Not King's book, but still...

Rating: Null/10 (31 October 2004)

Being from Maine, I have a deep and abiding affection for Stephen King, although I'm not a great fan of his work and certainly not of movies based on his work. The menacing air and feeling of dread can't often easily be put to film, as "Pet Semetary" and "Christine" demonstrate. So, even though our favorite son might have been put off by this film, I think Kubrick did him a favor by altering some plot lines that might not have translated well to the screen-for example, the topiary; it probably would have just looked ridiculous on film. There are some horrid images in this movie-kids chopped up, blood running out of the walls, but for my money the most terrifying scene is when Wendy finds that her writer husband has barricaded himself, and threatened her, all the while writing the same words thousands and thousands of times (word has it that Kubrick actually sat down and typed these pages himself, which must have taken hours in the days before word processing!!) Shelly Duvall said she had to film this movie in a "constant state of panic" and was exhausted at the end of the filming. You can see why.