The Shinning 1980

Cast:
Jack Nicholson - Jack Torrance
Shelley Duvall - Wendy Torrance
Danny Lloyd - Danny Torrance
Scatman Crothers - Dick Hallorann
Barry Nelson - Stuart Ullman
Philip Stone - Delbert Grady
Joe Turkel - Lloyd the Bartender

The Shining is, without doubt, one of Stanley Kubrick’s undisputed masterpieces and a true classic in horror cinema. It is a film that, over the course of the years, has managed to scare the living hell out of its audiences (and still does). The film is an adaptation of Stepehen King’s original novel, written in the late ’70s, and although the film is not very loyal to the book, it still stands as a thing of its own.

It’s creative director Stanley Kubrick’s intense, epic, gothic horror film and haunted house masterpiece - a beautiful, stylish work that distanced itself from the blood-letting and gore of most modern films in the horror genre. (The film waits until its climax to provide the typical catharctic bloody violence of most traditional horror films.)

The film’s source material from science-fiction/horror author Stephen King’s 1977 best-selling novel (his third novel under his own name) by the same name, bears little resemblance to Kubrick’s creation. A four and one-half hour long, made-for-TV mini-series titled Stephen King’s The Shining (1997), (with Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay), due to King’s dissatisfaction, was a more literal rendering of the original source material, and included a famous topiary-animal attack scene.

With American co-screenwriter Diane Johnson, Kubrick moved from the conventions of traditional horror film thrillers, displacing them with his own, much more subtle, rich, symbolic motifs. [The title of the film was inspired by the refrain in the Plastic Ono Band’s song by John Lennon, “Instant Karma,” from the chorus: “We all shine on.”]

As in many of his films, director Kubrick explores the dimensions of the genre to create the ultimate horror film of a man going mad, aspiring writer Jack Torrance (Nicholson), while serving as an off-season caretaker of an isolated, snowbound resort (the Overlook) with his family: wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd). They soon become affected by a “psychic photograph” of a bloody series of historic murders committed there. The film’s title refers to the extra-sensory, paranormal psychic abilities possessed by the Overlook Hotel’s head cook Halloran (Scatman Crothers) and the young boy.

The film, unlike many horror-oriented films nowadays, doesn’t only rely on stomach-churning and gory images (which it does contain, anyway) but on the incredibly scary music based on the works of Béla Bartók and on the excellent cinematography (the Steadicam is superbly used, giving us a sense of ever-following evil), as well. The terrifying mood and atmosphere of the film is carefully and masterfully woven by Kubrick, who clearly knows how to really make a horror movie.

Jack Nicholson’s powerful performance as the mad father and husband is as over the top as it is brilliant. Shelley Duvall, who plays the worrying wife who tries to help her son, is also a stand out; she shows a kind of trembling fear in many scenes and is able to display weakness and vulnerability in a very convincing way. Undoubtedly, The Shining is full of memorable moments (the elevator scene or the ‘Heeeeeere’s Johnny’ one-liner for instance) and, simply put, it’s flawlessly brilliant.

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