The Stanley Hotel at Estes Park, CO is the inspiration for the book. However, the 1980 movie was not filmed here. Instead, Stanley Kubrick built the interior sets at EMI Elstree Studios in the UK. The exterior shots are of Timberline Lodge in Oregon, USA.
Was The Shining really filmed at the Stanley Hotel?
The 1997 TV movie of the same name actually uses the Stanley to sit in for the fictitious Overlook Hotel, although Kubrick had a very different vision in mind for his earlier movie. Timberline Lodge in Oregon was chosen by the eccentric filmmaker to portray the exterior of the Overlook Hotel.
The scene where Lloyd is waiting for Mary Swanson (played by Lauren Holly) in the 'Avalanche Bar & Grill' is the Stanley Hotel's bar. The hotel is located at 333 West Wonder View Avenue, a short drive from our RV Park in Estes Park.
The Overlook Hotel, the central and ominous setting of the film, is an amalgamation of real-life locations and the creative brilliance of Kubrick's team. While the exteriors of the hotel were based on the Timberline Lodge in Oregon, the interiors were predominantly shot on soundstages at Elstree Studios in England.
Unfortunately for them, Room 237 doesn't exist at their property, and the Stanley says 217 has become its most requested accommodation, with reservations currently on the books for the next several Halloweens. We sought out the room, but it was disappointingly normal, at least from the outside.
Think of it as the hotel's classy version of a haunted house experience. The promotion includes “special accommodations” in Room 237, for $237 a night. If you'll recall, Room 237 is where all manner of terror occurs at the story's Overlook Hotel.
The Shining is partially based on a true story, as the supernatural elements of Jack Torrance's stay at the Overlook Hotel are inspired by a real haunting in Colorado and the Stanley Hotel where King stayed.
The Shining Tour, is one of our newest tours. Indoor/Outdoor walking tour through the west side of The Stanley Hotel Campus. A lot of Stephen King, a bit of History, and a whole lot of stories of the spirited variety! This tour includes a visit to The Shining Suite, in our beautifully restored 1909 Caretaker's Cottage.
The ending of The Shining, particularly the photo of Jack in the 1921 ballroom, suggests that Jack is a reincarnation of a former hotel employee, although this explanation is not explicitly stated in the film. The Shining explores themes of cyclical violence and abuse, and Kubrick's film is full...
From the day The Stanley Hotel opened, it attracted the rich and famous, among them Titanic survivor “Unsinkable” Molly Brown, John Philip Sousa, Theodore Roosevelt, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, the Emperor and Empress of Japan and numerous Hollywood stars.
What tourists didn't find, however, was a memorable piece of scenery from the film: a giant hedge maze that (spoiler alert) spells the end for Jack, the psychotic innkeeper. The omission was remedied this summer when the Stanley installed a 10,100-square-foot juniper labyrinth in front of the hotel.
In addition to filming in Oregon and Montana, they did shoot in Colorado, the state where The Shining takes place. Before Jack gets the job as the winter caretaker of the Overlook, the Torrances live in an apartment in Boulder, Colorado.
The location used for the exterior of the Overlook Hotel was Timberline Lodge, located on the south face of Mount Hood in Mount Hood National Forest, Clackamas County, Oregon. The lodge is situated off Timberline Highway, which runs parallel to Highway 26, and can be accessed via West Leg Road.
The (real) hotel featured in the movie (the Timberline Lodge in Oregon) has no maze at all, and all of the interiors, and the maze in the movie were actually created in three separate locations in England. The section of the maze used for the summer sequences (hedges at Radlett aerodrome) and its plan.
Moments later, he would improvise the “Here's Johnny!” line, which was a reference to the intro of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Interestingly, Kubrick originally shot the scene with a fake door, but Nicholson – who once trained as a fire marshal – chopped it down too quickly.
If only you could visit the Overlook Hotel and feel the bone-chilling energy of the movie for yourself . . . oh wait, you can. While the Overlook Hotel from the movie doesn't actually exist, it is based on The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO: a 142-room colonial revival hotel nestled in the Rocky Mountains.
It was built by Freelan Oscar Stanley, co-founder of the Stanley Motor Carriage Company, and opened on July 4, 1909, as a resort for upper-class Easterners and a health retreat for sufferers of pulmonary tuberculosis. The hotel and its surrounding structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After a corpse tries to strangle Danny in the infamous room 217 and Wendy and Jack see the resulting bruise on their son's neck, Wendy accuses Jack of abusing Danny.
In the novel, Danny is the Overlook's primary victim, and Jack Torrance is simply used as a conduit to get to Danny. The hotel wants Danny dead so that it can absorb his “shining” ability to add to the Overlook's plethora of dark energies, so it possesses Jack in his vulnerable state to try to kill Danny.
