Posted in response to a Facebook question by an author who watches The Shining as a comfort film and asked if others do the same.
Okay, to make a short story long...I first heard about The Shining on a school bus ride in 9th grade. One girl was describing the story and another didn't believe that Jack Torrance could be so easily persuaded to menace his wife and hurt his own son. I dismissed this girl immediately as impossibly naive. If she didn't have that kind of family life herself, did she ever look at a magazine or newspaper?
It was the Kubrick film which persuaded me to read the book. When given a choice, I prefer to see the film first and then read the book. The reasons are, if the film is any good at all, it will help me envision the book, and if not, a film is less likely to ruin a book for me than vice versa. This is not the only case where I would have been very indignant had I read the book first due to the liberties taken in the film version, and there are things I would have done differently, but I was and remain surprised to this day that of all filmed versions of his work this is the only one Stephen King has said he actively hates. That's an impressive record considering the number of his works which have been filmed and the number of authors who hated filmed versions of their works.
The Kubrick film aired on the movie channel Showtime, and I liked it enough to watch it a number of times. The reasons are too numerous to cover in great detail. My dad had a lot in common with Jack Torrance. They were both English teachers with writing aspirations who physically attacked students, just my dad did not hurt anybody badly enough to get in trouble. This was during the 1950s-1970s when teachers could get away with a lot more. My dad was also super protective of his writing and work space, to the point where I became so uptight about the whole subject of writing that it hurt my writing and continues to do so to this day. Obviously he was a super picky English teacher as well. His attention to good writing helped my writing but his criticism really hurt it. I am able to do so well on a computer in part because Dad never touched one in his life--he was afraid of them but impressed by how fast I could type on one.
My sisters were identical twins, and Dad always favored them, and in The Shining Danny is haunted by the apparition of identical girl twins who were hacked to death, a scene which so terrified me--that flashing between the ghosts and the dead bodies--that I photographed it so I could study it at leisure. I put all my photographs in albums, including screen captures, and friends at college were completely freaked out, one guy saying it was one of the few things that ever genuinely terrified him and I said, "That's why I took a picture, so I could study and figure out why it was so scary."
Why it's a comfort film? Not only do I identify with all the characters in at least some respects, including Jack--but it just reminds me so of my own childhood, with my father being threatening and my mother protective--a regular theme in King's work. Anything that reminds me how lucky I am that my family was not much worse is comforting I guess. Also scary films can be of comfort if done just right. I would never watch Jaws as a child but find it a real comfort film as an adult and to some extent this applies to Poltergeist as well.