The Shining: Ridley Scott and Stephen King on Movie vs. Book

Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining is widely regarded as a horror classic, anchored by Jack Nicholson's performance and the haunted Overlook Hotel. Still, King has long been critical of the movie, and Ridley Scott has voiced similar reservations about Kubrick's choices.

King famously dismissed the film as "A great big beautiful Cadillac with no motor inside," faulting changes such as omitting the hotel's destruction and a flattened Jack Torrance: "The character … has no arc in that movie. Absolutely no arc at all." He also criticized Shelley Duvall's Wendy as "misogynistic," saying that portrayal was not the woman he wrote.

Scott said Kubrick "mucked around," adding, "Well, I honestly have to say I thought the book was better." He argued the novel offered "a much darker and gloomy hotel," noting, "The Boiler Room is a monster in the book. All boiler rooms are scary as sh*t.

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