Is "The Shining" Based on a True Story? All About the Real Colorado Hotel That Inspired the Horror Classic Julie TremaineOctober 31, 2025 at 3:00 AM 0 Everett Collection Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall as Jack and Wendy Torrance in The Shining. The Shining might be more layered than fans may think. The 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie, based on the 1977 Stephen King book, is regarded as one of the best horror films of all time. In the novel and movie, a family — Wendy and Jack Torrance, and their son Danny — moves to a mountain resort in Colorado to be winter caretakers of the property.
- - Is "The Shining" Based on a True Story? All About the Real Colorado Hotel That Inspired the Horror Classic
Julie TremaineOctober 31, 2025 at 3:00 AM
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Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall as Jack and Wendy Torrance in The Shining.
The Shining might be more layered than fans may think.
The 1980 Stanley Kubrick movie, based on the 1977 Stephen King book, is regarded as one of the best horror films of all time. In the novel and movie, a family — Wendy and Jack Torrance, and their son Danny — moves to a mountain resort in Colorado to be winter caretakers of the property.
Despite trying to have a fresh new start at The Overlook, the Torrances' relationships prove to be too strained, and matters only intensify after Danny's terrifying premonitions appear to come true as Jack's psyche unravels.
While The Shining isn't based on a true story, King has spoken about how the idea came to him while staying at The Stanley Hotel in Colorado.
The author recalled having a nightmare about his own family and unconsciously tapping into his personal dilemmas, which provided the basis for the book by the time the sun rose.
So what is The Shining based on? Here's everything to know about the inspiration behind Stephen King's horror classic.
What is The Stanley Hotel?
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Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd as Wendy and Danny Torrance in 'The Shining'
The Stanley Hotel opened in 1909 in Estes Park, Colo., just a few miles from a gateway into Rocky Mountain National Park. Over the next decade, the establishment helped the town grow, according to its website.
Today, The Stanley isn't just a destination for those looking for a quiet escape to the mountains; it's also a popular destination for fans of the paranormal because of its reputation as a haunted hotel and its association with The Shining.
More than 400,000 visitors a year go to the resort, per the Estes Park Trail-Gazette. Guests can stay in Room 217 (where King wrote his book), take tours of the property, attend seances and magic shows, and see the property's Frozen Dead Guy.
October is an especially popular time for spooky-themed weddings at The Stanley, The New York Times reported.
Is The Stanley haunted?
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Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance and Joe Turkel as Lloyd the Bartender in 'The Shining'
There are many tales of hauntings at The Stanley, which began before King stayed there, and have drawn shows like Ghost Hunters to investigate the alleged paranormal activity in what has been called "the most haunted place in America."
While there are no ghosts of twin girls in blue dresses, guests often claim to have experienced brushes with the supernatural. In 2016, Henry Yau was staying at The Stanley when he said he photographed a ghostly apparition on the stairs.
Room 217, in particular, is rumored to be the most haunted room in the hotel. In 1911, a gas explosion in that room caused major damage to the hotel and severely injured a chambermaid, according to the Estes Park Trail Gazette.
While she eventually recovered and continued working at the establishment until her death, some claim that she now haunts the room, tidying guests' messes.
In addition, fans can visit the Shining Suite, a recreation of Room 217 from the book (in the movie, it's Room 237). Inside, every detail is exact, from the print of the carpet to the bright green bathtub. The space also features a portrait of King and one of the original screen-used axes from Nicholson's famous scene, when he chops down the bathroom door.
While people can't rent the Shining Suite, they can see it on the Shining Tour that happens daily at the hotel.
Is The Shining based on a true story?
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Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance and Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance in 'The Shining'
The Shining isn't based on a true story, but it is inspired by a real trip that King and his wife, Tabitha King, took to The Stanley in 1974.
On the night of their stay, the hotel was still a summer-only destination, and it was about to close for the season, so the Kings were the only guests that night. King was immediately struck by the solitude.
"Wandering through its corridors, I thought that it seemed the perfect — maybe the archetypical — setting for a ghost story," he wrote on his website.
While King has said he didn't experience anything supernatural that night, he had a nightmare about his young son Joe running through the halls being chased by a fire hose.
"I got up, lit a cigarette, sat in a chair looking out the window at the Rockies, and by the time the cigarette was done, I had the bones of the book firmly set in my mind," he continued.
The author also drew inspiration from his own life for the story. In 2007, he opened up to ABC's Nightline about how his parenting experience and struggles with alcoholism and drug abuse shaped the character Jack.
"I wrote about the alcoholism a lot in those early days," King told Nightline. "But I never had a clue. I was pretty numb."
He continued, "I've never denied that [my books] don't have some relationship to my life, but at the same time I'm always puzzled to realize years later, that in some ways I was delineating my own problems, self psychoanalysis."
King got sober roughly a decade later in the late 1980s, after his family staged an intervention, per The Guardian.
Was The Shining filmed at The Stanley?
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The set of 'The Shining' (1980)
The original movie wasn't filmed at The Stanley, and didn't take any visual inspiration from the hotel.
The exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's film was Timberline Lodge in Oregon, and the interiors, inspired by The Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park, were partially filmed at that hotel and partially filmed in a studio in England.
When King remade The Shining into a three-part mini-series in 1997, it was filmed at The Stanley, director Mick Garris told Rue Morgue magazine. He recalled that the production company had wanted the shooting to be done in Canada, but he asked the team to stop by The Stanley Hotel, where they stayed the night.
"I said, 'Listen, do we really need to go on to Canada? I mean, this is perfect. It's not only perfect, but this is the actual place,' " Garris recounted in November 2019. "Once you are in the hotel and actually see it and the world of The Shining opens up to you in full 3D presence‚ it was hard to fight."
Notably, King made a cameo as the bandleader in the show.
Today, The Stanley still has screen-used props from the mini-series on display, including a playhouse modeled after the hotel, which was featured in the play area of the series.
on People
Source: "AOL Entertainment"
Source: Entertainment
Published: October 30, 2025 at 11:45PM on Source: VOXI MAG
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