- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 3,433
- Reaction score
- 260
As part of my Halloween viewing this year I recently watched The Amityville Horror (1979). This was my first viewing of the film in a long time because I've never been that big a fan of it.
This time around was interesting because I have become a big fan of Kubrick's The SHiNiNG since my last viewing of The Amityville Horror and while I knew there were several similarities between the films my familiarity with The SHiNiNG I think may have shed light on some of the detours Kubrick took from Stephen King's novel.
The Amityville Horror (1979) film was based on the book of the same title released in 1977 detailing the "true" paranormal experiences of the Lutz family.
Here is the wiki for it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amityville_Horror
The Amityville Horror book was released in 1977, The Amityville Horror film in 1979, Stephen King's novel The Shining in 1977 and Kubrick's film The SHiNiNG in 1980.
In The Shining novel Jack terrorizes his family with a croquet mallet but in the film he uses an axe.
In The Amityville Horror film George Lutz also uses an axe.
Jack is apparently being influenced by The Overlook's previous groundskeeper who murdered his family and George Lutz is being influenced by Ronald Defeo Jr. who murdered his family in real life in 1974.
There is a scene in The SHiNiNG where an apparition of the Overlook's groundskeeper tells Jack that he Jack was always the groundskeeper and at the end of the film we get a black and white photo of Jack at a party dated 1921 implying that Jack was always the groundskeeper.
This seems random and is not found in the book.
In The Amityville horror film George's wife Kathy does some research into the murders of the family that previously occupied their home only to find a black and white photo of Ronald Defeo Jr. the murderer and he looks exactly like George Lutz. There is even a scene where a bar tender mistakes George Lutz for Ronnie Defeo Jr. So the reincarnation aspect of The SHiNiNG film while not found in the source novel is in The Amityville Horror film.
The famous elevator spewing blood scene in the film The SHiNiNG is not found in the novel. In the Amityville Horror film though there is a scene where the walls and steps of the house drip blood and a scene in the films climax where George Lutz falls into and is submerged in a pit of blood.
I even think the look of the elevator in The SHiNiNG was inspired by the Amityville Horror house. The symmetrical design gives the impression of a face or of eyes at least.
Remember the scene where Jack enters room 238 to find a beautiful nude women in the bathtub and while kissing her sees her reflection in the mirror and she is actually an old hag. Well that scene is not found in the book either but a very similar scene is found in The Amityville Horror book and film.
This is a bullet point from The Amityville Horror wiki
George saw Kathy transform into an old woman of 90, "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines, and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth."
In the film The SHiNiNG the manager of the Overlook Hotel tells Jack that the hotel was built on an indian burial ground. While that isn't true of The Shining novel guess what, The Amityville Horror house is also built on an indian burial ground.
I'll post more similarities if I can think of any others but just with what is posted above do you think it possible that some of Kubrick's detours from Stephen King's novel that have left many scratching their head and in my case and many others coming up with wild theories of their own to try to make sense of them can be explained simply by him swagger jacking The Amityville Horror?
This time around was interesting because I have become a big fan of Kubrick's The SHiNiNG since my last viewing of The Amityville Horror and while I knew there were several similarities between the films my familiarity with The SHiNiNG I think may have shed light on some of the detours Kubrick took from Stephen King's novel.
The Amityville Horror (1979) film was based on the book of the same title released in 1977 detailing the "true" paranormal experiences of the Lutz family.
Here is the wiki for it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amityville_Horror
The Amityville Horror book was released in 1977, The Amityville Horror film in 1979, Stephen King's novel The Shining in 1977 and Kubrick's film The SHiNiNG in 1980.
In The Shining novel Jack terrorizes his family with a croquet mallet but in the film he uses an axe.
In The Amityville Horror film George Lutz also uses an axe.
Jack is apparently being influenced by The Overlook's previous groundskeeper who murdered his family and George Lutz is being influenced by Ronald Defeo Jr. who murdered his family in real life in 1974.
There is a scene in The SHiNiNG where an apparition of the Overlook's groundskeeper tells Jack that he Jack was always the groundskeeper and at the end of the film we get a black and white photo of Jack at a party dated 1921 implying that Jack was always the groundskeeper.
This seems random and is not found in the book.
In The Amityville horror film George's wife Kathy does some research into the murders of the family that previously occupied their home only to find a black and white photo of Ronald Defeo Jr. the murderer and he looks exactly like George Lutz. There is even a scene where a bar tender mistakes George Lutz for Ronnie Defeo Jr. So the reincarnation aspect of The SHiNiNG film while not found in the source novel is in The Amityville Horror film.
The famous elevator spewing blood scene in the film The SHiNiNG is not found in the novel. In the Amityville Horror film though there is a scene where the walls and steps of the house drip blood and a scene in the films climax where George Lutz falls into and is submerged in a pit of blood.
I even think the look of the elevator in The SHiNiNG was inspired by the Amityville Horror house. The symmetrical design gives the impression of a face or of eyes at least.
Remember the scene where Jack enters room 238 to find a beautiful nude women in the bathtub and while kissing her sees her reflection in the mirror and she is actually an old hag. Well that scene is not found in the book either but a very similar scene is found in The Amityville Horror book and film.
This is a bullet point from The Amityville Horror wiki
George saw Kathy transform into an old woman of 90, "the hair wild, a shocking white, the face a mass of wrinkles and ugly lines, and saliva dripping from the toothless mouth."
In the film The SHiNiNG the manager of the Overlook Hotel tells Jack that the hotel was built on an indian burial ground. While that isn't true of The Shining novel guess what, The Amityville Horror house is also built on an indian burial ground.
I'll post more similarities if I can think of any others but just with what is posted above do you think it possible that some of Kubrick's detours from Stephen King's novel that have left many scratching their head and in my case and many others coming up with wild theories of their own to try to make sense of them can be explained simply by him swagger jacking The Amityville Horror?
Last edited:
