It was high time somebody did right by King's 1977 novel, but did we really need a miniseries?
Director Garris is the wrong person here, and King would've done better by trying to contact Kubrick in England before he died two years later. True, Kubrick may have botched King's original story elements and adopted them as his own, but anything would've been better than this 1997 retread.
The makers' DVD commentaries keep discussing 'behind the scenes' drivel and many plot angles and takes on domestic violence, but the supernatural scariness found in the source novel rarely surfaces in this made for television three-parter.
DeMornay and Weber are good in their respective roles, but the adnoidal child-actor playing Danny is just plain irritating--one can't help but compare Danny Lloyd's superior performance in Kubrick's 1980 adaptation.
The miniseries' last half-hour features some nifty scenes that passed muster with ABC's usual standards and practices, and make this entire 4 1/2 hour take (the total running time is not 6 hrs., when you take out all those commercials) worth watching.
Lastly, the giant 'birthday cake' mansion in this version doesn't look any scarier than the craftsman style ski lodge we saw in 1980. We're only too glad to see it burn to the ground when it does, and we can now look forward to all those fascinating commercial breaks we've grown so accustomed to.
Director Garris is the wrong person here, and King would've done better by trying to contact Kubrick in England before he died two years later. True, Kubrick may have botched King's original story elements and adopted them as his own, but anything would've been better than this 1997 retread.
The makers' DVD commentaries keep discussing 'behind the scenes' drivel and many plot angles and takes on domestic violence, but the supernatural scariness found in the source novel rarely surfaces in this made for television three-parter.
DeMornay and Weber are good in their respective roles, but the adnoidal child-actor playing Danny is just plain irritating--one can't help but compare Danny Lloyd's superior performance in Kubrick's 1980 adaptation.
The miniseries' last half-hour features some nifty scenes that passed muster with ABC's usual standards and practices, and make this entire 4 1/2 hour take (the total running time is not 6 hrs., when you take out all those commercials) worth watching.
Lastly, the giant 'birthday cake' mansion in this version doesn't look any scarier than the craftsman style ski lodge we saw in 1980. We're only too glad to see it burn to the ground when it does, and we can now look forward to all those fascinating commercial breaks we've grown so accustomed to.