David Cronenberg is not a fan of Kubrick’s The Shining

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

The work of David Cronenberg is being celebrated in terrific fashion with the newly opened David Cronenberg: Evolution exhibit at TIFF Bell Lightbox, which runs through Jan. 19 in Toronto. Would be wonderful if we could all take a class trip to see it, wouldn’t it?

In any event, the director is currently doing interviews to promote the exhibit, and in one particular chat, Cronenberg reveals he is not a very big admirer of Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING. Not groundbreaking news, of course, but it’s always interesting to read one essential director’s thoughts on another, especially when his opinion goes against what is thought of as the norm.

Here are Cronenberg’s quotes:

“I think I’m a more intimate and personal filmmaker than Kubrick ever was… That’s why I find The Shining not to be a great film. I don’t think he understood the (horror) genre. I don’t think he understood what he was doing. There were some striking images in the book and he got that, but I don’t think he really felt it.

In a weird way, although he’s revered as a high-level cinematic artist, I think he was much more commercial-minded and was looking for stuff that would click and that he could get financed. I think he was very obsessed with that, to an extent that I’m not. Or that Bergman or Fellini were.”

Do you think Mr. Cronenberg makes a good point about Kubrick’s adaptation of THE SHINING? Do you think he makes a legit point about Kubrick in general?