Review: The Shining (1980)

It recently came to my attention that Stephen king is about to release a new book, a book that is, in fact, a sequel to his old classic The Shining.  While I probably won’t pick up the King book, I did suddenly get an urge to go back and see the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of the first story.  And though Kubrick does stray quite a bit from the original story, instead choosing to do his own thing with the film, this film still remains one of the best horror flicks ever and a great film overall.

The Shining, if you haven’t seen it (in which case you are dead to me), is a story about a nice little family that takes a trip to a remote hotel.  The father, Jack Torrance is a writer (as many of King’s main characters tend to be) and he it looking to babysit the hotel during the winter while it’s closed.  A few months in the middle of nowhere in a giant hotel - what could go wrong?

As it turns out, the hotel is haunted.  There was once a killing there, a crazy caretaker who chopped his wife and kids up.  This individual begins hanging out with Jack, feeding him liquor and telling him that he needs to take care of his own wife and kid, because they’re being bad.  Slowly but surely, Jack goes nuts until the final part of the movie has him chasing his wife and kid down.

The main highlight of this film has to be the combination of Jack Nicholson’s (as Jack Torrence) acting and Kubrick’s amazing directing.  Together, a simple psychological ghost story becomes something terrible.  Nicholson is the perfect psychopath and this role is a beacon in the memory of any fan of his.  Kubrick, of course, is always a master at whatever he does.

In addition to one huge and creepy hotel set, the movie is filled with imagery designed to make the viewer cringe.  Sexy women turning into rotting corpses, murdered children and elevators filled with blood are among them.  Thanks to the ghosts in Jack’s head and the fact that his son Danny is psychic, Kubrick gets to throw a lot of great scenes in without coming across as cheesy or cliché.

Anyone and everyone should check out The Shining at least once.  It is, after all, widely regarded as one of the best horror films of our time.  And if you’re a fan of the book, you can check out King’s new novel, Doctor Sleep when it comes out in September.  If you want to learn more about the book (and even see a trailer for it), head over to this site and check it out.

The Shining courtesy of drafthouse.com