Originally written October 31, 2012

Oh boy do I love this movie. It really is notorious among horror movies, so chances are, if you haven’t seen The Shining, you’ve probably at least heard of it. It was based on a Stephen King novel, and adapted to screen by Stanley Kubrick, who is just an amazing filmmaker. But if you haven’t seen The Shining, you need to. If I had to pick any horror movie to be my favorite, it would be this one.

In The Shining, Jack Nicholson takes on the role of Jack Torrance, an ex-school teacher who wants to be a writer. Jack takes on the job of caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, where he, his wife Wendy, and his son Danny must stay for the entire winter by themselves while it’s closed down and look after the place. Upon taking the job, Jack is warned about an incident that happened there years earlier, where an old caretaker went crazy from isolation and murdered his family with an ax. Jack thinks he’ll be just fine, but then the tale unfolds of a man going crazy from isolation.

The Shining isn’t scary in the sense of monsters or ghosts or anything like that. Instead, it’s a more realistic terror in the sense of the threat of a family member trying to harm you. Because of this, the movie doesn’t really have “jump scares.” Instead, it has build-up. It’s a slow start (not in a bad way though), and things start to get more intense as the movie goes. This is an amazing piece of filmmaking just because of the mood it’s able to set. Kubrick takes scenes that normally wouldn’t be scary, but MAKES them scary/creepy, either through the use of fantastic music, or interesting camerawork. An example of that, Jack’s son Danny is riding through the halls of the hotel, and the camera is following right behind his tricycle. So, you turn each corner with him, and it’s the anticipation of wondering if there’s going to be something around the next corner that’s terrifying. It’s really well done.

I could easily go on and on about how great this movie is, but to keep explaining it would be to say too much. All in all, this is just a flawless horror movie in my book. Fantastic acting, directing, music, and everything else in between. I was blown away when I saw this movie for the first time, and since then it’s been sort of a tradition of mine to watch it every year on Halloween. I can’t get enough of it, so if you give this a shot you’re in for a real treat.

5/5