The problem with this movie like all other Stephen King television movie adaptations is that it is a watered down and neutered version of the book. You have the basic plot intact, however all the best bloody scenes, all the cussing, the nudity, and all the other stuff present in the novel is taken from the movie and you are left yawning because somehow the edge is gone and so are all the scares. I will be the first to say Kubrick's version was almost an entirely different entity than the novel, but he probably knew some of the stuff in the book just would not fly or look very good. The hedge animals for instance, they look terrible here and you know they would have looked even worse then. These things could work in say a 100 million dollar movie made for the summer, but not a television movie. Jack Nicholson is another thing. Sure he was a bit to crazy early in the movie in the original, but he was perfect near the end. The overlook was much more sinister and you really had the feeling it was isolated, this one not so much. The plot is just like the original version though as a family moves into a house to take care of it in the winter. The cast just does not measure up to the first though, I will say Rebecca De Morney looks more like the gal described in the book then Shelly what's here last name. However, Shelly was much better at showing fear. True in the book Jack did swing around a type of croquette mallet, but I think an ax is far more scary and threatening. Then there is the ending, way to happy and sentimental for my tastes. In the end this movie is just a weak version of the book as far as being sinister and creepy, but it does get more of the basics down as far as the plot and the Kubrick does not even try to follow the book all that often, but it does offer scares so my pick is the Kubrick.
