Editorials
Why ‘The Changeling’ Is a Better Horror Movie Than Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’
I know The Shining is aesthetically pleasing and has a cast many of us would have killed to work with. I am also painfully aware that it holds a special place on Nostalgia Avenue in many fan’s hearts. However, I wish The Changeling got some of that attention and fanfare. I find it much more engaging, human, and chilling while utilizing some of the same thematic elements. I know I am sadly an outlier here. I will have to settle for this being one of the few times I agree with Stephen King about something. So, it is a wildly random party of two, but it is a party nonetheless.
As a kid who loved horror movies, one of the things I learned fast is that some movies are sacred. As an adult who gets paid for being a nerd, I have learned that there are usually movies in the same wheelhouse of sacred films that will land better with certain individuals. This is why I am here in what I hope is a safe space to discuss what I have discovered is a hot take.
I stand before you, ready to explain why I like The Changeling more than The Shining. Allow me to elaborate on my opinion that has probably caused a few people to scream into the empty abyss.
Please also allow me to remind you that your experience with these films is still your experience. I do not know you well enough, nor do I care enough to fight with you as if opinions are facts. That being said, let us unpack why I prefer The Changeling!
My History With Both Movies
The Shining is an iconic part of many horror fan’s journeys. Whether we like it, hate it, or are indifferent, many of us have childhood stories about it. We also cannot deny it has an aesthetic appeal on top of being blessed to have Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Scatman Crothers in the cast. This title is so woven into required scary movie viewing that it was one of the few Stephen King adaptations I saw before reading the novel as a kid. When I saw King’s name on something I did not like, I figured I was broken and rewatched it a few times. So, I felt very vindicated later in life when I found out the author himself had issues with this adaptation. Not only can he be found on record explaining his feelings about it (in quite a few places, but the YouTube interviews are some of my favorites), but he also wrote a miniseries adaptation to get something closer to his novel. When I finally read the book, I felt like all of the missing pieces to the puzzle had been found and wished more of them had made it onscreen. His book is actually the best of all three versions of this story, and it gives the character of Jack Torrance so much more depth than what was afforded him in Kubrick’s version.
Speaking of depth, I discovered The Changeling about four years ago after a friend recommended it. I had no idea what it was about, nor that my weird little brain would draw comparisons between it and The Shining. While watching John Russell (George C. Scott) wander around a big haunted house as he grieved his family, lightbulbs kept going off in my head. At this point, I had read The Shining and saw the more nuanced version of Jack that had layers. So, watching this and seeing a version of a dad going through a difficult time in a haunted house was just the beginning of the parallels. I get that grief and alcoholism are very different kinds of isolating journeys. I also understand that both movies are bigger conversations than sad dads who are haunted. However, it is hard to ignore the similarities when you know both movies came out months apart and do stumble into some of the same thematic elements.
Jack and John Go Up A Hill
Off the bat, the Torrances are reactionary instead of proactive. Things happen, and then they eventually do something about it. Even Jack’s willing collaboration with the evil spirits took forever. Although he was on board and seemingly waiting for a reason to kill his family. This script issue is part of why The Shining sometimes feels like a slog. It is always more exciting to give actors things to do. It also allows their characters to move through a story with a purpose.
Meanwhile, The Changeling gives us John, a man whose wallowing is interrupted by a mystery that gives him a reason to get out of bed. He is not passive as he investigates this ghost and tries to get to the bottom of its story. When he finds out a kid was murdered, he channels his sadness into trying to get justice for this boy who died decades ago. This is more interesting to watch as an audience member and gives the actor something to sink his teeth into. While you will never catch me slandering the acting abilities of Shelley Duvall or Jack Nicholson, the script did not help them. I would argue they succeeded despite the lack of characterization. George C. Scott was given a role that allowed him to show a range of emotions. He played a man who did things instead of waiting for things to happen to him. Comparatively speaking, it is the difference between having one crayon and having the deluxe box with the built-in crayon sharpener. Maybe Wendy and Jack were written that way to further paint a bleak and cold portrait. However, whenever I revisit The Shining, I wish both of them had been given more because we know they could play more than one thing for almost three hours.
