Spoiler (plot direction) One of my Favourites

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2004)

Stanley Kubrick took a Stephen King novel and changed it to suit himself and what he created is one of the best ghost (the dead driving the living insane) stories there is. A family move into a hotel so that the father can write his novel while also acting as caretaker for the Overlook hotel, a location with a murky past. The loneliness of the snowed in hotel and the supernatural force that permeates its entire structure drive its residents insane. Unbalanced personalities, psychic abilities, cursed land and a history of evil events all mix together as Jack Nicholson gives an over the top performance which moves the film from quiet brooding into a crescendo of madness. Watching his wife and son become terrified of Jack, one of their nearest and dearest is a horrifying experience for the audience. Some of the surreal scenes with the deceased Grady inciting Jack to beat or " teach " his family a "lesson" elevate the film above the average man goes mad genre and puts 'The Shining' into a haunted league of its own. Jack Nicholson is excellent and it is his portrayal of isolation maddened Jack that make this film so great. After 'The Shining' I watched, 'The Witches of Eastwick' to see if he could pull off playing Damien (the Devil), he could, and in that film he is extremely aggressive and cunning. In it we see him both being in control and out of control but we never see, as in 'The Shining', the pleasanter, family minded Jack to compare it with and highlight the extreme change into a maniac. The most memorable scene in this film is where the naked nubile young woman giving us a full frontal turns into a decomposing grandmother, scaring men with the destruction of beauty and arousal and the women with ageing and death. If you want more of 'The Shining' Stephen King's original novel is supposed to go into far greater depth explaining the child's "shining" ability, and the history that haunts the hotel such as the elevator of blood and Grady's angelic twins. There is also a 'The Shining' television mini-series available that stays more in tune with the original novel. scream_sheet