Critic Reviews

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.

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]

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.

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.

Though uneven and padded (like the book), it delivers the nasty goods. For grown-up kids only. [25 Apr 1997]

"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.

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]

Stephen King's The Shining is a crackerjack creep show with a fatal flaw. It's too darn long. [25 Apr 1997, p.1C]

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]

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]