Potential for greatness ruined by the "auteur" mindset?

Rating: 7/10 (12 November 2012)

That's mostly how I view this film. First off, it's too long, meaning it didn't need to be this long. There have been many interpretations of the symbolism and inconsistencies in the film but the major problem for me is the psychic ability element. All three family members see ghosts, so why is there a need for psychic ability? How does that contribute anything, other than to be make us have to suspend more disbelief that is required? Thus, there is clearly a "lack of economy"' here.
This is exacerbated by being told that another family had been in a similar position in the recent past and was murdered by the father/husband. Again, why is this important? It could be, if we are to think that ghosts were responsible, but then are we supposed to believe that one member of that family had psychic ability too? Instead, psychic ability should have been omitted entirely from the film, and then hearing about the previous caretaker family would "play better," because we can believe, in the context of a film at least, that ghosts were responsible.
Or, we could have the child's psychic ability being the portal to the ghost world at the hotel (with no need for Hallorann's psychic ability, which just makes things less believable). Then we should not be told of a previous caretaker who killed his family. Instead, this film possessed a bit of a "let's throw it all at the wall and see what sticks" quality to it, which is it's major flaw, IMO. Towards the end, one is thinking, are extraterrestrial aliens going to make an appearance soon? How about "bigfoot?" I'll bet he's a little jealous by now!
What does this film do very well? The repeating maze theme is excellent, compelling the viewer to ask what the point of it is. The ghost theme works, and in fact is two ghost stories rather than one. The "whites" of the early 1920s are trapped in a kind of purgatory, where they essentially dance on the graves of native Americans. They still have their racist (and other nasty) attitudes, and are stuck in that maze of evil until they are presumably finally relegated to Hell, where they belong.
In the meantime, people like Jack are sucked into their world, perhaps aided by alcoholism in his case. For me it was a case of deincarnation (my term, AFAIK), and his frozen body shows what happens to those who allow others to tell them how to think; they no longer grow and get stuck in past notions that have been rejected by history, so to speak. So, there is a bit of clutter in the middle of this film that could (and should IMO) have been omitted, but overall it was an excellent idea for a "ghost story," with appropriate symbolism (for the most part), cinematography, etc.