A Brilliant Feminist Horror Ride

Rating: 9/10 (15 February 2009)

Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is a guy with a past history of alcohol and child abuse. He is a writer who takes a job as winter caretaker of a rocky mountain hotel, even though he intends for his wife to do all the work while he writes a novel. We are told that he "used" to be a teacher and we are left to wonder if more abusive behavior towards kids is why he left the profession.
Unknown to Jack, his son Danny is a gifted psychic and knew even before he was formally offered the job that there was something very bad about the Overlook Hotel. But Torrance is blind to the true character/needs of his wife and child and takes the job anyway.
We get the usual forewarning about dire events ahead. The son doesn't want to go, the manager mentions it is built on an old Indian burial ground and that a previous caretaker went nuts there (he doesn't mention the violence he perpetrated against his wife and children).
Scatman Crothers is the head chef at the hotel and recognizes Danny Torrance as psychic at once, as he is psychic himself. Danny never met another psychic and they form a bond. Crothers does a great job in this role.
As the isolation of the remote snowed in location seeps in, Danny starts to recognize the psychic horrors in the place as does Jack and Wendy Torrance. Danny tries to get help by psychically contacting Crothers character and Wendy turns out to be far stronger than she appears in defense of her child against the now insane Jack and the evil that has infected him. The evil characters even complain to Jack that Wendy is stronger than he knew.
Reality and the evil alternate universe that lives at the hotel begin to fuse even for the very grounded Mom, Wendy. She vividly portrays her horror and her determination to save her child and herself.
People focus on Jack Nicholson's character but Shelley Duval and the child actor to me are the real focus of this movie. They show they have strengths and resilience to evil that in the end save their lives from the abusive and easily susceptible to evil Jack.