The Shining

Rating: 9/10 (22 October 2019)

Stanley Kubrick takes the system of a horror movie to a whole other level with The Shining.
The story takes place in the huge Overlook hotel during winter, where the Torrance family live through the season. Jack Torrance, the caretaker of the hotel and mainly recovered from alcoholism, takes the job and utilizes the advantage of his free time and solitude to write a book he was planning on. Meanwhile, his wife Wendy and son Danny experience strange events happening inside of the hotel. The previous caretaker, Charles Grady, had gone mad and murdered his family with a axe, his bloody acts haunting the hotel. Danny starts to have visions while Wendy watches her husband transform into a bloodthirsty monster, his solitude and madness taking over him.
Even though the movie lacks of characters, the cast makes the audience not feel bored one moment during the whole film. Jack Nicholson performance is impeccable, portraying extremely well the transformation of his character, from the innocent caretaker at the beginning, to the murderer without mercy at the end. Shelley Duvall plays well the confused mother and wife, trying to keep up with the madness of the events happening inside the hotel, though expressing her feelings a bit too much. The young Danny Lloyd definitely confirms his acting skills as he portrays a skyzophrenic kid who will listen only to his imagery friend, "Tony".
Having not read the book, the movie is apparently mostly inspired by it, though a large proportion of it came out of Kubrick's grand imagination. He lets the audience to have its own interpretation of the movie, to theorize on the end for example. He expressed horror through the use of madness changing the personality of a family member, and not overusing jumpscares and non-original scripts the "horror" films are affected by these days.