How sad is this?

Admirable film.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

This is not "the greatest documentary about 'The Shining' ever made" as the film poster wants you to believe. I don't think a feature-length documentary about the making of the Shining exists yet. The best one so far is the short 'Making The Shining' [1980] made parallel to the film by Stanley Kubrick's daughter, Vivian.'Staircases to Nowhere' is only of interest to hardcore fans of 'The Shining' as it is merely a bunch of interview clips thrown together. The documentary doesn't have a real beginning or an end, there is no common theme and it ultimately leads nowhere. It's no different than the majority of bonus materials that can often be found on DVDs and Blu-rays. The people who worked on the project just reminisce what it was like to work with Kubrick and the actors. If you're a fan of 'The Shining' you will probably already have heard many of the anecdotes that are being retold here.The film is divided into a number of chapters in which certain aspects of the making of Kubrick's film are being discussed. I found the chapters about the fire at the studio and Kubrick's post-premiere alteration of the film's ending the most interesting ones, even though most of it has been told before in one way or another.