Layers upon layers, only to be perceived after multiple viewings

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2019)

Many things have been said about this film over the decades, but in many (if not most) cases people tend to overlook one key thing.
A major aspect of the greatness of this film - and why the story is so masterful - is that it operates on a level that is far more deep than most viewers recognize. It is not a story about a psychic kid and a father who loses his mind. What happens is not in the minds of Jack and his son Danny, but is presented as being completely real. This is the key to Steven King's success and is the reason why Stanley Kubrick was the man to direct and co-write the screenplay.
Jack has conversations with a fellow who'd been dead for decades, Danny sees things that happened ten years in the past. The physical bruises are real. The discrepancies in time between the start of Jack's sobriety and Danny's shoulder injury, the faces in the photograph, the paper in the typewriter, the tennis ball, and other oddities are part of that reality. In the world of The Shining these things are all real.
This is part of the fun of watching the film. If a discrepancy is seen, the viewer has the opportunity to puzzle this out. There are many other touches as well, such as the appearance of the maze, which was completely missing at the start. There is also the change in sound as the tires of the Big Wheel tricycle shifts back and forth between carpets and hard floors. Once Danny leaves the ground floor and goes to the second floor, the wall-to-wall carpeting eliminates the jarring rumble of the reality of hard floors. It is not just about how a carpet muffles a sound, but a metaphor. If Danny's traveling in a repeating circuit had been the only point to the downstairs tricycle sequence, the sound of the wheels would have been replaced with an unchanging wheel sound. Instead, the sound was a major part of that sequence. Everything in this movie is there for a reason.
As for the filmmaking aspects, Kubrick's genius can be seen from the very start of the film. Thanks to his masterful use of lenses, depth-of-focus, and other things, the view over the lake as the camera approaches and flies over the island make things appear to be completely supernatural. Without having to use any special effects whatsoever, the background never changes while the island does, making it seem like it is from a different reality. That one shot by itself is worth of study at film school
While this film may be too disturbing and too long for most people to watch more than once, repeated watchings reveal a great deal that viewers tend to miss the first time round.
As for me personally, did I like this film? Not really. I prefer "fun" films. On the other hand, its intellectual content is compelling and it is so masterfully executed that, having read the book, I cannot imagine anyone being better suited to helm this picture than Stanley Kubrick. It is definitely in a league far beyond other horror films. It doesn't have to rely on computer generated effects and from the very first shot, you know that you are seeing something special.