An Amazing Film

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2007)

This is how horror movies should be. When I first watched this, my mom was complaining about how there was no real given explanation for all that was happening. Oddly enough, that's one of the reasons I love it so much. Kubrick understands the nature of fear, and knows that the unknown is infinitely more frightening than the explained. You can interpret it any way you want to. And I think this film is better than the book: there is no sunny happy ending, or at least it isn't shown, which is good in my opinion as it really didn't fit in with all the darkness and dementia. And Kubrick made another departure that I prefer: instead of having Dick Halloran save the Torrances, he is killed which just escalates everything while at the same time being a kind of release. And Kubrick manages to make the film scary before anything bad actually happens. It takes skill to make a little boy riding a tricycle terrifying. And then there is the photograph of Jack at the end. I haven't even tried to figure that out (I've been using all my brain cells for 2001).