An absolute masterpiece of horror and thriller

Rating: 10/10 (1 March 2017)

I've never watched a film like The Shining. It is genuinely a piece of art while at the same time being a blockbuster movie. A profound achievement similar to that of 2001.
The name Kubrik was told to me a lot growing up. So much it gave me somewhat of an anti-pathy towards the man, somewhat like how you might have been turned of the Beatles or Michael Jordan's basketball career simply because your parents and elders raved so much about them.
What a mistake! The Shining is incredible. I can't put it using lesser words. It's a multi-layered movie which is enjoyable at each layer, making it truly timeless and versatile. It is at the same time a ghost movie, a psychological thriller of the "mad husband" variety, it's a psychological study of the alcoholic, it is a brooding Citizen Kane esque grand tale of decay of the American dream, it is a visual work of art, a most gripping atmospheric tale.
The basic plot is as follows: Jack Torrance, former school teacher, now struggling writer and alcoholic, takes a job at grand old hotel in the mountains, shut down for the winter, bringing along with him his wife and son. The plan, to get something done on his novel while earning some money in the meantime.
Things to do not go according to plan. There is something in those walls and long hallways of the massive hotel, so expertly shot by Kubrik, that something and the effect it has on Jack and his family is terrifying, gripping, immersive.
I won't go further, the basic story is probably know by most by now.
What makes The Shining a masterpiece is everything else, the acting for sure by a prime Jack Nicholson, carrying the film with one of the great performances of his career, in this one he is not the sane person in an insane world (One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest), but the insane in a sane world. His co-lead Shelley Duvall is perfect in the role of battered housewife (except she isn't physically battered), a mousy type, who loves her husband and son and finds the strength to persevere in spite of her horror and fear (expertely portrayed). The kid is also very believable and scary.
Cinematography is breathtaking, the vastness and isolation of the hotel, the long empty hallways, the massive hall, ballroom and lobby, empty of life, but full of history and menacing nothing, not unlike both 2001 and Eyes Wide Shut.
They don't make it like this anymore. They don't make em like Kubrik.