Among the best horror films ever made

Rating: 10/10 (5 September 1999)

I think the makers of such effect-induced, plotless, pointless movies like the more recent "The Haunting", "Deep Blue Sea", "The Faculty", and many other such films should be forced to sit down and watch this movie, maybe with "Vertigo" and "North by Northwest". Kubrick can draw more from a small group of actors, a non-alive house (except maybe the elevators), and axe and a small, repetitive manuscript than most directors these days get from $100 million dollars.
Granted, this movie couldn't have been made without Jack Nicholson. This may be a backhanded compliment, but no other actor has the ability to play a creepy, crawling-under-your-skin, all out psycho like Jack Nicholson. This is one of his best performances, and here he is in expert hands.
The whole cast and set is made to give the perfect effect. There is very little actual violence in this movie, but it's ten times scarier than most of the so-called "horror" films we see out today. Kubrick is a master at using suspense to a real effect. It seems that any type of movie he made, it became one of the definitive movies of it's genre, and this is no exception.