The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980): USA

Reviewed by Reyes Munoz. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (2013), Metro 4 Theater.

Another one of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpieces. The Shining is one of those rare films that is based off of a classic piece of literature and eventually goes on to become its own classic piece of film, not to mention one of the most scary films of all time. This film is filled with a plethora of iconic images which have been parodied numerous time over the years as well as memorable dialogue. This, in my opinion, is also Jack Nicholson’s most horrifying performance ever and Stanley Kubrick couldn’t have found anybody else to play Jack but Jack himself. Afterall, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” The number of elemenst that wen into this film all contribute to making it one of the most horrifying films such as the eerie music score, the strange rug patterns, the empty hallways, the oversized hotel, the echoing  walls, and the ghosts that appear. What makes it even scarier is the fact that Jack is told by one of the Overlook’s employees previous caretaker went crazy and slaughtered his family. Furthermore, the audience is fearful for Danny who is told by an other wordy figure to stay away from room 237.

The story begins with Jack taking on a job to take care of the Overlook hotel during the off season. As frustrated as he is about having writer’s block and not being able to concentrate he decides to take the job. The family then moves into the hotel. A month passes while Jack’s writing project goes nowhere, Danny and Wendy explore the hotel’s hedge maze. Wendy becomes concerned about the phone lines being out due to the heavy snowfall and Danny has more frightening visions. Jack, increasingly frustrated, starts acting strangely and becomes prone to violent outbursts.

Things start getting a little strange when Jack starts losing his mind and begins to suffer from cabin fever. Meanwhile Danny is still tackling the voices in his head while Wendy is trying to make sense out of it all. One day as Wendy wanders through the hotel’s lobby she notices Jack’s typewriter and decides to take a look.She is then surprised to find that Jack hasn’t been writing anything logical as he has been writing the same sentence over and over again . This proves to Wendy that Jack has lost his mind and attempts to flee with Danny.

Overall, I consider the Shining to be a good film but it is not as great as Kubrick’s previous works. This is definitely his weakest work but nonetheless is still considered a classic. Even though it wasn’t a commercial success it still went on to become a huge success in home video sales and video rentals. I highly recommend this film to those who enjoy a good scare as this is obviously one of the scariest films out there along with The Exorcist. It loos like Stanley Kubrick has done it again.


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