home sweet horror

Rating: 10/10 (21 November 2006)

"The Shining" is my favorite horror movie. I can relate to the theme of family dysfunction--the alcoholic, abusive father; the frightened, overwhelmed mother; and the withdrawn, almost autistic child--because it mirrors my own childhood experience, just as the family's isolation as caretakers for an abandoned hotel recall certain events when I was growing up. I don't want to go into too much autobiographical detail here so I'll focus on the film. "The Shining" has all the motifs common to Kubrick's films starting with "2001: A Space Odyssey": a cold, impersonal narrative tone; harsh, bright lighting; and brilliant musical choices, especially Bela Bartok's "Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta." The photography is brilliant, especially the use of the then-new Steadicam, which Kubrick was to use to good advantage seven years later in "Full Metal Jacket." As in all of Kubrick's films, the theme is survival in a barren, absurd cosmos. Danny Lloyd is simply the best child actor I've ever seen, and Shelly Duval's very plainness makes her all the more believable as an average housewife and mother. It's ironic that Stephen King disliked the film because he thought Jack Nicholson hammed it up too much as Jack Torrance: how do you underplay a homicidal maniac? This movie is so good it's frightening.