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Kubrick seems to have taken the spare bits and pieces of King’s book that he liked, and discarded all the rest, leaving us with a nigh-meaningless non-narrative (beautifully shot).

Duvall and Lloyd as Wendy and Danny Torrance are very good, and their chemistry as mother and son is touching without a trace of melodrama. Crothers says all of his lines in the right order. Bit performances by Philip Stone (Delbert Grady) and Joe Turkel (Lloyd the bartender)are amazing and steal their respective scenes.

Nicholson, on the other hand, is hammy and ridiculous as Jack Torrance. He may have once been an actor, but by this point in his career, he’s just JACK NICHOLSON. And the further away from his career peak we get, the sillier this appears when looking back. He’s not playing a character so much as throwing disdain at his lines, his co-star (Duvall) and pretty much the audience as a whole. Nicholson was about as huge as they come, and he projects just how much he knows it in every frame of this film by daring us to notice how much he’s forgotten how to really act and not just mindlessly emote.

The whole film plays as almost a commentary on the novel, as a companion piece that simply refers to the source material, to the point that watching it again recently I was convinced a number of times that I was watching a metafiction instead of the regular kind. And while the vicious attack toward the end of the film is still truly haunting, the only thing that really lingers in the memory after the film ends is the orange paint job in Scatman’s apartment, and the nude portraits of hot mommas matter-of-factly displayed on its walls.

Stanley Kubrick’s adaption of the cult Stephen King thriller ‘The Shining’ is an intense, epic, gothic-horror masterpiece. It’s stylish and beautiful, and is a work of horror that, while it distances itself from the constant blood-letting and gore that was common in the more exploitative horror films of the time, is still very effective till this day and still remains one of the greatest and most influential movies in the history of cinema.

Stephen King’s source material is altered dramatically in Kubrick’s adaptation. With the aid of co-screenwriter Diane Johnson, Kubrick moved from the conventions of traditional horror films, replacing them with his own symbolic images and motifs. As you will see, most of the frightening scenes are shot in wither wide open spaces, or brightly lit areas instead of hiding behind the dark and avoid using the tired scare gags commonly found in horror pictures. These scenes create a feeling of a constantly present dread that slowly builds into a sensation of paranoia and terror.

The paranormal is also a huge theme in the Shining. But it’s not ghouls or ghosts that present a threat here, but the ghostly character in the film is the classic haunted house itself – a gigantic, isolated Colorado mountain resort hotel, entitled the Overlook. It poses the question – is this building really haunted? Or is Jack just loosing his mind? Early in the film, it is stated that the building was built on an Indian burial ground. It’s even stated that upon construction, they had to fend off Indian attackers. Meaning the Indian tribe whose land was being desecrated by the white man was still alive and well while they watched their homeland be destroyed.

The first, and most frequently seen of the ‘ghosts’ is the river of blood that floods out of the elevator shaft, which presumably sinks into the Indian burial ground itself. We never hear this rushing blood, for it is a mute nightmare. This could be a metaphor for the blood to which this nation was built upon. Or, in this case, the Overlook Hotel was built upon. The tribe that sacrificed their land for the white man is making a strong presence. Indian artwork appears throughout the hotel, yet we never actually see an Indian. Yet through these images and this idea, we are lead to believe that what possesses this hotel is the Native American spirits lost upon its construction.

Jack Torrance (a tour de force performance by Jack Nicholson, perhaps the best of his career) is the proud father of Danny, and the happy husband of Wendy Torrance. He is takes the job of managing the Overlook in the harsh winter months as a way of desolating himself from civilization as he pursues his intentions of becoming a writer. Perhaps the most note-worthy scene of this film is it’s climax, when Jack has completely lost his mind and, with an axe, smashes down all the doors standing between him and his family – who he wants to carve into little pieces. While this is quite the memorable scene, among my favorites, I found his downward spiral into insanity to be much more interesting.

