Disturbingly Excellent

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2004)

I'm really not sure why Stephen King doesn't like this film. I mean, if I were King, I'd be making a bigger fuss over "Maximum Overdrive" if I was going to complain at all.
The Shining is the story of the Overlook Hotel, a huge and beautiful place where the rich and famous have been spending their summers for nearly a century. However, when winter comes, the Overlook closes down for the season and a caretaker is left behind to look after the grandiose estate. The previous caretaker didn't work out so well; seems a touch of cabin fever drove him to slaughter his entire family with an ax...or at least, that's what everyone says happened. So enter Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), his terribly insecure wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and their 5 year old psychic son Danny. The Torrances move in and settle down for a long winter within the deserted Overlook, but they slowly learn that the Overlook is not deserted at all and that many of the previous tenants never left.
Like the festering house in the Japanese ghost story "Ju-On," The Overlook is less a hotel than it is a malignancy which infects everyone who comes into contact with it. It works as slowly and insidiously as a cancer, fatally poisoning you before you are even aware of it. Poor little Danny, who is either gifted or cursed with a powerful psychic gift (which Overlook chef Dick Halloran calls "The Shining") is very much aware of the sickness that is the hotel and the many restless guests within. But it is Jack whom the hotel ensnares, quickly and easily, using his bad temper and his alcoholism to turn him against his wife and son. As the winter snows pile up and literally trap the family within the guts of the hotel, Jack quickly descends into madness and the profane ghosts become stronger and more insistent, all but shoving the ax into Jack's hands.
This is one of the best ghost stories ever put on film. Much like the unseen entities in "The Haunting" the restless dead drive the fragile living into doing the dirty work for them, forcing them to feed new souls into the already crowded halls. The ghosts are very visible here: ghastly and robotic, they take the forms of butchered twin girls, a rotting woman in a bath tub and an ocean of blood crashing down an elegant foyer. The violence is surprisingly minimal, usually presented in aftermath shots, but they are powerful and disturbing shots that literally froze me in place. The acting of the entire cast is exemplary and the hideously creepy opening music sets the tone for the rest of the film, implanting a heavy sense of dread that never lifts until the end credits roll. This is my absolute favorite Kubrick film, and should not be missed by anyone, horror fan or no. 10 huge stars for this morbid masterpiece.