Based on the book written by Stephen King, the original film of The Shining was adapted as a TV mini series and is now out on DVD. The teleplay iteself was written by King and directed by Mick Garris, who has also worked on Sleepwalkers and The Stand (another 2 masterpieces by King). Yes it is on 2 discs, but one of these is a double sided DVD so, actually it is a 3 disc set.

The DVDs themselves are housed in double cover, with card overlay. On opening the cover, you are greeted with the Scene Index (I did have this included but have taken it out as it is rather long). Disc 1 is a single disc, while disc 2 is double sided and you have to check by reading around the inner hole to make sure that you are playing the right side. To me, it would have been easier to make it a 3 disc edition but then that would have pushed the price up probably.

Audio - 2.0 Dolby Surround
Aspect Ratio - 1.85:1 Widescreen/Colour
Running Time - 260 minutes approximately - Pal
Languages - English, French, Italian
Hearing Impaired - English, Italian
Subtitles - English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch, Arabic, Romanian
Certificate - 15 (some bad language, moderate violence, some references to sex, and "paranormal horror")
Region - 2 PAL
Produced for Warner Bros Television - www.warnerbros.co.uk
RRP - £19.99

Jack Torrance - Steven Weber
Wendy Torrance - Rebecca De Mornay
Danny Torrance - Courtland Mead

Jack Torrance is an author and recovering alcoholic, who gets a job as the janitor at the Overlook Hotel for the winter. The hotel is massive and set in secluded grounds. It is closed over the winter but someone has to stay to tend to the basic maintenance of the place. Jack really wants to get away from it all and be able to work on his writing and this job is perfect for him. He also wants to get away from alcohol as it blurs his judgement, as his family know only too well.

Things go well for the family at first, and then the hotel starts to have a life of its own. The message "REDRUM" starts to appear and danny starts to see things and hear things that his mum and dad are oblivious to (at first). Then it becomes apparent that the hotel does have a life of its own and it wants danny's 'shining' to feed its own malevolance. Jack becomes increasingly paranoid and starts drinking again, much to the dismay of his wife. Jack also gets pulled into the 'reality' of the spirits that want to gain control of his son's gift.

* Feature length commentary by Stephen King, Steven Weber (cast), Cynthia Garris (cast), Mick Garris (director) & Select crew

My Opinion
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Price wise - I paid £19.99 for this and class it as decent value for money - but I would advise that you shop around as I have seen it on play.com for £14.99 with free delivery so you can get it a lot cheaper if you look around.

In my opinion this is a great remake of a truly great original film, and a classic adaptation of a brilliant book, written by a truly twisted mind. King is a genius at twists and turns in a tale, and this has them all in my opinion, albeit in a lengthened way. Even though it is a lot longer than the original film, this has allowed King to include a lot more information from the book into this adaptation, than was in the original film.