From the start of the film, you get the impression that Jack likes to distant himself from his family, but you never find that he has the intention to kill them. Because he doesn’t have this intention, neither did the previous caretaker of the hotel – who slaughtered his family, and committed suicide several years prior. The idea of sane men loosing their sanity is the expression of how the American white man is weak in spirit. They are easy to manipulate and control. The spirits, or whatever lies behind the walls of the hotel, taped into their subconscious and caused them to convert to their inner self, causing them to lash out in an uncontrollable animalistic manner.

The Shining is unlike any other movie of its genre. It’s Stanley Kubrick, a master of this trade, exploring the dimensions of the genre to create the ultimate horror film. He takes the simple idea of a domestic tragedy, and expands it to over two hours in length, and packs it with enough intensity to keep your emotions running wild. To some, this is considered Kubrick’s best, to others just another one of his masterpieces. Either way, you’ll know your in for one hell of a thrill ride.

A+

Prévenons d’emblée que c’était largement meilleur dans mes souvenirs. Bien sûr, on ne va ps remettre en cause l’interprétation de Jack Nicholson dans ce film où il semble être totalement habité par son personnage. Certes, Kubrick fait encore preuve d’un bon sens de mise en scène par moments, offrant au cinéma quelques moments d’anthologie comme la séquence de la machine à écrire, “Redrum”, la salle de bains ou encore la poursuite dans le labyrinthe. Mais dans le même temps, l’installation de l’ambiance prend un temps fou une fois dans la maison. Les plans-séquences sont bien jolis, servent évidemment ce propos, mais bon sang on a parfois l’impression que c’est juste du tape-à-l’oeil. Ce qui paraît vramient étrange chez Kubrick. Le scénario? Oui pas mal, logique quand ça vient de Stephen King à la base même si le cinéaste a pris énormément de libertés. Ce qui n’est pas un problème en soi, mais quelques éléments paraissent parfois brouillons dans la manière dont ils sont racontés. Bien sûr, que cette famille est petit à petit habitée par cette maison (surtout Jack bien sûr) et que l’hôtel l’absorbe petit à petit et est prêt à en faire de même à la fin (pour cela que Wendy voit enfin les convives du bal de 1921, où une photo est prise et que Jack y figure). Mais il faut y aller pour se rappeler que l’hôtel est construit sur un ancien cimetière indien et qu’il doit en fait y régner une forme de malédiction. Sans oublier que je me demande comment le personnage qui possède le shining comme Danny ne s’est pas rendu compte qu’il allait se faire tuer puisqu’il semble qu’ils soient disposés à voir des éléments du futur. Bref, ce n’est pas mauvais du tout, ça fait passer un sympathique moment (le but de Kubrick n’étant quand même pas de chercher à faire vraiment peur avec ce film je pense), tension qui met du temps à s’installer et quelques moments d’anthologie font passer la sauce.

While watching this, I wonder what percentage of it’s audience has either been a member of / shared an experience with a family unit that has been dealt irreparable damage by alcohol or drug abuse. For those who have, The Shining might strike a significantly deeper nerve than what even the most psychological of horror films can. It is one of the darkest portrayals of a broken home I’ve personally been exposed to, and the family dynamics are perfectly depicted. A down and out abusive alcoholic father figure, more concerned with himself than his family, who has become resentful of his them as a mechanism to ignore his own failures and shattered dreams. A complacent, weak-minded and mentally manipulated wife, who though ultimately is good at heart is in denial over the entire situation, furthermore lacking the will necessary to alleviate the burdens placed upon her and her child. A young son who has already seen more trauma in his life than some will see by the time they die, slipping in and out of states of delusion as a result. The creepy house is a controlled environment, and when isolated from the outside world they are forced to confront their darkest sides, consequentially leading to something more disturbing than even the scariest movie can produce. To me, the most horrifying part of this film is the fight between Jack and Wendy as Wendy suggests that her son is becoming too mentally ill to last in the house any longer, and their dialog is juxtaposed to an image of Danny going into a horrific episode. The moment has never escaped me. I never have and never will understand how someone could look you in the eye and tell you that Kubrick was a bad filmmaker, and anyone who does should immediately be taken far less seriously. His influence has been left all over both artistic and mainstream cinema, and it’s because he was one of the greatest thinkers in the history of the field, and conveyed ideas with nearly unmatched concision and sophistication (both visually and through narrative.) The Shining is a perfect example of all of this. It’s blending of surrealism and realism flawlessly sends the viewer through the mental maze of torture that such a situation can create. If it was in Romanian and had English subtitles on the bottom of the screen, I’m sure it would influence the sensibilities of even the most pretentious film enthusiast enough to appreciate how perfectly crafted this is.

