- Network: ABC
- Series Premiere Date: Apr 27, 1997
Critic Reviews
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An engagingly brooding and meditative revisitation via a three-night miniseries that stars Rebecca De Mornay, Steven Weber and Courtland Mead. While Stanley Kubrick's 1980 movie was barely able to contain the manic machinations of Jack Nicholson as the bedeviled writer and Shelley Duvall as his victimized wife, ABC's renewed "Shining" delivers its own sustaining vision of an anti-holiday in hell. In fact, those who might question the wisdom of recasting and remaking "The Shining" into a miniseries will find this video version a force to be reckoned with. For this time out, The Shining radiates profound power as a deeply evocative and nuanced piece, rendered as a grandly textured triptych working on multiple levels. [23 Apr 1997]
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This television production leaves the movie in the dust...Mr. King's script and the direction of Mick Garris (''Stephen King's 'The Stand' '') slowly and skillfully bring The Shining to a pitch of screeching horror. Mr. Weber, shucking the light comedy of sitcom, is chillingly effective as a man battling his own personal demons.
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King and Garris’ Shining improves on Kubrick’s in its emotional depth and quality of performances. De Mornay pulls off the tricky role of Wendy, a loyal doormat who proves to be no pushover, and it’s a testament to Weber’s skill that Jack comes across as a sympathetic, even tragic, figure. As for young Mead, his Danny perfectly captures the mute terror of a child, for whom an angry parent can be as traumatizing as a house full of ghosts.
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If The Shining has a weakness in comparison to its predecessor, it’s that it lacks some of the trademark visions of horror — the elevator-driven blood, the ax-wielding Nicholson. But it makes up for that with a consistent, carefully textured story that rarely gives you the chance to properly breathe.
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"The Shining" (King wrote the teleplay) can be ghoulishly, gruesomely delightful. But the final hour disintegrates into a mess of violence that'll repulse most viewers. A warning: A 7-year-old may be a central character in "The Shining," but this is not -- repeat NOT -- for young children.
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Though uneven and padded (like the book), it delivers the nasty goods. For grown-up kids only. [25 Apr 1997]
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Oh, there are some jump-up-and-grab-the-cat moments, especially in Monday's installment. But, generally speaking, the people who appear on Jerry Springer are scarier than this version of The Shining. [25 Apr 1997]
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Though tension builds to a taut shudder in Monday's Part 2, it all, unfortunately, falls apart in the finale on Thursday. Weber takes so much care in restraining his character from going over the edge too soon, that when he finally reaches that precipice on the rim of madness, he never dives in. It takes courage to go as far over the top as Nicholson did in Kubrick's "The Shining." But that's what's needed to make the crazed ending more than a cartoon. Too bad. Until then, "Stephen King's The Shining" almost got it right. [27 Apr 1997]
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A faithful, literal, author-authorized version of the novel. The picture is big. The ideas are small...In spite of the length and hype of the miniseries, which stars Steven Weber of "Wings" and Rebecca De Mornay as Jack and Wendy Torrance, with Courtland Mead as their son, Danny, it's a small picture. Not small in its commercial prospects, but small in its artistic ambitions. [27 Apr 1997, p.D1]
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ABC will force King fans to wait until Thursday to witness the loud, bloody resolution of The Shining and see the author in a cameo role as a dapper bandleader. King sets a slow tempo. Too much stalling dulls the impact. [25 Apr 1997, p.51]
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Stephen King's The Shining is a crackerjack creep show with a fatal flaw. It's too darn long. [25 Apr 1997, p.1C]
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It is neither visually nor narratively compelling. Since the story didn't make sense in the first place, filming a literal (not literate) version of The Shining only makes its shortcomings stand out. [27 Apr 1997, p.1C]
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But the running time unwisely inflates this intimate story of a three-member family coming apart at the isolated hotel in the Colorado Rockies. The Stand was an epic. The Shining is not... The extreme length, however, leads to tiresome repetition. Horror and suspense are better served in small helpings. Even Alfred Hitchcock would have been daunted by these conditions. [27 Apr 1997]
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It's torture. It's hell. And millions will tune in, attracted by King's reputation as America's scaremaster...The best thing would be for everybody to avoid it like the plague, because it is the plague.
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