The Shining: A lost ending revealed

In theaters Friday: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, John Dies at the End, Movie 43, Parker
New on Blu-ray: End of Watch, Nobody Walks, The Paper Boy

The Shining is pretty hot right now. Last spring, Room 237 explored director Stanley Kubrick’s approach and the deeper themes of the horror film at Cannes. Then in September, news broke that Stephen King, author of the ESP novel on which Kubrick’s iconic film was based, is set to revisit the world of The Shining for a sequel called Dr. Sleep, arriving Sept. 13 and following an all grown up, post-“redrum” Danny (See footage of King reading a excerpt from the book here.)

And now this: Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story and a fanatic of Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of The Shining—yeah you read that right—has summoned enough Hollywood cache to discover Kubrick’s script for the original ending to the iconic Jack Nicholson-led film. Unkrich was kind enough to post it on The Overlook Hotel his personal blog devoted to the film.

This epilogue scene, set in a hospital, was filmed and actually screened at premieres, but the following day an exacting Kubrick sent out assistants to physically cut the scene from dozens of prints at theaters across New York City and Los Angeles.

The scene does seem overly talky for a denouement, and some who saw this scene at the original Los Angeles or New York premieres and comment on Unkrich’s site, say it provided a disappointing, unemotional ending to the film. And still, reading the script in this way does, at the very least, add another layer to an already remarkably textured and psychologically rich piece of cinema.

Is it about the Cold War? Alcoholism? Fatherhood? Loneliness? Professional failure? Racism—in general or even in particular, such as the genocide of Native Americans? After all the Overlook Hotel in the film is said to have been built on an “old Indian burial ground.” The fact is, The Shining continues to challenge and fascinate audiences more than 30 years later. I can understand the arguments for all of these themes, and probably others, while still being taken away by the chills and the characters created by King and Kubrick. What does The Shining mean to you?