The Opening Scene to The Shining pretty much sums it all up for me. The cinematography and scenery really does captuure the Isolation of the Overlook Hotel and the soundtrack that Kubrick has chosen is wonderfully composed and to me is one of the most horrorfying pieces of music Iv’e ever heard.

Nicholoson in my opion is at his best in this movie. The way he develops his charater is really well done and even when there’s no dialouge he still manages to calabourate with the story just with his facial expressions. Danny Loyd and Shelly Duval are both great in this movie as well expecially when there portraying there fear. Every frame in this movie has great cinematography and coulour Scheme, the movie really hasn’t got a dark atmosphere until the last 20 or so minutes. So even without a dark colour scheme the movie still manages to send fear into the audience.

There are so many key scenes in the film, the blood rushing out of the elevator, the women in the 237 bathroom, the twin girls and of course the final sequence to the film. But If I had to choose one moment in the movie that really kept me up at night would be the scene where Danny and Halloran discuss there shining, Tony, and of course room 237. The tention, dialouge and even the silence between those two are wonderfully written and acted.

Overall The Shining is an extremly well made movie and Is by far my favourite Horror Flick.

When it comes to perfection in horror movies, very few top The Shining. It’s one of the best translations from Stephen King even though it isn’t word for word. It manages to get under your skin as you witness the descent of one father into complete insanity. Everyone knows the film in some way or another even if they haven’t seen it because it’s such an iconic piece of cinema. Jack Nicholson only adds to the brilliance already displayed, it is a performance that is almost as famous and memorable as the movie itself. The sequences in this are the scariest part because they’re shot in a way that it catches you off guard and makes you see things that aren’t there.

A man on the verge of a nervous breakdown? Maybe.

Or perhaps the hotel is actually a horribly malevolent force whose occupants became terribly mixed-up neurotic housewives!?

Or maybe not.

In any case, I finally come face to face with….THE SHINING!

Stanley Kubrick is a very direct film-maker. That’s why I find him so appealing. His films are about what they are about, and he makes them with such precision, with such depth and clarity that you might as well write essays upon essays upon essays trying to figure out if you might be just imagining things.

Or maybe I’m just dense and opaque and the film’s blatant surrealism is so baffling as to be fascinating.

First, the evidence:

Based upon a supernatural horror story by Stephen King (who, I might add, didn’t like this film, more about that later.), THE SHINING tells the story of the Torrence family.

It opens with relatively majestic aerial shots of smokey-looking mountains while a synethized version of the death march plays over the soundtrack.

For whatever reason it doesn’t come off as horribly cheesy or pretentious, but simply odd and…well, unsettling. Already we have our tone established, with soundtrack dissonance and image harmony.

In any case, the opening minutes are prime time blandness, where the basic premise is set up: Jack Torrence (played by Jack Nicholson) is having an interview (preluded by the convenient inter-title that simply states THE INTERVIEW) with Ullman, the manager of the nice OVERLOOK HOTEL.

Jack Torrence, we find out, is a writer, but seems to be taking on the job as caretaker of the hotel while it’s closed for the winter. Why is not entirely clear, but in any case, he gets the job.

Meanwhile, we meet his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son, Danny, (played by…Danny Llyod…). Wendy it seems, smokes habitually, is generally wirey, and Danny seems to be emotionally detached. He also has an imaginary friend named Tony, who Danny describes as a little boy that lives in his mouth.

