One of the better horror films

Rating: 8/10 (18 October 2012)

The Shining has been rated as one of the best horror flicks of its time and a Stanley Kubrick classic. It was a first of its type horror/mystery movie and brought cinematic novelty for the audience of 1980.Though I do believe its an excellent work of cinema, but I would not rate it as Mr.Kubrick's best, or comparable to classics from his stable, like "A Clockwork Orange" or "full metal jacket".
That does not go to say that The Shining did not have its moments of brilliance. The aspects of this movie which I appreciate are the plot (family in a haunted hotel), cinematography, background score, sound editing, direction & Jack Nicholson's maniac portrayal of the central character.
Stephen king had chosen a perfect plot for his novel - isolated hotel, dark winter, no one to help, just the caretakers to deal with the supernatural and of course, with themselves. Gives me the shivers. The story and direction had a lot of grip and flow up to the point where Jack started to lose his mind (had a nightmare) - the build up was really nice. I have come to realize that the secret to a good mystery movie is if it continues to unravel bit by bit, but never giving the viewer the whole story, or the climax. As I said, the build up to the climax is critical. If it has a shocking end, all the more better. The shining had many such moments in the first half - psychic son, hotel with a murder history, a busy hotel suddenly shown as a big empty mansion, room 237 conversation between the cook and Danny, the twin girls being seen a couple of times and maybe a few more. This build-up was ably aided by haunting music & good camera-work. But somewhere the plot was lost. Some of the scenes were quite flimsy & cheesy for an audience like me - like the wave of blood coming from the lift and flowing across the lobby. Or the old lady with boils (or just bad skin) which Jack tried to kiss. Or Jack's multiple encounter with imaginary people, and maybe the real ghost of Delbert Grady. Such scenes actually led to more bitterness than pounding heartbeats. But nonetheless, Mr.Kubrick was successful in maintaining the plot based madness and continued it till the end. Maybe I wanted to get more chills.
The background score, sound editing and the cinematography deserve a special mention. The background music was haunting for sure and added that extra dark-wintery feeling to the already freezing winter.The same played from the opening shot of car traveling in the mountains - beautiful scenery, haunting music. Did set the mood. The sound editing was fabulous. Its not like the clichéd tricks of sudden loud noises, but a potent combination of silence and background sound. The cinematography was classic horror style. Camera-work had this quality of making the viewer expect that there is something around the corner, which the camera will see at the same time as the character in the scene. It builds up the feeling of the "unexpected"and magnifies the shock factor. Its a feeling which we all are familiar with when we close our eyes while watching a horror flick to avoid the shock. I know I did it a couple of times! The awesome co-ordination of sound editing and cinematography could be seen in a scene where the kid is riding his tri-cycle in empty corridors of the hotel - nice zippy work with just the background noise of tyres running on the wooden floor (and carpet) and camera behind the kid. Really thought the twins were just around the corner!
All the above needed a central character for anchoring - Mr.Nicholson obliged. He is an artist who uses his face and various features in a brilliant manner. His expressive eyes, broad smile, ever moving eyebrows, deep crackling voice - all tools for a top class entertainer like Mr.Nicholson. He displayed cold frustration as effectively as outrageous anger. Portrayal of a frustrated madmen who slowly looses his mind was very detailed and must have resulted from a lot of homework.
All in all, The shining had a lot of things which went right. For 1980, Mr.Kubrick did deliver a never-seen-before cinematic horror experience. But maybe having seen current horror flicks like "The Ring" and "The Grudge", I was expecting more chills. At the time of this review, IMDb rates The shining @ 8.5. I rate this as 7.5