Kubrick's masterpiece.

Rating: 9/10 (31 October 2011)

Kubrick again puts on display his stunning ability to craft a perfect ambiance for a film. Mainly through cinematography, but also using an ingenious score, he creates a chilling and ominous tone that resides over the entire film and thoroughly gets my spine tingling from the start. It really is this flawless ambiance that makes The Shining the masterpiece that it is. Of course it doesn't hurt that Jack Nicholson gives one of the greatest performances I've ever seen. A frighteningly authentic portrayal of a mind gone mad. A lot of people complain that the casting of Nicholson makes Torrance appear insane before the hotel gets it's hold on him, but the full circle ending makes this perfect in my eyes. Kubrick creates a plethora of the most memorable horror sequences in film history, from a man in an animal suit giving fellatio to the infamous bloody sisters. There is a laundry list of images that sear into your brain and will stay there forever, giving you chills whenever you think of them.