I sincerely believe the cast of The Shining did everything they could with what they were given. Their performances are one of the things I will always defend about this movie, but Jack was a very one-dimensional character. As a kid, I had to cut off contact with my alcoholic grandmother and then had to do the same to the closest thing to a friend I thought had who turned out to be an addict. I also have a huge distrust of dads because my dad was an asshole. However, even as a child, with all of that going on, I knew Jack and his recovery journey deserved better. He is written and directed to be menacing from the second we meet him. There is no struggle with the big evil so much as an almost instant partnership. This is an uninteresting avenue to take that makes the actor work harder. I am fine disliking a character, and I usually prefer it. However, when written as a flatline, it makes it hard to understand their purpose. By Jack being annoyed and pissed at his family for the whole film, it cuts off any humanity and leaves us wondering why we care. After all, he has nothing to lose if we never see him give a shit about them.
Meanwhile, John is a man who genuinely loved his tiny family. In the mere seconds we saw them together, we could tell they were his whole reason for being. Seeing him attempt to fight his way out of the phone booth, knowing it is already too late, tells us this is a different kind of father than Jack. This is further highlighted as we spend the entirety of The Changeling with him mourning his wife and daughter. We see him riding the rollercoaster of grief, which makes him want to help the ghost kid, Joseph, who lives in his home. Where previous people failed, he is practically running to save this young spirit and to maybe ease his survivor’s guilt as he could not save his daughter. I think this is also fascinating because so much media depicts fathers as absent, assholes, and angry. Again, while I have my own father issues, it is nice to see something different every once in a while. It also gives Scott so much more to play with as an actor and also underscores the thematic elements of the film. This is probably one of the reasons my brain keeps comparing The Changeling to The Shining.
Found Places And Haunted Spaces
One of the things I do like about The Shining is the aesthetic. I am obsessed with Wendy’s wardrobe. However, it is the retro patterns found in the hotel decor that always catch my eye. The Overlook carpet has become so iconic that it is still used for merch today. This large empty evil hotel is a sight to behold but comes across as cold and sterile. We also see cool shots like the camera following Danny (Danny Lloyd) and his tricycle through the large hallways. Sadly, these shots lose their luster as they get repeated a few too many times. I think it is to convey how huge the space was and how isolated the family was while giving a sense of danger. I know that works for most people, but the repetitive nature is one of the things that makes me squirm in my seat. The same goes for the empty space where Jack sets up his office. While it is nice to show the physical and mental distance Wendy has to travel to him in these moments, it is also cold, and we live in these moments for way too long each time.
That is not the case in John’s new haunted house. Do not get me wrong, this space is bigger than it needs to be for one sad man to roam around. However, it is used to show how isolated and alone he is through no fault of his own. Where Jack was a menace even before the spirits gave him an axe to grind, John lost his wife and daughter through a series of unfortunate events. Their deaths were sudden and left him to navigate the world with drastically different circumstances than he anticipated. So, the echo of the red ball bouncing down the stairs is haunting for many reasons. The mysterious banging of the pipes underscoring his gentle crying lands so hard because he is truly alone in the world. Where there should be the noise of his daughter and his wife, there is the heavy weight of their absence. The palpable silence is filled only by Joseph trying to reach this new stranger. John is not hiding away in a room with two other people on the property to annoy him with their love. John’s house feels cold, but not for the same reasons as The Overlook. It is that way because he is still struggling to find his path back to becoming a person. He is also sharing the space with a ghost whose father murdered him and moved on.
It is interesting that while Jack attempts to kill his family in The Shining, John moves into a house where a father drowned his helpless son. Unlike Jack, this man did it out of greed. That is especially interesting because John misses his daughter so much he struggles to be in the world without her. He is nothing like the man who used to live in his home or Jack, who seems upset he has a family. He is a third kind of dad who would trade so much for what the other two took for granted. Again, the weird connective tissue between these movies is so fascinating that it is now hard to think of one without the other. Much like the ghosts that haunt our protagonists, they haunt each other once you spend time with both films.
I Will Let Stephen King Have The Last Word
I mentioned at the top of this article that I agree with Stephen King’s original assessment of Kubrick’s version of The Shining. However, I discovered last year that he and I share a love of The Changeling. In 2017, The British Film Institute celebrated the author with King On Screen. As part of the festivities, King was asked to choose movies he loved to screen as part of the tribute. One of the movies Uncle Stephen chose was The Changeling, and he explained:
“For supernatural horror, I like Peter Medak’s film The Changeling, starring George C. Scott in perhaps his last great screen role. There are no monsters bursting from chests; just a child’s ball bouncing down a flight of stairs was enough to scare the daylights out of me.” –The British Film Institute
King has seemingly thawed toward Kubrick’s version of The Shining over the decades. However, I find it interesting he chose Medak’s haunting film, which came out in the same year. I also noted that King On Screen was ten years after the miniseries he wrote, stylized as Stephen King’s The Shining aired. This could all totally be a huge coincidence. After all, The Changeling is a great film that just happened to also come out in 1980. I have also seen enough of Uncle Stephen’s recommendations to know this movie is right up his alley. However, even if that is the case, I feel this might also be a new level of professional pettiness to which I aspire.
