Confessions of a Spec Tater — Shine On

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What a difference three years make.

Last week when I took a look back at the 1994 Mick Garris directed mini-series adaptation of The Stand, Stephen King’s epic post-apocalyptic novel, I complained that the series pulled a lot of punches when it came to depicting some of the book’s more gruesome imagery.

Television standards prevented Garris from showing some of the more horrifying scenes that King wrote about in his vision of a plague-ravaged world.

Well, that wasn’t the case in 1997 when Garris directed a mini-series adaptation of The Shining, perhaps Stephen King’s most popular book.

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While not able to go completely crazy with blood and gore, the ABC channel mini-series has turned the disgusting factor up to 11. It even made crochet mallets seem scary.

Pushed into production due to the fact that Stephen King was never completely happy with the 1980 Stanley Kubrick directed film adaptation of his book, the mini-series was filmed from a teleplay written by King himself.

The three-episode, four-and-a-half-hour-long mini-series starred Steven Weber, Rebecca De Mornay and Courtland Mead as the Torrance family, the sole occupants of Colorado’s scenic Overlook Hotel during the state’s snow-filled winter.

Hired on as a caretaker during the hotel’s off-season, Jack Torrance (Weber) brings his wife and son with him to stay in the hotel — a desperate attempt to find work after Jack looses his job as a teacher due to his alcoholism and drink-fueled rages.  It’s at that point where, as anyone who has seen the original film or read the book (or really, read any of King’s books for that matter) knows, bad things begin to happen.

Stephen King’s The Shining, as the mini-series is formally titled, is not Stanley Kubrick’s film.

While a major step up visually from The Stand, the mini-series lacks any of the iconic imagery or artistic touches that Kubrick imparted on his film. Instead, though, there is a warmth and emotional resonance that Kubrick’s film almost completely lacked.

While Kubrick gave audiences a film that was genuinely scary (something that the mini-series is only occasionally able to accomplish), his story was sterile and distant — something that Stephen King’s novels could never be accused of being.

The mini-series, with its ability to decompress the story over the course of several nights, takes the time to let audiences get to know the Torrences and their inner demons before introducing the family to the real demons that stalk the halls of the Overlook Hotel.

Jack Torrence’s struggles with alcoholism is especially explored in depth during the mini-series — taking the opportunity to show the roots of evil that will eventually overtake the family’s patriarch as he is corrupted and transformed into a grinning ghoul devoted only to protecting the hotel and, in the process, destroying his family.

Unfortunately, the added bonus of allowing King to explore his characters’ inner pathos is also the root of one of the biggest faults in the mini-series.

Audiences are expected to watch and be engaged with the characters’ emotional struggles and then, the very next second, sit through some of the cheesiest make-up effects this side of a Hot Topic employee Halloween party.

While certain elements of the mini-series are incredibly well done (dead woman in the bathtub anybody?), the mini-series spends way too much time showcasing the hotels’ ghosts in all their gory glory. Unfortunately, for the most part, these ghosts are portrayed as rejects from the Thriller music video — actors hamming it up while covered in heavy pancake makeup.

What Jack Nicholson was able to pull off in 1980s The Shining with just his facial tics and vocal delivery; Steven Weber is forced to attempt to match while drenched in fake gore and gooey junk between his teeth.

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If anything, Garris went overboard with filling his mini-series with gross-out special effects — leading to an overdose of the nasty where the end result is overwhelmed with substandard effects that simultaneously have an underwhelming effect on the audience.

Even still, the acting in the mini-series is fair by television mini-series standards. While none of the cast completely lives up to the performances made famous in the original film adaptation, they all do serviceable jobs pulling off the roles.

Courtland Mead, the young actor who played the series’ central role of Danny Torrance, a boy gifted with special precognitive and telekinetic powers, can be a bit much at times — but its that same annoying snot-nosed delivery ends up being the perfect match for the frightened boy’s character.

When compared to the original mini-series, the one actor I ended up missing the most was surprisingly not Jack Nicholson but Scatman Crothers. Melvin Van Peebles, while an accomplished actor, was just no substitute for the role of Dick Hallorann, the hotel cook that helps Danny learn about his abilities.

As far as Jack Nicholson goes, I thought Weber did an admirable job filling both Jacks’ shoes. As Jack Torrance, Webber played the character with enough pathos and emotional weight to convince audiences his character was worth caring about — even as he began his dark decent into madness.

Like The Stand, I hadn’t seen the mini-series since it originally aired and I was but a kid. Unlike The Stand, though, The Shining holds up surprisingly well.

It’s not the perfect adaptation of Stephen King’s book that it sought to be but it does an amazing job building tension and setting a palpable tone that carries throughout the film.

While the mini-series is not above cheep tricks designed to shock people, it also doesn’t completely forsake the slow build to icy chills that the original film stocked its pantry with.

The mini-series’ special effects may no longer be cutting edge but (with the exception of a terrible CGI killer topiary garden) they didn’t age as poorly as they could have — I’m looking at you The Stand.

Whether you have fond memories of the mini-series or you never had the chance to check it out, Stephen King’s The Shining is worth another look — especially as rumors surface that another classic horror film, The Exorcist, could be remade as a television mini-series penned by the story’s original author.

Are there any other classic movies that could thrive as a television mini-series? Or should TV just keep its mitts off motion pictures forever?

It’s time for Robert Saucedo to take his medicine. Visit him on the web at www.robsaucedo.com.

Robert Saucedo is an avid movie watcher with seriously poor sleeping habits. The Mikey from Life cereal of film fans, Robert will watch just about anything — good, bad or ugly. He has written about film for newspapers, radio and online for the last 10 years. This has taken a toll on his sanity — of that you can be sure. Follow him on Twitter at @robsaucedo2500.