Gotta be the creepiest effing thing I've ever seen

Rating: 9/10 (16 August 2015)

I'm used to the gore and cheap jump scares of modern horror, so I was expecting the scariness of "The Shining" to have dulled over 35 years.
Nope.
Psychology, that's where the real horror lies. That, and the claustrophobic atmosphere (pretty snow on the outside, encroaching madness on the inside). Hopeless isolation. And it doesn't help matters that Kubrick plays on your emotions. He just wouldn't let up with the often-terrified expressions on Danny Lloyd's face, but it is extremely effective. And between the tracking shots, movements and unbalanced camera angles, it's just watching the maestro at work, turning the screws just a little bit more. Cold and calculated.
And let me just say that, even though it's never mentioned alongside the other famous images ("Heeere's Johnny!", the twins, REDRUM, the blood), the woman in the bathtub scene was the scariest. The reveal in the mirror, her cackling, the unrelenting strings - Jesus Christ, "unnerving" would be the understatement of the year. Kubrick turns something erotic into . . . that?! Maybe it's because that's the movie's first real scare, but that scene left its mark, no question.
What a movie!
9/10