I know The Shining is aesthetically pleasing and has a cast many of us would have killed to work with. I am also painfully aware that it holds a special place on Nostalgia Avenue in many fan’s hearts. However, I wish The Changeling got some of that attention and fanfare. I find it much more engaging, human, and chilling while utilizing some of the same thematic elements. I know I am sadly an outlier here. I will have to settle for this being one of the few times I agree with Stephen King about something. So, it is a wildly random party of two, but it is a party nonetheless.
For more information on the lore behind The Shining, check out our Horror 101 article here!
As a horror fan, I tend to think about remakes a lot. Not why they are made, necessarily. That answer is pretty clear: money. But something closer to “if they have to be made, how can they be made well?” It’s rare to find a remake that is generally considered to be better than the original. However, there are plenty that have been deemed to be valuable in a different way. You can find these in basically all subgenres. Sci-fi, for instance (The Thing, The Blob). Zombies (Dawn of the Dead, Evil Dead). Even slashers (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, My Bloody Valentine). However, when it comes to haunted house remakes, only The Woman in Black truly stands out, and it is shockingly underrated. Even more intriguingly, it is demonstrably better than the original movie.
The Original Haunted House Movie Is Almost Always Better
Now please note, I’m specifically talking about movies with haunted houses, rather than ghost movies in general. We wouldn’t want to be bringing The Ring into this conversation. That’s not fair to anyone.
Plenty of haunted house movies are minted classics, and as such, the subgenre has gotten its fair share of remakes. These are, almost unilaterally, some of the most-panned movies in a format that attracts bad reviews like honey attracts flies.
You’ve got 2005’s The Amityville Horror (a CGI-heavy slog briefly buoyed by a shirtless, possessed Ryan Reynolds). That same year’s Dark Water (one of many inert remakes of Asian horror films to come from that era). 1999’s The House on Haunted Hill (a manic, incoherent effort that millennial nostalgia has perhaps been too kind to). That same year there was The Haunting (a manic, incoherent effort that didn’t even earn nostalgia in the first place). And 2015’s Poltergeist (Remember this movie? Don’t you wish you didn’t?). And while I could accept arguments about 2001’s THIR13EN Ghosts, it’s hard to compete with a William Castle classic.
The Problem with Haunted House Remakes
Generally, I think haunted house remakes fail so often because of remakes’ compulsive obsession with updating the material. They throw in state-of-the-art special effects, the hottest stars of the era, and big set piece action sequences. Like, did House on Haunted Hill need to open with that weird roller coaster scene? Of course it didn’t.
However, when it comes to haunted house movies, bigger does not always mean better. They tend to be at their best when they are about ordinary people experiencing heightened versions of normal domestic fears. Bumps in the night, unexplained shadows, and the like. Maybe even some glowing eyes or a floating child. That’s all fine and dandy. But once you have a giant stone lion decapitating Owen Wilson, things have perhaps gone a bit off the rails.
The One Big Exception is The Woman in Black
The one undeniable exception to the haunted house remake rule is 2012’s The Woman in Black. If we want to split hairs, it’s technically the second adaptation of the Susan Hill novel of the same name. But The Haunting was technically a Shirley Jackson re-adaptation, and that still counts as a remake, so this does too.
The novel follows a young solicitor being haunted when handling a client’s estate at the secluded Eel Marsh House. The property was first adapted into a 1989 TV movie starring Adrian Rawlings, and it was ripe for a remake. In spite of having at least one majorly eerie scene, the 1989 movie is in fact too simple and small-scale. It is too invested in the humdrum realities of country life to have much time to be scary. Plus, it boasts a small screen budget and a distinctly “British television” sense of production design. Eel Marsh basically looks like any old English house, with whitewashed walls and a bland exterior.
Therefore, the “bigger is better” mentality of horror remakes took The Woman in Black to the exact level it needed.
The Woman in Black 2012 Makes Some Great Choices
2012’s The Woman in Black deserves an enormous amount of credit for carrying the remake mantle superbly well. By following a more sedate original, it reaches the exact pitch it needs in order to craft a perfect haunted house story. Most appropriately, the design of Eel Marsh House and its environs are gloriously excessive. While they don’t stretch the bounds of reality into sheer impossibility, they completely turn the original movie on its head.
