A, um, Shining Example of the Horror Genre

Rating: 10/10 (24 June 2007)

What a terrific film. When you let Kubrick have his way with a story like this one, you can almost guarantee success. The book isif possibleeven scarier than the movie version because there's a frightening topiary scene and a scarier subplot that Kubrick didn't or couldn't explore. But the movie is still one of the best horror flicks ever made. I think it works so well because the Torrence family is so isolated. They are essentially beyond help once the snows come, and if you've ever traveled on mountain roads on which you may run into a forest service gate blocking the roads in the winter, you know what that isolation feels like. Go past that gate, and they may never find you. So I think that's what is effective in the original book, and Kubrick masterfully employs that theme throughout (isolation of the family from society, isolation of the family members from one another, and isolation of the individual). Between Danny on the tricycle, dead twins, bleeding hallways, a creepy dead bartender, one of the scariest still photographs ever, the decaying chick in the bathtub, Jack hacking through the bathroom door, Dick getting axed in the chest, Wendy seeing Jack's "novel," and the final scene with him frozen in the maze, the film has more than its share of scary moments. Wow.