‘The Shining’ Hotel To Open Its Doors As A Permanent Tribute To Horror


The Shining is a book written by famed horror author Stephen King, and in that novel, The Overlook Hotel is as haunted an establishment as they come, making itself home to whatever disgruntled souls might have been trapped on its grounds. As King has previously said, the hotel in The Shining was based on a real hotel, The Stanley Hotel, and that hotel will now be opening its doors to horror fans.

The Shining Has Inspired More Than Just Hollywood Adaptations

The Shining, Jack Nicholson, Stephen King
Jack Nicholson in Stanley Kubrick’s vision of ‘The Shining.’ Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

There’s no denying that Stephen King has created a true masterpiece of horror with The Shining, and it now seems as though owners of The Stanley Hotel, which is located in Estes Park, Colorado, are hoping to capitalize on the legend surrounding their now infamous hotel by becoming “world’s first horror-themed museum.”

Ever since The Shining was published and King’s inspiration for The Overlook Hotel was made known, The Stanley Hotel has endured and, in many cases, encouraged the haunted reputation the story has produced. In fact, Rolling Stone reports that The Stanley Hotel plays host to the horror-themed Stanley Film Festival, and now owners of the hotel have opened up the hotel to the Stanley Film Festival for a unique, new business venture.

The Stanley Hotel will share a portion of its property for a proposed attraction that the Stanley Film Festival describes as “the world’s first horror-themed museum, film archive, and film production studio.”

Even with Stephen King and The Shining being the original source of inspiration for the museum, one might imagine a small display of horror film prop replicas and wax figures, maybe complimented by an overpriced gift shop to cover the overhead costs, but the project already seems to have surpassed such meager expectations.

The Shining-Inspired Museum Has Big Hollywood Names On Its Founding Board

The Shining, Stephen King
Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson film a scene in ‘The Shining.’ Image courtesy of Warner Bros.

George Romero, Elijah Wood, and Simon Pegg are among those associated with the new Stanley Hotel project, which has already been projected to cost an estimated $24 million to construct.

Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, which hit theaters in 1980, had a budget of $19 million.

While the project may seem costly, the price tag loses some of its bite, when one realizes the $24 million will cover costs to include a 500-seat auditorium, a 30,000-square-foot interactive museum, and space for an unnamed educational program, set up and managed by the Colorado Film School.

Revealing himself as a fan of The Shining and a frequent visitor of the Stanley Hotel, Elijah Wood commented on the idea that the hotel is an obvious choice for this project.

“I would love to have a home for which we could constantly come year-round and celebrate with other fans from around the world,” said Wood, according to PR Newswire. “There’s really no better place for there to be a permanent home for the celebration of horror as an art form than the Stanley Hotel. It was practically built for it.”

While The Stanley Hotel already has become a mecca for horror fans, eager to walk the halls of the original hotel that inspired Stephen King’s The Shining, adding the museum will provide an added incentive, say the hotel owners. It seems others would agree, since The Stanley Hotel has already received commitments from those wishing to donate items to the museum.

Included among the growing list of museum donors are Charlie Adlard, comic book artist for The Walking Dead; Rick Baker, who has won Academy Awards for his work on films like Men in Black, X-Men and The Nutty Professor; and writer, director, and producer Clive Barker.

The guest in room 237 is equally excited about this project.

[Featured image courtesy of Warner Bros./The Shining]

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