Why?

Rating: Null/10 (4 February 2001)

The title of my comment says it all, why? Why take a perfectly good book from undoubtedly the best horror writer around and turn it into this long, boring film that is supposed to have viewers quaking in their boots but instead had me almost asleep? I suppose I shall go through my feelings about this 'film'.
Firstly, the cast that the director has decided to involve in this film is all wrong. Wendy Torrence, all she ever seems to do is cry, and almost break down, she is such a weak character anyway so why get an even weaker actress to play this part? Danny, well, he just seems totally lost all the time, the character is supposed to be a scary character, what this boy is experiencing is not normal so why does it seem that everything he does is just boring? His facial expressions are all obviously fake and he seems to react to the whole scenario as if it were a walk in the park, this makes no sense. Finally, the infamous Jack Torrence (Nicholson), well, I would like to say how sorry I am in advance to any avid Nicholson fans out there but the only reason that he seems to act well in this is because he has such a weak supporting cast. He is wooden and, well, he does not play the part that was meant by the author. At the beginning we should see Jack as a loving husband and father who, although he has his faults, is not a bad person, but even in the early stages of this film we see the manic sides to Jack that we are not supposed to see until at least half way through, he goes to pieces before he reaches the hotel. Nicholson, although a good actor in some of his films, gives this part an edge from the out start which shouldn't even be there. This brings the quality of the film right down.
This film was so hyped up that I automatically thought, naive as I am, that it would live up to all the publicity that it received, I was wrong. As a fan of the horror film genre, I was so disappointed that the supposed 'best horror film of the 80's' would turn out to be this long, pointless, laughable portrayal of what could have been a seriously terrifying film. My advice to you is to skip the film, it's a waste of 2 and 1/2 hours and read the book instead, that'll have you more scared than the film ever could.
Again, I ask my original question why..............?