Have to agree with King

Rating: 6/10 (15 November 2019)

I'm a woman in my mid-thirties, grew up watching several 80s horror films, but somehow I missed this one. I watched it, now, in preparation for the sequel film Doctor Sleep. As one who scares quite easily, I found myself not terrified in the least by Kubrick's The Shining. I've read many of King's comments on this film and must agree with a majority of them. The visuals were nice, the pacing was inconsistent but mostly slow, and the actors didn't seem to match King's vision. Duvall's character was rather annoying, I feel terrible for her experience with Kubrick to not end up amounting to much. As much as I enjoy the psychotic nature of the Jack Nicholson vibe (I kept picturing him with green hair and white face paint during this movie...), I would have rather enjoyed a slow build into madness. I agree with King, that Nicholson played Torrance as a crazy, abusive dad/husband before even leaving for the hotel. He didn't get a hold of any liquor until long after he'd been doing the crazy trance thing, so alcohol didn't have much place as a character in this film. If it had, the progressive madness would've made more sense.
Also, after seeing so many pop culture references to twins in other movies/shows/books, etc. I was hoping for more from these characters. I find children extremely creepy, but there was a short scene of them crumpled on the floor covered in blood and another scene with one creepy line. I wanted more. A little bit of a struggle between Scatman and Nicholson would've been better, too. Walk in the door...ax to the belly...dead. What was the point of building up his character? The "scariest" scene (if I must choose one) is with the naked woman in Room 237. However, this was another scene that seemed promising just to eventually fall flat. The old lady started to wake up from the bathtub, but nothing came of it after she sat up. Why? Again, what was the point, then?
Probably the best camera play was the final shot, with the July 4th Ball picture. However, it should have ended at the first glimpse of the picture. Reward those who are paying attention, to catch Nicholson. Instead, the camera keeps zooming. Uh, yeah we got it, that's Nicholson- not spooky anymore when you have to point it out. In the IMDb trivia section, someone mentions an alternative ending with the current hotel owner giving the kid the mysterious rolling ball and laughing creepily off into the sunset. That sounded better.
6 out of 10 stars for being a semi-interesting movie, with a potentially interesting story, nice imagery, but falling short waaaay too many times. The kid was phenomenal the entire time.