Eel Marsh is now, as it should be, a decaying, rambling pile where every corner might hide deadly secrets. It’d be scary even if there wasn’t a ghost inside it, if only because it might contain copious black mold. Then you add the marshy grounds choked in horror movie fog. And then there’s the winding, muddy road that gets lost in the tide and feels downright purgatorial. Finally, you have a proper damn setting for a haunted house movie that plumbs the wicked secrets of the wealthy.
Why The Woman in Black Remake Is an Underrated Horror Gem
While 2012’s The Woman in Black is certainly underrated as a remake, I think it is even more underrated as a haunted house movie. For one thing, it is one of the best examples of the pre-Conjuring jump-scare horror movie done right. And if you’ve read my work for any amount of time, you know how positively I feel about jump scares. The Woman in Black offers a delectable combo platter of shocks designed to keep you on your toes. For example, there are plenty of patient shots that wait for you to notice the creepy thing in the background. But there are also a number of short sharp shocks that remain tremendously effective.
That is not to say that the movie is perfect. They did slightly overstep with their “bigger is better” move to cast Daniel Radcliffe in the lead role. It was a big swing making his first post-Potter role that of a single father with a four-year-old kid. It’s a bit much to have asked 2012 audiences to swallow, though it reads slightly better so many years later.
However, despite its flaws, The Woman in Black remake is demonstrably better than the original. In nearly every conceivable way. It’s pure Hammer Films confection, as opposed to a television drama without an ounce of oomph.
There are only so many times I can get away with burying the lede with an editorial headline before someone throws a rock at me. It may or may not be justified when they do. This article is not an attempt at ragebaiting Scream fans, I promise. Neither was my Scream 3 article, which I’m still completely right about.
I do firmly believe that Scream 2 is, at the very least, the last Scream film I’d want to watch. But what was initially just me complaining about a film that I disregard as the weakest entry in its series has since developed into trying to address what it does right. You’ve heard of the expression “jack of all trades, master of none”, and to me Scream 2 really was the jack of all trades of the franchise for the longest time.
It technically has everything a Scream movie needs. Its opening is great, but it’s not the best of them by a long shot. Its killers are unexpected, but not particularly interesting, feeling flat and one-dimensional compared to the others. It has kills, but only a few of them are particularly shocking or well executed. It pokes fun at the genre but doesn’t say anything particularly bold in terms of commentary. Having everything a Scream movie needs is the bare minimum to me.
But the question is, what does Scream 2 do best exactly? Finding that answer involves highlighting what each of the other sequels are great at, and trying to pick out what Scream 2 has that the others don’t.
Scream 3 Is the Big Finale That Utilizes Its Setting Perfectly
Scream as a series handily dodges the trap most horror franchises fall into: rehashing and retreading the same territory over and over. That’s because every one of its films are in essence trying to do something a little different and a little bolder.
Scream 3 is especially bold because it was conceived, written, and executed as the final installment in the Scream series. And it does that incredibly well. Taking the action away from a locale similar to Woodsboro, Scream 3 tosses our characters into the frying pan of a Hollywood film production. Despite its notorious number of rewrites and script changes (one of which resulted in our first solo Ghostface), it still manages to be a perfect culmination of Sidney Prescott’s story.
I won’t repeat myself too much (go read my previous article on the subject), but 3 is often maligned for as good a film as it turned out to be. And for all of its clunkier reveals, and its ghost mom antics, it understands how to utilize its setting and send its characters off into the sunset right.
Scream 4’s Meta Commentary Wakes Scream from a Deep Sleep
As Wes Craven’s final film, Scream 4 has a very special place in the franchise. It was and still is largely adored for bringing back the franchise from a deep 11-year sleep. With one of the craziest openings in any horror film, let alone a Scream film, it sets the tone for a bombastic return and pays off in spades with the journey it takes us on.
Its primary Ghostface Jill Roberts is a fan favorite, and for some people, she is the best to ever wear the mask. Its script is the source of many memorable moments, not the least of which is Kirby’s iconic rapid-fire response to the horror remakes question. And most importantly, it makes a bold and surprisingly effective return for our main trio of Sidney, Dewey, and Gale, whose return didn’t feel trite or hammy when they ended up coming back to Woodsboro for more.
Craven’s work on 4 truly understands the power its predecessors had exerted on the horror genre, both irreverent in its metacommentary and celebratory of the Scream series as a whole. The film is less of a love letter to the genre and more of a kicking down of the door to remind people what Scream is about. 4’s story re-established that Scream isn’t going away, no matter how long it takes for another film, and no matter how many franchises try to take its place.
