Regardless of what Stephen King thinks about the Kubrick adaptation of The Shining, it is still fondly remembered by movie lovers everywhere. This new movie, however praised by King as being a worthy adaptation of his novel, manages to fail where Kubrick succeeded. It's more of a slightly serious take on a superhero movie than a horror movie.
There is absolutely nothing scary about this movie, not even the few jumpscares it tries to pull are successful, and worst of all: everything that seemed enigmatic or mysterious in Kubrick's The Shining is quickly explained away and dealt with.
In the end, it's a very in-your-face movie about learning to deal with your own fears, traumas and even issues inherited/caused by one's family, rather than a horror movie that will leave you puzzling over the meaning of things or human nature. Every single horror element is fully explained, every mystery is revealed, every (simple) analogy is spelled out for you. Nothing is left to the imagination. Even the very "Shining" from the first movie, an otherworldly awareness that very few people had, is turned into X-men mutant-superhero-like powers in this one. And, oh, the reason that some people have the Shining? TO FIGHT EVIL. The whole "with great power comes great responsibility" thing. Again. It's laughable. American culture is completely obsessed with the superhero narrative as of late, and it's seeping into what some deem to be psychological horror, yet it seems people are too dazzled by the state of things to notice and choose instead to just take it and perceive it as fine.
There is absolutely nothing scary about this movie, not even the few jumpscares it tries to pull are successful, and worst of all: everything that seemed enigmatic or mysterious in Kubrick's The Shining is quickly explained away and dealt with.
In the end, it's a very in-your-face movie about learning to deal with your own fears, traumas and even issues inherited/caused by one's family, rather than a horror movie that will leave you puzzling over the meaning of things or human nature. Every single horror element is fully explained, every mystery is revealed, every (simple) analogy is spelled out for you. Nothing is left to the imagination. Even the very "Shining" from the first movie, an otherworldly awareness that very few people had, is turned into X-men mutant-superhero-like powers in this one. And, oh, the reason that some people have the Shining? TO FIGHT EVIL. The whole "with great power comes great responsibility" thing. Again. It's laughable. American culture is completely obsessed with the superhero narrative as of late, and it's seeping into what some deem to be psychological horror, yet it seems people are too dazzled by the state of things to notice and choose instead to just take it and perceive it as fine.