Stephen King is a legend when it comes to horror. Having created some of the most immersive and horrifying worlds in this genre through his books, there is a reason why he is known to be the ‘King of Horror’. Some of the most well-known and loved scary movies of all time are based on works by the author, with perfect examples being The Shining, which was adapted into the 1980 film, IT, which has been brought to screen a number of times, and finally, Carrie, which has been immortalized in popular culture due to how iconic it is.
With how significant of an influence he has had on this genre, his opinion holds a lot of value. Interestingly enough, King has some very strong, negative opinions about a film based on one of his best-doing projects, The Shining. The author has revealed that he hated the way women were portrayed in the film by director, Stanley Kubrick.
Stephen King Hated The Shining Film
It is difficult to put into words just how significant Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining was for the horror genre, being a pivotal point that has impacted films to this day. With this, it is interesting to find out that Stephen King, who wrote the source material that this film was based on, completely disapproves of this final product. The author has been very vocal about this critique in the past, stating that the film goes completely against the image that he had of it and feels extremely two-dimensional in his professional opinion.
According to Far Out, he went into great detail on this subject, stating that the character of Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, seems to have no arcs in the film.
“The character of Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie. Absolutely no arc at all,” he said. “When we first see Jack Nicholson, he’s in the office of Mr. Ullman, the manager of the hotel, and you know, then, he’s crazy as a shit house rat. All he does is get crazier. In the book, he’s a guy who’s struggling with his sanity and finally loses it. To me, that’s a tragedy. In the movie, there’s no tragedy because there’s no real change.”
Elaborating on this, he stated that in the film, his character just seems to be going crazier and crazier without any substance to support why this is happening. On the other hand, in King’s novel, the progression is much more justified as he gets a deeper look into why this is happening to him.
Stephen King Felt This Film To Be Insulting To Women
Speaking more on this, Stephen King then went on to talk about one of his biggest critiques when it comes to Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining. He stated that he absolutely hated the way the central female character was used in the film. Wendy Torrance, who was played by Shelley Duvall, became iconic due to her memorable screams in the film. It would seem that this is what made the author upset.
“I felt that the treatment of Shelley Duvall as Wendy—I mean, talk about insulting to women. She’s basically a scream machine. There’s no sense of her involvement in the family dynamic at all.”
He stated that he did not like how her character was simply used for the sake of loud screams, making her seemingly useless and completely wasted when they were not required for the plot. He added that when it came to her being a part of the family dynamic that is at the center of this film, she was hollow and absent. He added that this portrayal of this character, which was not present in his book, felt, to him, insulting to women in general.
Also Read: Stephen King Defends Brie Larson’s ‘The Marvels’ Despite Calling the Sequel a ‘Failure’ Himself