Such a happy family! Danny’s friend Tony states that he doesn’t want to go to the OVERLOOK HOTEL. Then Danny has a horrible vision of an elevator filled with blood and flashes of eerie twins. He passes out and a therapist writes it off as simply childish episodes of emotional trauma. Nothing to worry about apparently, though Wendy lets it slip that Jack once dislocated Danny’s arm, “accidentally”, while he was drunk.

So the family moves into the Overlook, with Jack being introduced to the hotel grounds, and they meet the black cook, (Scatman Crothers), who forms a psychic link it seems with Danny.

It appears that he and Danny, as well as others, have a common ‘gift’ which is called the “shining”, where objects, people, and places leave behind “traces” of what was once was, and what will be.

Call it telepathic connections, or what have you, but in any case, everyone but the Torrences vacate the hotel for the winter, and there’s only Jack, Wendy and Danny in the massive building.

Already, things start getting weird. Danny starts seeing the twins, more bloodstained walls, and foaming at the mouth.

Wendy becomes more stricken with stress and hysteria as Jack becomes aloof, then grouchy, then antagonistic, and then downright insane.

Even Jack starts seeing things and people, such as a strangely malevolent bartender and even the original caretaker of the hotel, who, it turned out, murdered his entire family after going crazy. He had two daughters, twins it seems….

Is the hotel full of evil spirits and ghosts? A statement that the hotel was built on native american burial grounds suggests maybe…but is Jack’s latent stress and anger getting the best of him simply because of isolation?
Is everyone going nuts?

Eventually, it all culminates in a hypnotic and delirious finale in which we have no idea if what has happened is the influence of the supernatural or what…

In any case, what is clear is that Jack has gone axe-crazy and will do anything to appease the hotel’s bloodlust which may or may not have been going on for years and years…

Where to begin with such a surreal and downright austere movie?

I suppose I should start with the more famous moments of the film: those twins…

The image of the two twins standing in the hallway is eerily close to a Diane Arbus photograph which featured little girl twins, smiling creepily. Actually, the entire film resembles a living Arbus portrait, where the environment the characters inhabit says nothing about them, and yet, everything.

The set design and production is hyper-real. Imagine the most ugly, loud carpets in all the motels in the world, mixed with plush curtains, old lodges, and ball rooms, with strange color schemes (mostly red) thrown into the mix, and you’ve got the interior of the Overlook Hotel.

It’s as if Kubrick was trying to make the most bland, ugly domestic spaces seem so alien that you would become detached from your own environment.

He is partially succesful in that the wide-angle lenses accentuate the bigness of the walls and rooms. The sequences with Danny and anything remotely supernatural are downright opaque.

Jack’s visions are more familiar though, and this may be intentional. Jack has frequent visions in the GOLD BALLROOM, where it seems in the 1920s, some sort of high society came to live it up. But as we soon discover, these same people may have committed rather evil and horrible acts within the walls of the hotel, and this is one of the themes of the film that Kubrick explores: can the mere history of a place taint it forever, even if time has marched on?

I suppose it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that the Overlook Hotel is even cursed, and that all the caretakers before Jack did something horrible to their families or to themselves or to everyone else.

In any case, the hotel is a pretty freaky place to be in.

The long hallways, with endless wallpapers and loud decor, is a prevalent image. The long-shots and hypnotic tracking shots are also memorable.

To be honest, the film is a wonderous techincal exercise. For all intents and purposes, Kubrick has everything “perfect”. The lighting does not betray the total artificiality of the film. Almost everything is a set. A damn good one at that.

The grandeur of the maze? set. The lodge quarters? Set also. The endless halls and giant kitchen? Set too.

And yet, the photography is something else. The ‘realistic’ light pouring into the lodge through the windows is remarkable. It’s all studio lights, but you can’t really tell. It truly looks like an endless and huge empty hotel.

Even the performances are almost mechanical in their purposes.

