To the people who keep saying ' look at it as it’s own story and not a direct sequel to the Shining.

But the thing is, IT ISN'T. It is a direct sequel to the Shining. Stephen King wrote this story as a direct sequel to the Shining. And for that reason, this movie is terrible. I honestly have no idea what King was THINKING to make a subpar BELOW AVERAGE book, and connect it to one of the greatest books of all time. And here's the kicker, it could have easily been made separate from the The Shining. The ONLY things that connect this to the Shining are two of the characters and of course, the ending where they went to the Overlook. Those details being changed to be independent of the Shining would have no effect on the plot.

This is a film I cannot forgive. I truly think it is awful. And I really cannot understand why it got the praise it did. I think it even got nominated for a Saturn? It didn't deserve anything better than bad reviews. My question to the people who like it is: WHY?

Also, I really don't understand why these days people are so quick to defend bad movies? I see this frequently. People making excuses for bad movies, as if they're the ones who made them. It's weird. It's OKAY to admit that a movie is bad. I see people perfroming MENTAL GYMNASTICS to try and make excuses for this movie:

"Don't compare it to The Shining! Look at it like its own story! When you do that, it's actually not that bad!"

Or how about look at it for what it is? A bad movie with bad characters. Rose the Hat was awful. It literally felt like she was written in an attempt to make her the next Hot Topic Cultural Icon. Remember when Edward Scissorhands or Jack Skellington were very popular with emo kids in 2008? Well it felt like this is what they were trying to do with Rose the Hat. It was pathetic.

Really, Rose and her posse just looked like druggie burnouts stuck out of time. They even have the RV to top off the stereotype. Those guys look like the kid of people you see at Hippie Hill in San Francisco. Not compelling villians.