Scream 5 & 6 Is Radio Silence’s Brutal and Bloody Attitude Era
Put simply, Scream 5 and 6’s strong suit was not its characters. It was not its clever writing. The Radio Silence duology in the Scream series excelled in one thing: beating the hell out of its characters.
Wrestling fans (of which there is an unsurprising amount of crossover with horror fans) will know why I call it the Attitude Era. Just like WWE’s most infamous stretch of history, Radio Silence brought something especially aggressive to their entries. And it’s because these films were just brutal. Handing the reins to the series, Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillet gifted a special kineticism to the classic Scream chase sequences, insane finales, and especially its ruthless killers.
All five of the Ghostfaces present in 5 and 6 are the definition of nasty. They’re unrelenting, and in my humble opinion, the freakiest since the original duo of Stu Macher and Billy Loomis. Getting to hear all the air get sucked out of the room as Dewey is gutted like a fish in 5 was still an incredible moment to experience in theatres, and it’s something I don’t think would have happened if the films were any less mean and any less explosively violent.
So, What Does Scream 2 Do Best Exactly?
So now, after looking at all these entries and all of their greatest qualities, what does Scream 2 have that none of the others do? What must I concede to Scream 2?
Really great character development.
Film is a medium of spectacle most of the time, and this is reflected in how we critique and compliment them. It affects how we look back on them, sometimes treating them more harshly than they deserve because they don’t have that visual flash. But for every ounce of spectacle Scream 2 lacks, I have to admit, it does an incredible job of developing Sidney Prescott as a character.
On a rare rewatch, it’s clear Neve Campbell is carrying the entirety of Scream 2 on her back just because of how compelling she makes Sidney. Watching her slowly fight against a tide of paranoia, fear, and distrust of the people around her once more, watching her be plunged back into the nightmare, is undeniably effective.
It’s also where Dewey and Gale are really cemented as a couple, and where the seeds of them always returning to each other are planted. Going from a mutual simmering disrespect to an affectionate couple to inseparable but awkward and in love is just classic; two people who complete each other in how different they are, but are inevitably pulled back and forth by those differences, their bond is one of the major highlights throughout the series.
Maybe All the Scream Films Are Just Good?
These three characters are the heart of the series, long after they’ve been written out. I talk a big game about how Scream 3 is the perfect ending for the franchise, but I like to gloss over the fact that Scream 2 does a lot of the legwork when it comes to developing the characters of Dewey, Gale, and especially Sidney.
Without 2, 3 just isn’t that effective when it comes to giving Sidney her long deserved peace. Without 2, the way we see Sidney’s return in 4 & 5 doesn’t hit as hard. All of the Scream movies owe something to Scream 2 in the same way they owe something to the original Scream. I think I’ve come to a new point of view when it comes to the Scream franchise: maybe there is no bad entry. Maybe none of them have to be the worst. Each one interlinks with the others in their own unique way.
And even though I doubt I will ever really love Scream 2, it has an undeniable strength in its character writing that permeates throughout the whole franchise. And that at the very least keeps it from being the worst Scream film.
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2025: The Creep Tapes Season 2
The Horror Press Podcast Ep 51: Frankenstein & Stranger Things
‘Frankenstein’ Review: Guillermo Del Toro Is Off to the Races
‘The Siege of Ape Canyon’ Review: Bigfoot Comes Home
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Shudder in November 2025
‘The Addams Family’ (1991) First-Time Watch Review
Brooklyn Horror Film Festival 2025: ‘Slayed’ LGBTQ+ Shorts Block
Brooklyn Horror Film Fest 2025: ‘CAMP’ Review
Brooklyn Horror Film Fest 2025: ‘The Serpent’s Skin’ Review
The Best Horror You Can Stream on Netflix in November 2025
‘The People Under the Stairs’ Review: A Brilliantly Bizarre Undercover Horror Classic
Slappy Was the Blueprint: How the Dummy from Goosebumps Became A Horror Icon
Glen and Glenda: Don Mancini’s Reverence for Queerness in ‘Seed of Chucky’ (2004)
‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ and The Story of William Afton Explained
‘Truth or Dare’: Who Did it Best?
The 11 Most Disturbing Horror Movies Ever, According to an Actual Horror Fan
V/H/S Franchise Ranked, Best to Worst
Everything You Need to Know About Jason Voorhees
[REVIEW] ‘Cherry Falls’ (1999) Brittany Murphy Shines in This Cult Classic Slasher
