Stephen King slams Room 237 and The Shining – again

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Stephen King is not a fan of Stanley Kubrick's THE SHINING, I think any horror hound worth their weight knows this. And even though most of us are fans of that movie, and of course King's terrific book, it's always interesting (and kind of fun) to hear the author explain his revulsion to Kubrick's adaptation.

And King's indeed at it again, this time in the latest issue of Rolling Stone. Though he's spoken about it many, many times, Mr. King is still more than happy to let guns blaze over the 1980 film. Here he is speaking about the huge fanbase the movie has:

I don't get it. But there are a lot of things that I don't get. But obviously people absolutely love it, and they don't understand why I don't. The book is hot, and the movie is cold; the book ends in fire, and the movie in ice. In the book, there's an actual arc where you see this guy, Jack Torrance, trying to be good, and little by little he moves over to this place where he's crazy. And as far as I was concerned, when I saw the movie, Jack was crazy from the first scene. I had to keep my mouth shut at the time. It was a screening, and Nicholson was there. But I'm thinking to myself the minute he's on the screen, "Oh, I know this guy. I've seen him in five motorcycle movies, where Jack Nicholson played the same part." And it's so misogynistic. I mean, Wendy Torrance is just presented as this sort of screaming dishrag. But that's just me, that's the way I am.

But it's not just THE SHINING taking shots from King. The author also seemingly doesn't have a fondness for ROOM 237, Rodney Ascher's compelling (in this writer's mind) documentary/study of the many possible hidden meanings in Kubrick's film.

…Well, let me put it this way – I watched about half of it and got sort of impatient with it and turned it off.

 

These guys were reaching. I've never had much patience for academic bullshit. It's like Dylan says, "You give people a lot of knives and forks, they've gotta cut something." And that was what was going on in that movie.

There you have it – yet there's much more from King in the lengthy and interesting interview, which you can find right HERE.

Exclusive four-minute clip from ROOM 237