Mesmerizing Horrific Power Makes For One of the Most Terrifying Films of All Time

Rating: 10/10 (28 October 2015)

Stephen King didn't care for Stanley Kubrick's adaption of his novel "The Shining" at first, but appears to have warmed to it, particularly citing it as an important contribution to the horror film genre in his nonfiction book "Danse Macabre". There are perhaps a half-dozen horror films which terrify on one level and yet explore greater, deeper literary themes. Horror often forces the introspection concerning the nature of the inner and outer realities of human existence. William Friedkin's the Exorcist is one such example, which explores the issues of religious faith within the context of a priest determined to save a girl possessed by a demon. "Interview with the Vampire" is another, in which the "monster" is all too human, exhibiting all the emotions of their mortal counterparts rather than being deranged and mindless. And "The Shining" directed by Kubrick is another, which explores the vulnerability of the family unit, confronting forces far more powerful than itself, and whether that unit can survive.
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is a writer with an alcohol problem hired to be a caretaker for the Overlook Hotel during its off-season months in the Midwest. Towards the end of the interview for the job, he learns that something evil had occurred many decades previously by one of the caretakers. Torrance resolves the same won't happen to him. He and his family move to the hotel with the purpose of taking care of the hotel allowing Jack to work on his writing projects. Jack, his wife Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) travel to the Rocky Mountains where the hotel resides on the cusp of the winter months. When they arrive, the hotel is about to close for the winter and Torrance will maintain the hotel while it lays dormant. The manager offers them a brief tour before everything is closed down and the Torrance's are left with only one other employee and the large ominous building, which rings of hotels made 100 years ago in a by-gone era.
From the get-go, the Overlook Hotel seems strange. After the regular employees and management have left for the winter, the hotel creaks and moans, as if stirring from a long sleep. One of the fascinating elements of the film is that the hotel itself is a character as interesting as the human characters. The only other employee who stays during the Winter is Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers). Hallorann befriends Danny and learns the boy has a secret: he is receptive to ESP, which the older man calls "Shining". The boy senses through his ability something is wrong with the hotel; it has an evil presence and energy. He begins to see horrific images throughout the hotel. In one of the most frightening images ever portrayed on film, Danny, while riding his big-wheels around the hotel encounters a ghostly apparition. And as the hotel's secrets begin to reveal themselves, so is the family forced to confront its omnipresence whose malevolence targets the Torrance's.
This is one of the most astonishing and terrifying films ever made, and not for the feint of heart. White some other writers and filmmakers, like Clive Barker and Anne Rice, can certainly disturb through their works of Dark Fantasy, King's visions have the ability to terrify readers and film-goers almost like no other. When apparitions appear in a King work, they are not just spooky, they are blood-curdling monstrosities forcing all those they encounter to face death at its most horrid and gruesome. Kubrick's The Shining is perhaps the essence of King's horrific vision realized on the large screen. Best to watch this one with a loved one, hopefully with a blanket so you can hide yourself from the supernatural baddies. Of course, luckily, those ghostly creatures can't find you if you're hiding within a blanket!