This film is a masterpiece. I do remember when I went to see it upon its release my instant appreciation for the attention to detail, the acting and directing. It is superb. There was an unfortunate disappointment in me though, the novel is one of my favorite of all time, as the movie changed the ending. I left with a feeling of being unfulfilled because I expected it might end as the novel had. I do however still find it a masterpiece and one of the best true horror films ever.
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Fearsome Beard 
It IS very good, though like you I felt the ending was a let-down, though in two respects which may well differ from your own opinion. (I’d first read the novel before the film was released, at a time when I was an insatiable Stephen King fan). The night-time chase in the snow-bound maze didn’t seem, at least to me, to be as horrific as the build-up to it demanded. And what on earth was that very final shot of the photo on the wall all about? Seemed to me that it opened a totally unnecessary can of worms, Kubrick just wanting a mystifying final image with which to tease the audience, whereas the effect on me was simply a distracting and rather weak “Eh?”
Btw: Maybe there are still some viewers around who aren’t aware that the film was made in England, the director (my all-time favourite, incidentally) by this time having famously become truly travel-phobic.
Being that I was also an insatiable Stephen King fan, I really missed the parallel of the building pressure in the old boiler and the transformation of Jack leading to what was the ultimate final ending in the novel. Somehow not only did I find it even more suspenseful but also there was much more resolution for me. However the movie was and is still a masterpiece, although different. If I’d not read the novel and been such a Stephen King fan I’d have never known the difference.
There was another moment in the film which I found particularly unsatisfactory, namely when Shelley Duvall manages to lock Nicholson inside the freezer room – and eventually the door is unlocked by some invisible, sympathetic (to him) force. It was that point of an actual intervention from ‘outside’, transforming the story to being not just a most effective psychological drama into more of a supernatural horror story which I found a bit of a downer. Others may disagree – and will!.
But hey, why am I picking holes in what is undoubtedly a terrific film, many rating it as Kubrick’s own best? (Even if I personally would give that accolade to ‘2001’). There’s no denying that ‘The Shining’ is right up there very near the very top of them all.
That movie is one of my favorites too although I never read the novel so I don’t know how it was supposed to end. Scariest part of the movie for me was hearing Shelly Duvall ‘s screaming and hysterics. I almost wish she would have gotten it.
It’s truly so well done.