On 2010-03-18 Bill R. Moore, Oklahoma, USA wrote: The Shining is one of the all-time great horror films, and excellence in several general areas makes it transcend its genre. It is not director Stanley Kubrick´s best or most ambitious film but is another jewel in his unparalleled crown; that he was able to master a genre seemingly so far from his territory on his first try is a true testament to his genius. Fans of his denser films may be disappointed by its relative lack of substance, but there are plenty of his signature skills, and those usually not keen on him may be pleasantly surprised.
The film has almost no equal for psychologically thrilling horror. No other film I have seen has held me as expectant; my eyes were fixed on the screen with great intensity and simply could not look away. The tension quickly reaches a fever pitch and never lets go; at times it is near-unbearable - in the best sense of course. Few films get the pulse racing quicker and keep it beating as fast.
Most remarkable of all is that it does all this with almost no traditional horror trappings. There is only one onscreen murder and very little of the usual guts-soaked slashery. Kubrick showed in 2001: A Space Odyssey that what we do not see is often more powerful than what we do; our minds fills in the blanks more forcefully and powerfully than anything overt likely could have. One would be very hard-pressed to find a more successful ´less is more´ example. As in the past, Kubrick also uses music very effectively. Nearly all horror films try, but very few are as successful; it not only builds suspense and heightens foreshadowing, but sparseness is again used to great effect. The points at which it stops are often at least as important as when it begins or plays.
The cinematography is also incredible; Kubrick had long had a deft hand at this but truly outdoes himself here. The camera work is near-faultless, and several shots - such as Jack locked in the pantry with his hand on the release - are nothing less than brilliant. The famous blood flow sequence is even better; one of the best scenes ever, it is the preeminent example of how the film uses the power of suggestion to achieve highly-wrought effects one would not have thought possible with such sparseness. Similarly great is the segue from Jack looking at the maze model to his family walking in the actual maze - a superb visual sleight-of-hand on par with 2001´s legendary bone/spaceship transition. Lighting is also excellent; dimness is of course another horror film cliché, but Kubrick uses it with rare precision and purpose, achieving just the right effect without being obvious or overbearing. Finally, one must not fail to mention the many breathtakingly beautiful shots of both natural beauty and luscious indoor settings.
The basic plot is not horror´s most elaborate; simplicity is again key. However, the execution is almost dizzyingly complex. The mix of hyper-realism and strong supernatural overtones was daring and highly influential. Kubrick included innumerable complexities ranging from ubiquitous mirrors and all they signify to deliberate continuity ´errors´ to plot ambiguities. The story is told so that many apparently supernatural elements can be naturally explained with varying probabilities. Almost every scene can be interpreted multiple ways, leaving us as dizzy and disoriented as the characters. This is a film that truly rewards close and multiple viewings.
As for the acting, it is of course top-notch. Jack Nicholson´s signature performance is one of the greatest ever. Though frightening in the best sense, it is also screamingly funny; the film´s wealth of black humor is indeed one of its most overlooked elements. It is very hard not to focus on Nicholson, but six-year-old Danny Lloyd also deserves great praise. His is one of the toughest and best child acting jobs of all-time; particularly impressive is how much depth and emotion he conveys silently.
The closest thing to a downside is something that should be obvious considering that The Shining is unashamed horror - it lacks the philosophical depth and profoundly meaningful themes of Kubrick masterpieces like 2001 and A Clockwork Orange. This is not to say it is without them; there are indeed perhaps as many as the genre allows. For example, like Joseph Conrad´s classic story ´Heart of Darkness,´ it shows - especially via Jack - that vicious brutality lurks just beneath humanity´s ostensibly peaceful and normal surface. It is in danger of coming out at any time and certainly will with the right stimuli. The ballroom scene is also a subtle colonialist critique, and there are nuanced depictions of alcoholism´s dangers and family relations. The Stephen King novel on which the script is based focused more on these last and some other issues, disappointing King and some of his fans, and some Kubrick hard-cores bemoan the general lack of profundity. However, nearly all viewers will consider this nitpicking, and it will do little, if anything, to detract from their enjoyment.
All told, The Shining is absolutely essential for anyone even remotely interested in horror, Nicholson, Kubrick, or King and is indeed so generally excellent that anyone looking for a supremely suspenseful and entertaining film should check it out.
. And summed up by saying Top-Notch Horror and More. Currently The Shining has an overall rating of 8 over 10.
The Shining can also be found in the following searches:
Warner Home Video claimed Stanley Kubrick´s The Shining is less an adaptation of Stephen King´s bestselling horror novel than a complete reimagining of it from the inside out. In King´s book, the Overlook Hotel is a haunted place that takes possession of its off-season caretaker and provokes him to murderous rage against his wife and young son. Kubrick´s movie is an existential Road Runner cartoon (his steadicam scurrying through the hotel´s labyrinthine hallways), in which the cavernously empty spaces inside the Overlook mirror the emptiness in the soul of the blocked writer, who´s settled in for a long winter´s hibernation. As many have pointed out, King´s protagonist goes mad, but Kubrick´s Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is Looney Tunes from the moment we meet him--all arching eyebrows and mischievous grin. (Both Nicholson and Shelley Duvall reach new levels of hysteria in their performances, driven to extremes by the director´s fanatical demands for take after take after take.) The Shining is terrifying--but not in the way fans of the novel might expect. When it was redone as a TV miniseries (reportedly because of King´s dissatisfaction with the Kubrick film), the famous topiary-animal attack (which was deemed impossible to film in 1980) was there--but the deeper horror was lost. Kubrick´s The Shining gets under your skin and chills your bones; it stays with you, inhabits you, haunts you. And there´s no place to hide... --Jim Emerson
Item that are similar to The Shining can be found at: