Some blatherations* on the novels and movie adaptations of Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ and ‘Doctor Sleep’.
Getting to grips with the dark stuff of Stephen King’s novels and short stories is a major challenge for filmmakers. This hasn’t dissuaded many from trying. Some have succeeded but many have failed, some miserably.
Metacritic helpfully lists the ratings of 45 movie adaptations. Entertainment Weekly’s assessment of ‘Riding The Bullet’ (2004) is that the film “falls short of its source” and this is a common criticism for other adaptations. One reviewer wrote that the only scary thing about Creepshow 2 is the prospect of Creepshow 3!
The difficulty of making convincing on screen versions of King’s works can largely be put down to the author’s steadfast refusal to gloss over the grimmest aspects of the human psyche. King relishes the prospect of delving deeply into dead zones like a persistent psychoanalyst. By these means he uncovers a veritable plethora of dark secrets, frustrated sexuality, sadistic urges and murderous inclinations.
The justifiably celebrated novel ‘The Shining’ (1977) is firmly rooted in the gothic fiction of writers like Horace Walpole, Edgar Allen Poe and Shirley Jackson, all of whom are mentioned by name in the novel. Like these authors, King instinctively knows how to balance surreal elements with more conventional narrative devices. He also recognizes that suspense that builds gradually is a sure-fire way to keep readers hooked.
With an average running time of two hours, movies must cut to the chase more rapidly. Talented directors are able to suggest rather than show, but in less skilled hands viewers are exposed to little more than a blood-fest of exploitative entertainment. In addition, many of King’s more gruesome flights of fancy have to be toned down for fear of grossing out or traumatising viewers of a sensitive disposition.
Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 movie has been elevated to the status of a “horror classic” but is in truth is little more than a self indulgent vehicle for Jack Nicholson’s relentless overacting. In the novel, Jack Torrance goes slowly insane haunted by the memory of his abusive father and plagued by the ghosts the dead at the Hotel Overlook (“an inhuman place that makes humans monsters.”) In the movie, the hotel caretaker’s arc is to start out as mildly bonkers and to wind up as bat-shit crazy.
The strength of King’s writing lies in his ability to link the fictional world with actuality. The ghosts are not just imaginary. Mark Fisher as K-Punk blogged that “Concealed behind the alluring ghosts of the hotel’s Imaginary which seduce Jack, the horrors that stalk the Overlook’s corridors belong to the real.” Kubrick vaguely links Jack’s madness to the character’s prolonged writing block but he was more concerned to skip the causal particulars in favor of the bloody consequences.
Kubrick adds the image of an Indian burial ground to suggest sinister aspects of American history but doesn’t bother to dwell too much upon the back story of the Torrance family. The plot rapidly becomes all about a psycho on the loose in a claustrophobic setting. Shelley Duvall is hopelessly miscast as the pursued wife and mother, Wendy, and required only to look vulnerable and to scream in terror at the key moments.
King’s novel ends with ice and the destruction of the Overlook while the movie ends with fire and bizarrely leaves the hotel still standing. Many other details of the story are altered, sacrificing coherent narrative for cinematic spectacle.
King wrote ‘The Shining’ while battling alcoholism. The belated sequel, ‘Doctor Sleep’ (2013) was written from the perspective of a recovering addict. In the author’s note, King says he reflected on the question : “What would have happened to Danny’s troubled father if he had found Alcoholics Anonymous instead of trying to get by with what people in AA call ‘white-knuckle sobriety’?” It is safe to assume that the scenes in which the adult Dan Torrance (Ewan McGregor) confronts his demons at AA meetings mirror King’s own struggles to get clean.
The plot of Doctor Sleep charts Dan’s journey towards shedding the spectres of the past to avoid becoming as unhinged and out of control as his father. At the start of Doctor Sleep, he has already reached rock bottom but getting sober enables him to use the Shining for good, first to help people die in peace at a hospice and later to protect the living with the help of a gifted 12-year-old Abra Stone.
In Mike Flanagan’s flawed 2019 movie version, the director ruthlessly kills off characters that are surplus to requirements (King is far kinder in this regard). This is a pity because two thirds of the movie sticks faithfully and intelligently to the novel.
The film chillingly portrays The True Knot , a ruthless gang of roaming killers who “eat screams and drink pain.” Like vampires, they prey upon young victims but instead of looking for blood but seek “steam”, the life essence that is strongest among those who have the intuitive powers known as The Shining (King is careful to remind readers: “If you think the shining begins and ends with paltry shit like telepathy you’re well short”). A scene in which life preserving ‘steam’ is extracted from a young victim matches the horror described in the novel.
Disappointingly , and inexplicably, for the final third of the film Flanagan seemingly becomes bored with the plot of ‘Doctor Sleep’ and decides instead to correct the perceived errors in the finale of ‘The Shining’ movie. In doing so, he pays homage (i.e. shamelessly copies) Kubrick’s visionary flourishes. The creepy twins reappear as does the river of blood gushing down the corridors. These details made little sense in the 1980 movie and are even more inexplicable in the ‘Doctor Sleep’ adaptation. The dramatic finale allows Flanagan to get in touch with his inner Kubrick but, in the process, sabotages everything that was good about his film up that point.
What morale can be drawn from all this? I suppose what it comes down is that should never judge a book by its movie version. This is especially sound advice when it comes to a master storyteller like Stephen King who goes darker and deeper than any film can.
[* 'blatheration' was a noun in English language dictionaries from 1656 to 1864. The word has sadly fallen out of usage. Modern day equivalents include 'chatter' or 'babbling'.]
