Stephen King fans are about to be taken on a brand new journey into the world of the prolific horror author with It: Welcome to Derry this Halloween, but there is another, often overlooked, King TV adaptation that has finally found its way onto streaming that is well worth your time. That is the three-part adaptation of The Shining, written for screen by King himself, which is now streaming in its entirety on 
Hulu.
For many fans – not to mention King himself – there are two versions of the classic haunted house/domestic violence tale, The Shining. There is King’s 1977 novel and Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of it. Regarded in some circles as the greatest King adaptation, that review does not hold up with many King fans, and the author has made no secret of how much he dislikes what Kubrick did to the story – so much so that it would take Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of the sequel, Doctor Sleep, to set King at rest on the matter.
However, there is another version of The Shining that many people forget existed. Let’s face it, if something isn’t on streaming these days, it might as well not exist for those who are not fans of physical media. This version is the 1997 mini-series, which was directed by frequent King collaborator Mick Garris (who directed the original mini-series of The Stand, Bag of Bones, Desperation and several more) and aired on ABC. For almost 30 years, the mini-series has only been available via its original VHS and subsequent DVD & Blu-ray releases, but now, it is just a touch away on streaming in the U.S.
Is ‘The Shining’ Mini-Series Better Than Kubrick’s Movie?
This always comes down to a matter of opinion. Kubrick made an incredible movie of suspense, dread, and horror, but it was not exactly the story King told in his novel. There were several major changes, some characters were added, others removed, and then there was a very different ending.
The mini-series allowed King over four hours to tell his version of the story, the story of a haunted hotel, the human mind, and, ultimately, a kind of heroic redemption that was missing from Kubrick’s stark telling. King brought back elements that had been erased from the movie, such as the terrifying, haunted topiary of the Overlook Hotel, the long, slow, descent into madness of Jack Torrence, and the ending in which, spoilers, Jack overcomes his tormentors and destroys the Overlook.
While the series does suffer from being a TV-budget series of the 1990s, and CGI effects used to bring the topiary lions to life are laughable rather than chilling, the series mostly holds up as a more faithful take on King’s novel – something you would expect coming from the author himself after years of him having to watch a version he hated playing on TV. The series’ cast is more than capable of following in the footsteps of Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, mostly because the characters are depicted so differently from Kubrick’s takes. Steven Weber’s Jack is more subtle than that of Jack Nicholson – who is admittedly hard to beat in any role, and Weber doesn’t even try – while Rebecca De Mornay is not the screaming damsel in distress Duvall played to perfection. In the mix is Courtland Mead as Danny Torrence, who is effortlessly able to look horrified and shocked at the events taking place around him throughout.
In short, those who want to know what happens in King’s novel without going to the effort of reading it, the miniseries of The Shining will give you everything in a nice, neat package. It does come with “TV scares” rather than relenting cinematic horror, but it is still worth checking out.
- Release Date
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1997 – 1996
- Network
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ABC
- Directors
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Mick Garris