This interesting failure

Rating: 5/10 (9 April 2005)

As Stephen King often refers to this adaptation and well, I have to agree. Did Mr. Kubrick understand what the story is about? I seriously doubt it, no wonder Mr. King remade it. Nicholson is over the top from the very first scene, what need to go to the Outlook Hotel if he already lost it? And the kid is creepier than the ghosts themselves, so what is this about? Yes, the result is scary but I insist, this is not what the story issues. It's the lost relationship between a boy and his father, something the miniseries portrays well. Watch that instead. Mr. Weber may not be the best actor ever but his slipping into madness is gradual and emotional, something the movie adaptation lost. The screenplay is too direct in its pretensions: let's scare people but forget the human content.