Nicholson’s performance as Jack is programmed for madness. You can tell, (after you’ve seen the film) that the crazy behavior that happens later in the film isn’t meant at all to be a surprise. This is a man that is already dangerous, and Wendy should’ve seen this coming a long time ago.

Speaking of Wendy, Duvall has a pretty thankless role. She’s simply the loving, caring and bewidlered wife of a drunk. She starts out perky, almost too perky, and by the end, goes totally bonkers and over the top with a performance that would make any scream-queen in a slasher film jealous.

The boy is so bland and un-cute; it’s amazing how opposite Kubrick goes with most horror-story archetypes. Wendy, for all her high-strung weepiness, is not stupid and is resourceful. Danny is not ‘cute’, as I’ve said before, not precocious, and not creepy in any stereotypical sense (I’m looking at you Damien). Danny is totally devoid of personality, and reads the lines with such characteristic boredom you wonder if he’s simply reading lines from a large sign right in front of him. (he probably is, but who cares? it works with the surreal quality of the film).

Everyone else besides these three are secondary and not important, even the black cook with the shining.

Speaking of that, there are some odd scenes that are perilously close to shuckin’ and jivin’. But this is, I think, some sort of mind game Kubrick plays with the audience. The cook plays dumb, but delivers a serious conversation with Danny, where he reveals his ‘gift’. Later, when he’s back at home in Miami, we see on the walls photos of buxom, naked black women with gigantic afros. What?

Of course, we discover that through Jack’s visions, the original caretaker (or maybe the hotel itself) is racist, saying a most dreadful word and prompts Jack to commit the act himself.

In the end, the film is ambiguous with…well, everything related to the ghosts and such.

But in terms of the “scary” parts? Kubrick is direct. Jack goes insane. Wendy has a nervous breakdown. Danny has a mental breakdown, and thus manifests itself through “Tony”, and says ‘redrum’ over and over again.
Everyone has a vision of something terrible. Ironically, Wendy has the most interesting ones, prompting more ambiguities about the hotel, but again, I can’t say any more, except that it reaches gothic horror levels of hysteria, like an italian giallo film.

Actually, the comparison to giallo films isn’t too bad. Like Dario Argent’s films, THE SHINING is hyper-real, utilizing somewhat fantastical elements in set design, acting styles, and cinematography. Even the editing is directing the viewer to something like “horrible things are afoot! Ooooh!”

Even the arranged music by Bela Bartok and co. is hypnotic like Suspiria, with its ominious latin chanting in the background, creepy diagetic sounds, crazy glisandos, impressionistic strings and music.

But, at its core, THE SHINING is a gothic horror story, modern though.

Really, that’s all it really is. A massive gothic horror story Poe and such, set in the most contemporary setting possible, though it appears that Kubrick doesn’t want it to be strictly “modern” in the literal sense. He wants it to be modern in that transcendant way.

The surreal quality is perhaps even more telling than before. The sequences in the latter half are so amazing in their simplicity and yet deliriously mad, that you don’t even question the more opaque parts.

THE SHINING is certainly not Kubrick’s best film, but any Kubrick film is better than a hundred good movies. THE SHINING is no exception.

I wouldn’t be so sure about its status as an honest “horror” film. But know this, it is perhaps the most unsettling and unconventional exercise in unpleasantness ever put on film.

Today, I was asked what I feel the scariest film of all-time is. And I think I would have to say that this is it. I could never properly articulate my infinitesimal admiration for this one time only combination of my favourite auteur and my favourite genre of film. So I’m just going to leave it at that.

“It’s all forgotten now, the trouble and the pain; forgotten every word I said. Forgotten every tear you shed; we’re still in love.”

