Stephen King's Original Idea For The Shining Had A Totally Different Vibe

One of the best-known and most controversial opinions in cinema history is the well-recorded fact that Stephen King dislikes Stanley Kubrick's 1980 classic "The Shining." Kubrick adapted King's 1977 novel, and King resented the changes that Kubrick made to his narrative, feeling they were pessimistic or arbitrary. King's novel is about a former alcoholic author named Jack who moves his family into a remote, snowbound hotel, serving as its caretaker for the winter. While there, some ghostly entities begin appearing, driving Jack toward wrathful insanity. King's version was a clear metaphor for falling off the wagon, a sad, sympathetic story about an ordinary man turned into a monster by external forces. Kubrick's film, in contrast, starred Jack Nicholson as Jack, making the character seem abusive and angry from the start. King hated that. 

There are myriad other minuscule changes as well (room numbers change, for instance), and each one irked King. Never mind that Kubrick's mastery of the cinematic craft is undeniable, and that he made one of the scariest and most striking films ever. King openly hated how evil Jack had become and felt his ideas had been mishandled. King was able to "correct" Kubrick's version in 1997 when he adapted his novel into a TV miniseries. Critics don't think it's as good, but King prefers it. 

King may want "The Shining" treated with care, but he once conceived of a wilder, slightly more "Scooby-Doo" version of the story. Back in the mid-1970s, when King was still spitballing ideas for a new haunting story he wanted to write, he initially thought of a family that was trapped at a creepy, haunted amusement park. In 2013, King appeared on NPR's "Fresh Air" to discuss his work and career, and he shared some of his early ideas for the novel that would eventually become "The Shining." The changes are rather dramatic.

King shared that he was always fond of amusement parks as a boy, recalling that he used to enjoy his days at Topsham Fair, a carnival in Topsham, Maine, and one that is still functioning to this day. He was particularly fond of the people called shy barkers, the people who stood outside of the rides, games, and attractions and colorfully badgered customers to come inside, or to try to win dubiously valuable prizes. "Everyone wins," he repeated. But a haunted amusement park was, King felt, a great setting for a story. The premise for "The Shining" was already in place, but the setting was still in flux. Of his early version, King said: 

"I always wanted to write a novel set in an amusement park, and in the original concept of 'The Shining.' That was going to be a family that was caretaking an amusement park at the close of the season, and I had sort of an idea [...] instead of an old hotel. And I had a title for the book. I was going to call it 'Dark Shine,' and I think I had a name for the amusement park too. It might have been Skyhook or something like that, named after one of the rides."

King eventually transposed the action of "The Shining" to a remote hotel, which was a good move; it seems a little classier and less cartoonish that way. King would eventually get to write his amusement park story in the form of "Joyland," a novel he published in 2013. That book involves the ghost of a woman named Linda who had been murdered at Joyland the previous season, although it's just as much a detective story as a ghost story.