story of Danny facing down his trauma is another. There could have been a brilliant Kubrick sequel just about Dan being haunted by the hotel and returning there to face his demons, using a more metaphoric lens like Kubrick and closing the hotel's story. But the way this film uses the hotel feels indulgent and distracting as Kubrick's imagery is transplanted into King's novel universe. The hotel scenes are largely gratuitous re-creations that feel more like cinema porn than meaningful echoes, and very little new is done with the place. I wanted it to change to reflect Dan's psyche differently from Jack's, but it follows the King rules of these ghosts being real and static and that doesn't match what made Kubrick's Overlook so compelling. Using Kubrick's hotel was expected, but it really doesn't seem to aid the story. Its best use is a scene where Dan speaks to the bartender and stymies the Hotel, but that dialog could have been in a Dan-centric film as well. I like the story of Abra and the True Knot, too, so it feels like the story could have just been about that.
Well-made epic, but perhaps Kubrick was fine left out of it.
Film Two stories, one film.
Dan Torrance as an adult is haunted by his past. The True Knot cult of psychic-energy vampires stalks children to remain alive and feed on their shine. A girl with immense power contacts Dan and the psychic network converges.
The film follows a book structure, juggling viewpoints and taking an epic scope with the shining allowing the stories to be tied together before characters meet face to face. There are drawbacks, though. A few bits of characterization or theme are delivered through verbal exposition, which lessens their impact, and it can feel like the film has too much to put on the table.
Unlike the Kubrick film, this story is clearly supernatural throughout, with the shining being the basis on which everything stems, making it quite different. It still fuels themes of addiction and hero/villain parallels are strong. The use of surrealism as characters interact psychically is great, and the villains and the young girl, Abra, are really well-performed. There are stakes and surprises. One trick that wore super thin super fast is a heartbeat in the soundtrack, which loses novelty and power each time it shows up. The casting of returning characters was mostly good, with Wendy in particular standing out. While looking almost nothing like Shelley Duvall, she somehow utterly became her in her short scenes.
I've heard of this film reconciling Kubrick's movie and King's novels, but I don't think it quite succeeds. On the one hand, Kubrick's film gave this story a massive asset by leaving the Overlook Hotel standing as an available climactic setting, and the ending of the first novel works well transposed here. The film Shining stories feel like a nice extended duology.
My problem is that the True Knot/Abra story feels like one film and the story of Danny facing down his trauma is another. There could have been a brilliant Kubrick sequel just about Dan being haunted by the hotel and returning there to face his demons, using a more metaphoric lens like Kubrick and closing the hotel's story. But the way this film uses the hotel feels indulgent and distracting as Kubrick's imagery is transplanted into King's novel universe. The hotel scenes are largely gratuitous re-creations that feel more like cinema porn than meaningful echoes, and very little new is done with the place. I wanted it to change to reflect Dan's psyche differently from Jack's, but it follows the King rules of these ghosts being real and static and that doesn't match what made Kubrick's Overlook so compelling. Using Kubrick's hotel was expected, but it really doesn't seem to aid the story. Its best use is a scene where Dan speaks to the bartender and stymies the Hotel, but that dialog could have been in a Dan-centric film as well. I like the story of Abra and the True Knot, too, so it feels like the story could have just been about that.
Well-made epic, but perhaps Kubrick was fine left out of it.