(Originally written January 2, 2007)

Although typically categorized as a horror film, The Shining is a much more complex than other films in the same genre. Horror films tend to rely on the audience anticipating violence, following through with promises of blood and gore. The Shining depends less on these types of moments and deals more with the unexplained, supernatural images that can be seen in the Overlook Hotel. Much of this film is comedic, perhaps funnier than Stanley Kubrick’s comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Jack Nicholson’s performance is so convincing because of the fact that he’s not merely depending on frightening the audience. He’s appealing to a sense of humor that makes the audience uneasy, inciting laughter when the audience should not be joyful. Jack’s quoting of the Big Bad Wolf when trying to murder his wife with an axe is similar to Alex’s dancing to Singin’ in the Rain in A Clockwork Orange before raping a woman in front of her husband; both characters use pop culture allusions to point out the darkness in things typically found to be acceptable for the youngest of children.

Director Stanley Kubrick does not rely on plot to drive the story forward; there are certain points at which the audience knows what is going to happen next. What Kubrick does is provide haunting images, not so much manipulating the audience as trying to get under the skin of the audience. It’s not about story as much as atmosphere. One of the most disturbing images is when Shelley Duvall’s character sees two people in a room, one dressed in an animal costume. It’s an image so bizarre and illogical that it incites fear in us. The film never fully explains intentions or the reality of the situation. It’s about effectively getting into the minds of the audience to portray insanity, something that is, often, not explicable. The camera work is absolutely beautiful, perhaps a strange word to describe a film with many grotesque images. The way the camera looks down on Jack’s car amidst the mountains establishes a sense of openness before the film becomes more and more claustrophobic. There are some points at which the audience will squirm in their seats, possibly cover their eyes, and wonder what the hell is going on. The Shining effectively portrays the horror of uncertainty and takes the audience on a convincing trip through the hell of the isolated human mind.

Perfecta representación acerca de cómo los ambientes y el aislamiento pueden llegar, sin ningún tipo de escalas, a la perdida total de cordura. Si bien toda la pelicula es un logro en cuanto a generar terror a partir de lo mas minimo, creo que Kubirck vió que todo el potencial de la historia estaba en cómo mostrar ese lugar, ese espacio, ese hotel que termina siendo el verdedero protagonista del relato. Ademas de que su concepto de pelicula de terror no pasa por las simplezas que puede traer filmar un género de esas caratceristicas, sino en todo lo contrario, en encontrarle la vuelta, en hacerlo visiblemente terrorifico, con la menor cantidad de elementos posibles. Sabemos que Kubirck es uno de los directores que mas importancia le daba a los espacios, a sus locaciones, las cuales se pontenciaba con el uso de travellings y panoramicas que daban aún mas espacialidad a la pelicula. En “The Shining” todo pasa por ahi: por esos cuartos en los que pasan cosas, las cuales no vemos hasta bien entrada la pelicula, pero que insinuamos. Lo mismo en la cabeza de Jack Nicholson, todo un ejercicio de ir perdiendo la cordura poco a poco.

Estan ahi, entonces, los espacios, asfixiando,enloquenciendo, desquiciando, elementos que Kubirck potencia con la movilidad (raramente estática, pero mobible de las maneras mas quietas posibles) de su cámara y nada mas que pequeños detalles (tres personajes en una casa, un sonido que revienta los sesos, un montaje que desconcierta en el buen sentido de la palabara) las que hacen que “The Shining” sea todo un clásico sobre las posibilidades que podía alcanzar el terror.

Kubrick made a truly great horror film and he defied the cliches and tricks that have burdened horror films since the dawn of cinema.

Kubrick told his tale of fright in the daylight. If a scene was at night, he was sure to have plenty of light illuminate the screen. Very little visual darkness. The darkness is within the human soul.

Kubrick also made us care more for the villain, Jack, then for Wendy. Jack is so much more appealing.

I could go on. I don’t know of anyone who loves horror movies who doesn’t love this one. Even those I know who profess to hate Kubrick movies love The Shining.

Not my favorite Kubrick film, but fantastic nonetheless. I’m surprised to read Lachlan Foley say that the acting was terrible – I couldn’t disagree more! I think this showcases just how great Stanley K. was – his part in the screenwriting and obviously his directing. If you’ve read the book, you can tell how difficult it must have been to cut certain scenes, and to embellish here and there – but that’s precisely what makes the Shining so amazing.