Character Assassination at its Worst

Rating: 5/10 (22 December 2019)

I just finished reading the novel and was extremely excited to watch this with the praise it has received. I was severely disappointed as the film did nothing to establish the characters and failed to hit on major plot devices that occurred in the book.
One of the biggest issues I had was with the development of the three main characters. In the book Jack, Wendy, and Danny were a family. Each of them had strengths and flaws, however I don't think any of the three had any real strengths at all.
Jack was a recovering alcoholic who truly wanted the best for his family. He battled demons from his past, but over the book the hotel slowly took over his mind. A key scene that was left out was Jack letting Danny go at the end, which showed that he still couldn't bring himself to hurt Danny and reinforced that it was the hotel essentially possessing Jack. In the movie he's just a jerk. They don't explain anything about the hotel or why he's losing his mind. It's clear in the beginning that he hates his family from the start, which is really the opposite of the book.
Wendy is just a weak character in the movie. We are given few reasons to like her any why she stayed with Jack. Duval swinging the bat was so pathetic and not even close to how she took Jack down in the book.
Danny was just weird. Instead of showing that he is reaching out to Halloran for help we get scenes of him essentially foaming at the mouth. He doesn't help take Jack down or stands up to him face to face. Yes, he outsmarts Jack in the maze, but nothing close to standing up to him.
It's just character assassination at its worst for these three. There is little character development and the movie relies on viewers having read the book to understand anything.
Halloran was turned into a pointless sideshow. It would have been better to cut him out of coming to the hotel and put more time into establishing happenings at the hotel. They could have had rangers come rescue them or something if they were concerned about Wendy getting the Snowcat.
I could go on and on about what the book did better but it all boils to little development. This film feels like scenes shot and stuck together. The acting is over the top at times and we are given little backstory on the hotel and the characters. Very disappointing.