Halloween Hindsight is Even Better Than 20/20

I remember hating Kubrick's version of The Shining when I first saw it, probably with an extra-special hate because I loved Kubrick and loved King's novel, and imagined that the confluence of the two could not help but create a masterpiece.  What we got instead was a Kubrick ego-trip that destroyed everything elegant and horrifying about the story from which it was born, in a maelstrom of bad acting and over-the-top moog puke that omitted some of the most compelling elements of the storyline.

Well, I just finished watching it again, hoping that time would have mellowed my acceptance of it.  No dice.  It was painful to watch, and even though there were some genuinely scary moments, it fell flat amidst the clown-like performances.  For a textbook example of ham-handedly wooden exposition, nothing beats the first 20 minutes, especially Barry Nelson, whom Kubrick must have slipped Thorazine prior to filming.  Jesus, what a clusterfuck.