In the 1981 movie "The Shining", which hotel did Jack and family look after?

The story behind the answer

In the 1981 movie “The Shining,” Jack and his family look after the Overlook Hotel.

Jack Torrance accepts a winter caretaker position at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado. He brings his wife, Wendy, and their young son, Danny, to maintain the resort while heavy snow leaves it closed and cut off from the outside world. The seasonal job gives Jack time to work on his writing, but the hotel’s violent history soon becomes the family’s central threat.

The Overlook is not simply a backdrop: it functions as the film’s haunted presence. Hotel manager Stuart Ullman warns Jack that a previous caretaker, Charles Grady, murdered his wife and daughters before killing himself. Danny’s psychic ability, called “the shining,” allows him to perceive the hotel’s disturbing memories and spirits.

Viewers sometimes answer “the Stanley Hotel,” because Stephen King drew inspiration from that Colorado hotel. However, the fictional hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 film is the Overlook Hotel. The film was released in 1980, although the question’s 1981 date may reflect a regional release or listing convention.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Aug. 2026

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