The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

It was a best-selling book. Then it became a nerve-shredding film by a legendary director. It's been remade by the author as a tv mini-series, analyzed as a confession of the director's faking of the Apollo 11 moon landing, and endlessly satirized in so many formats. It's so enthralled Lee Unkrich (the director of TOY STORY 2 & 3 and several other Pixar films) that he created a dense, arcana-filled website devoted to it (located right here.

Yes, it's THE SHINING, one of the most iconic horror films of our time. And everyone seems to have a story about it. So that's this week's question: What's your SHINING story? Was your first screening at a memorable venue? Have you seen it hundreds of times? Has THE SHINING somehow infiltrated other parts of your life? What makes it such a landmark film, one that's transcended its 144 minutes of cinematic run time?

For me, the reason THE SHINING is so effective is its portrayal of isolation. Kubrick manages to really make the Torrence family feel completely alone - with nothing but the hotel.

Honestly, the performances aren't that amazing - Nicholson chews the scenery like it's bubblegum, but Shelly Duvall and Danny Lloyd are both pretty flat. The star of that film absolutely is Kubrick - and it may be his most visually arresting film, even ahead of 2001.

I don't remember when the first time I saw it was - it's possible that I had caught it on VHS from the Columbus Library, or seen it on late night, but I think the most likely first time for me was during NotLD 6. I do know that it is the one film that, no matter how many times I've seen it, I have never been inclined to skip it for a meal or a nap when it shows up on marathon line-ups.

The remake doesn't bother me the way it does some - I actually think that generally the performances are better - but without Kubrick behind the camera, it just doesn't have the same isolating feeling.

Of course, now I want to re-read the book, and then move on to finally reading "Doctor Sleep".

I don’t remember the exact first time I saw it. I know I was young and all I recall is snippets -- a blood elevator here, a big-wheel ride there. Eventually I sat down and watched the entire thing. I probably wet my pants. Didn’t go back to it until high school when I wound up watching it repeatedly (that and, oddly, Hollywood Knights, were two favorites of a friend of mine and she’d watch them frequently). Between actually planning to watch it and stumbling upon it on cable, I’d guess I’ve seen it once or twice a year for probably the last 20 years. I never tire of it (though should it wind up in the wee hours of this marathon, it may make me indeed grow tired). No single, definitive watching experience.

That said, I did have the pleasure last month of staying in the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colo., one of King’s inspirations for the book and the filming location for the TV mini-series. Sadly, I can report no hauntings that I witnessed during my time there, though there are many, many stories. Fun place to stay though. Incredible whiskey bar. They fully embrace the Shining legacy -- Kubrick’s movie plays on a loop on one channel. I watched it, of course. That felt cool.

Back to the movie itself, I love the mysteries around it almost as much as I love the movie. Room 237 is the easiest to digest composite of all that looniness, though I very much enjoy the undistilled versions on the internet. That the movie can inspire such things is an incredible testament to it. I’m personally not a believer in any of these wild thoughts, but I love that they exist. (and anyone who thinks Room 237 is about what the Shining is about - a topic debated here in the past - is missing the point of that movie).

Read the book when i was 16 while on a huge Stephen King fix...checked the movie out from the Main Branch of the Columbus Metro Library about a week or two after I read the book...

Agree with AE, the movie is still, visually stunning and holds up pretty well.

I personally am a big fan of room 237...the idea that so many folks have their own conspiracy theory regarding the movie is pretty fascinating because you can't really pinpoint one theory as, "the main theory". Although, the Apollo 10 "confession" is probably the most accepted CT and the most entertaining.

I will never forget seeing the original tv ads of a young boy (Danny) running in the snow thru a maze of bushes, it was creepy and made me want to see the film even though I hade no clue what the film was about. I still remember watching The Shining on HBO the night it premiered, this was before home video was a big thing so each month waiting to get the new HBO Guide in the mail was like Christmas for me.

I remember sitting alone in my room with the light off wrapped in blankets and grasping a pillow as I anxiously awaited each shocking moment to unfold, when it was all over I remember spending many days pondering what I had seen and to this day after about 100 viewings I still find new things everytime I watch it, especially after watching "Room 237" and seeing how deep this movie truly is.

The Shining is one of those movies I watch over and over, atleast 2 or 3 times a year and I am never bored watching it.

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"If you have GHOSTS you have Everything" - Papa Emeritus II GHOST B.C.

The twins. *shudder*

Still creeps me out.

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David A. Zecchini; Creature of the Wheel, Lord of the Infernal Engines
"Damnati Im Ludum" (VitruvianZeke@att.net)

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror V's "The Shinning" was weirdly enough my first experience to this story- was only 8 or 9 at the time but even the parody left me with the feeling that i was watching something partly iconic. When i started watching horror movies in my early teens, The Shining was one of the first i'd watched (was also getting into Stephen King at the time) and it has retroactively made that Simpsons segment that much funnier.

Seriously though, would there be any way to screen the Shinning before/after? Haha, sorry, just really like it.

"Gimme the bat, Marge. Gimme the bat" I second the Simpsons "The Shinning". I always considered that episode the pinnacle of the Simpsons parody abilities.

I do remember the first time I watched The Shining. I remember as a child my parents trying to shield me for certain movies and The Shining being one of them. I can still remember my mom talking about seeing the movie when it came out and it terrified her. I was intrigued so one night when everyone was out of the house I took the Shining from my brother's Stanley Kubrick DVD box-set and gave it a go. I was somewhere around 12 years old when I first saw it and it scared the shit out of me but I loved it.

