This
September, author Stephen King will be celebrating both the release of his new
book Dr. Sleep (a long-awaited sequel to The Shining) and his 66th birthday. Over the
course of his career, King has authored over 50 novels, several of which have
been used as the basis for feature length films -- with some adaptations
adhering to King’s stories more closely than others.
Let’s take
a look at two dramatically different examples…
The
Shining
One film
which still gets some Stephen King fans riled up is Stanley Kubrick’s The
Shining
-- which Stephen King himself was incredibly vocal about disliking upon its
release in 1980. In more abstract terms, the film differs from the book in that
the film places greater emphasis on the instability of the Jack Torrance
character, portrayed in the film by Jack Nicholson. King’s stated intention was
to portray the character in a more sympathetic light and to show his declining
mental health as being more symptomatic of the corrosive influence of the
spiritual entities who inhabit the Overlook Hotel. King’s chief criticism was
that the Kubrick treatment made the film more about a domestic disturbance, and
downplayed the supernatural elements of the story.
EB: I'm disappointed to discover that King disliked the movie version, although his reasons make sense. I love Stanley Kubrick, and The Shining is one of my all-time favorite horror movies, one of the few that I still find terrifying, even though I've seen it many times. It's not as good as the book, of course, but as far as movies go, it's hard to beat.
There are
several other key differences between the book and the film though. In the
book, there are large topiary animals who come to life. Kubrick’s version does
away with the topiary animals, substituting them with a hedge maze.
EB: And I always wondered why he chose to do that. It seems like it would've been a great special effect in a movie. Those moving hedges were one of the things that scared me most when I read the book, circa age 15.
In the
book, Jack Torrance dies when the boiler room explodes. In the film, he freezes
to death in the hedge maze. In the book, Jack Torrance doesn’t actually kill
anyone. In the film, he kills the Dick Halloran character (played by Scatman
Crothers.)
EB: One of the things that always impressed me about the movie was how scary it was despite the fact that so few characters died, especially since it came out during the height of the slasher movie craze. It was a great lesson for me, who was just beginning to discover horror movies other than what was available on late-night TV: people don't necessarily have to die (or be turned vampires) in order for a movie to be really scary).
The key
difference here, though, is that so much of King’s work is permeated by his
ambiguous spiritual beliefs, which usually seem to have some foundation in the
Christian narrative, whereas a defining characteristic of most of Kubrick’s
work is his biting cynicism and religious skepticism.
EB: Which is probably why I love both of them, because I have to admit I'm a bit of a voyeur when it comes to others' views about religion and spirituality.
Carrie
Carrie was historically
significant as it was King’s first published novel, and director Brian De Palma’s
first feature. There were a couple of notable differences between the novel and
the film. One was the appearance of the Carrie White character, who was
described as being overweight in the novel, but was portrayed by the wispy
Sissy Spacek in the film.
EB: This is a movie I haven't seen (I know. I know!), but I always wondered about that myself. Everyone who's read the book knows that Carrie is overweight. Also, everyone who knew me in junior high thought I looked like Carrie (Sissy Spacek), which was a terrible thing for a skinny, junior-high kid and made me (unfairly) hate Sissy Spacek until years later.
The most notable difference between the movie and the
book, though, is perhaps the ending. In the end of the novel, Carrie destroys
the entire town. In the end of the film, Carrie has essentially killed all of
the teenagers from the town, but has left the parents to grieve -- which is, by
this blogger’s estimation, infinitely more chilling.
EB: I had no idea that the movie ended that way, but I'd agree that that was a good change.
On the
whole, though, the film hits all the major beats from the novel -- the
character is a social outcast; there is one sympathetic character who
conspicuously arranges to have her boyfriend take Carrie to the prom (although
both King and screenwriter Lawrence D. Cohen clearly attempted to lampshade
this); and the vindictive teenage girl antagonists conspire to further
humiliate Carrie for menstruating. What embellishments were made for the sake
of filming were ultimately in the service of the same end as the novel.
EB: Okay, yes, I must see the movie version now.
Thank you, Brandon, for this birthday gift to Stephen King.
About the
author: Brandon Engel is an entertainment blogger for GetDirectTV.org who is an avid consumer of gothic horror
literature and vintage horror films. Among his favorite writers are H.P.
Lovecraft, William Peter Blatty and, of course, Mr. King. Among his favorite
directors are Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, and John Carpenter.
