Brilliant & Terrifying Film.

Rating: 9/10 (19 September 2013)

Stanley Kubrick directed this (loose) adaptation of Stephen King's superb novel, about married couple Jack & Wendy Torrance(Jack Nicholson & Shelley Duvall) and their young son Danny who go to an isolated Colorado hotel as caretakers for the winter, when the hotel is forced to close. They are met by the head chef Dick Halloran(Scatman Crothers) who recognizes in Danny what he knows about himself: that they have powerful psychic abilities called "Shining" that alerts them to ghostly presences. Unfortunately for them, the hotel, called the Overlook, is indeed haunted with evil and violent ghosts that are determined to destroy them, and then add their spirits to those already there...
Genuinely terrifying film is supremely well crafted and directed by Stanley Kubrick, made more frightening by the sinister banshee wailing music score that really gets under the viewer's hide. Fine performances by all, claustrophobic atmosphere and horrifying imagery in this top-class adaptation; though writer Stephen King disliked the changes made to his novel(author's privilege) this film is nonetheless among the top horror pictures ever made. Once seen, not easily forgotten...