As far as Room 237 is concerned, here we go. I have a lot of close friends who a huge conspiracy theorists and thats how I first came across what is allegedly the "subtext" of the movie. I do not believe the moon landing was faked but I still agree with many of the people in 237 that state Kubrick was a genius and if there was something in the shot it was there for a reason. Who knows why Kubrick devaited so much from King's book, but I do believe there is a message in the movie. I just believe I am not smart enough to "get" the message.

I first saw The Shining when I was about 12 or 13. I was staying with my grandma for a weekend, and we watched it on a tape she had recorded off TV. Even though it was censored and edited for TV, the experience was still kinda awkward, haha. I finally saw it unedited and uncut in college. I enjoyed it and it's fascinating, but it's not one I've seen over and over, so depending on the Marathon schedule, I'd definitely like to see it again. But honestly my strongest memories of this movie are just of feeling uncomfortable sitting next to my grandma while watching a blurred-out naked lady step out of the shower.

I was there first show, first day of release.

Funniest bit. It was a matinee and two old ladies were seated behind us. When the whole 'redrum' thing was going on, one of the old biddies asked the other, "Red-WHAT?!! What is he saying?!"

Some guy from the back of the theater shouted at the gray-hairs, "It's murder backwards you IDIOT!!"

As for THE SHINING itself. I guess I still side with Stephen King in that while it has effective moments, it doesn't quite capture his book. Biggest issue for me, is that Jack Nicholson's dad is so off the rails from the beginning of the movie, that there isn't the requisite journey into madness the story requires. "Here's Johnny!" iconic moments aside, it's a poorly modulated performance.

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

This may not be the best story, but what the hell, I'll tell it anyway...

I was 11 when The Shining came out, and of course I was not allowed to see it. But I was able to be scared by it anyway, because my older cousin saw it at the drive-in and told me all about it. I think she actually made up parts that weren't in there. It was like hearing the scariest story ever back then. I swore I would never, ever watch The Shining or any horror movie! Little did I know. Also, the local radio ads for the film were scary. Whoever did them really played it up as "the scariest movie ever" with someone's Halloween sound effects album. This was back when the drive-ins were big and slasher films opened every other week, so I mistakenly thought of The Shining as a "Slasher Movie".

So even without having seen a single frame of the film, The Shining still managed to scare me. That's some powerful stuff. When I finally saw the movie a couple of years later on an edited late-night local channel airing, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed after all that buildup. Of course I've come to appreciate it since as one of the scariest films of all time. I've seen it maybe a dozen times over the years, which for me is a lot of viewings.

I also like Room 237 (nice that we can talk like adults about it here), which I think is a fascinating piece of work in its own right. I subscribe to none of the theories, but I think the one about Kubrick faking the moon landing is particularly interesting. It's a shame that it won't be shown at the marathon, but maybe a discussion of the conspiracy theories afterward might be in order?

I vaguely remember seeing advertisements for The Shining when it came out, but I was only about 9 years old, and my mom told me I wasn't allowed to see it because it "had buckets of blood rolling all over the place." I thought she was exaggerating, but little did I know she was talking literally about the elevator scene.

I saw it years later in middle school, on TV in the edited form, and later in high school unedited after reading the book. It's one of those rare movies that cannot be compared to the book because the two are so distinctly different and are both successes in their own right. I've seen it many times over the years and still find it interesting.

Last year, I saw Room 237, and while it's a lot of cuckoo-bananas talk, it made me go back and re-watch the movie with a different eye. Even if you think everything in Room 237 is bunk, there's no denying that you will watch The Shining differently afterwards (especially if you've seen it already many times so you're not just watching it specifically for the story and as a piece of entertainment as you do the first time or two).

My sons asked me about the film last year, and so I showed it to them. While we were watching, I pointed out several of the things from Room 237 including the impossible geography, the whackadoodle conspiracy theories, the deliberate film flubs and of course the subliminal imagery (particularly one involving Winnie the Pooh and a fire truck ladder). It was an eye-opening moment for all of use because it gave me something to share with my kids, and it taught them at a relatively young age that sometimes movies are made with hidden meanings, and it challenges them to look deeper into what they watch.

On the flip side, for weeks afterwards, the boys were seeing penises in everything they watched. Yup. Penises... in... everything... they... watched.

My wife is still a little annoyed with me about that.

Over the years I have come to see THE SHINING as it's own movie loosely based on the Book, If you have ever read JAWS you will understand what I am talkng about. The Book of JAWS and the movie of JAWS are completly different but Spielberg made changes he felt needed to be made to translate the book into film, the author Peter Brenchly hated what Spielberg was doing to his book at the time but after seeing the final result had to admit the changes were perfect for film although not so much for the book.

Kubrick had his own vision and story to tell, he made radical changes but in the end made a Masterpiece of film. The Shining (like Jaws) has earned it's place in film History. Try to think of he book as the first rough draft of the screenplay.

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"If you have GHOSTS you have Everything" - Papa Emeritus II GHOST B.C.

I'm glad you brought this up because I tend to get into these debates with family members who ALWAYS say, the book was better..well no shit, it's the first impression you had of the story. I think we create this vision of how things are "supposed to be" translated from book to film and, in a lot of instances, they just won't work.

Like novelists or writers, directors are artists too and need to create the vision using the book as the frame work. As long as they don't paint outside the lines too much and stay (reasonably) within the boundaries you can do what you want. Most of the main themes from the book are in the movie. The movie not following the book verbatim, is not a bad thing.

If movies went word for word according to the book, the Lord of the Rings trilogy (not The Hobbit movies) would've each lasted 5-6 hours a piece.

I'm a reader - and a reader first, but I've never understood the whole "The book was better" thing - unless of course the changes to the story were so significant that it meaningfully changes the story.