The Shining is one of my very favourite films. The film came out in 1980 and It is directed by the legend, Stanley Kubrick. It is undoubtedly one of the best horror/psychological films ever made, and ever will be made.
The story of the Shining centres around the grand hotel, The Overlook Hotel. The hotel is a haunted and isolated ski resort located in Colorado, where tragedy struck years before Jack Torrance (played brilliantly by Jack Nicholson) became a caretaker for the hotel. The story follows the lives of several characters over a period of 5 months and how the hotel changes all their lives forever. A boy with special perception (Danny Lloyd) and a haunted hotel with things lurking around every corner, ready to strike at any given moment is only a few of the horrifying things you’ll experience in this iconic horror film. This little boy, Danny, along with his parents, Jack and Wendy (Shelley Duvall), move to the hotel when Jack get’s the job as the caretaker. Jack is planning on writing while they are isolated from the world, but everything goes terribly wrong and it all leads to a tragic end.
I am writing a series of small reviews, one for each of my favourite films. So first, The Shining. A film famous for stunning shots, superb acting and all around terror. I saw it for the first time with my parents when I was a little too young, 12 years of age or so. But I loved it, I didn’t fully understand it, I still to this day don’t. And that is what I like about these type of films, a sense of confusion, a sense of mystery. What really puzzled me and intrigued me at the same time was the use of colour, and why, because I had never seen something like that before. I found it so beautiful, I had never before even thought about that it was someone’s job to make films look a certain way.
Jack Nicholson is such a star in this film, he already looks half-mad in real life so the casting must have been rather simple. Shelley Duvall is also really good in this film and I think it is one of Kubrick’s most interesting casting choices. Danny Lloyd plays his role great, he was very young when the film was filmed so a brilliant performance can’t be asked of that wee boy. The shining is such a sight to behold.
The camera that prowls through the corridors of the hotel is such a brilliant way of showing that not knowing what might be behind the next corner, is far scarier than if you were to see it. The music is perfect, and scary, which a score for a horror film should be. You get spooked at the very beginning of the film, a zoom shot over a lake as disconcerting music plays. Even people who aren’t such a big fan of horror, like me, always find this film to be fantastic, now that’s a talented director, is it not?
