The Shining Shines!

Rating: 10/10 (13 March 2011)

As entertaining as horror movies are nowadays, several of them are much more violent than those in the early years. A perfect horror film doesn't need gore, sex, or a guy with a knife, although many directors have been able to do something original in their films("Scream," and Saw" being prime examples). All you need is a great cast, the right director, and the ability to create unbelievable suspense and tension. "The Shining" defines what a perfect horror film should be.
Jack Torrance has been assigned the job of the caretaker during the snowy winter at Colorado's prestigious Overlook Hotel, and he's lucky enough that he gets to take his wife Wendy and clairvoyant son Danny with him. While they're snowed in for months on end, Jack gets to work on the book he's been writing while Wendy keeps Danny occupied. But Danny has other things on his mind. His power of "the shining" distracts him from his family and leads him to discover the many secretive horrors of the hotel, including the death of the previous caretaker and the murders of his family. And how come Jack's been behaving so weird lately around his wife and son?
Everybody knows that "The Shining" was based on the bestselling novel by Stephen King. The 1980 film version only sticks very loosely to the book, but the obvious changes director Stanley Kubrick makes in the story enhance the film in its own way.
You know right away that the Torrance family has domestic issues, since Jack takes the job while he's still in minor recovery from his emotional alcoholism. So when he begins to lose his mind, you don't know whether to think that the horror of the film is Jack's psychosis or the haunting of the hotel. But knowing that this family is far from safe right from the opening shot makes you all the more scared for them.
Kubrick's direction gives the film a tremendous atmosphere. Even the tiniest details can give you the shivers, whether it's Danny riding his bicycle over the wooden floors of the hotel or the immense size of the hedge maze outside of the hotel. The bicycle scenes, especially, find some way to freak you out. The sound effects of a wheel meeting a wooden floor and then tracking over a carpet over and over again sends you a message that something isn't quite right. Kubrick's camera angles also tell so much. Watching someone walk through the hotel from behind gives off a message that we're being followed, and nothing is what it seems.
A tremendous sense of claustrophobia is felt throughout the film as well. The Torrance family's cabin fever scares us more than it scares them since we are snowed in with them for the entire film, and there's no way to get out.
Filmmaker John Carpenter, director of "Halloween," once said that the horror films he makes are usually about the area in which you are set. The Overlook Hotel is, of course, key to "The Shining's" effect. As you continue to watch the movie, you realize that it almost feels as if the hotel is watching and waiting for you, and the hotel's appearance becomes just as creepy when you feel that it becomes a major character in the film.
The performances of the cast are a huge highlight of "The Shining." Jack Nicholson's performance as Jack Torrance has become a bigger role for him than that of his Oscar-winning role of McMurphy in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," mostly because he's just so damn terrifying. People don't know whether to believe if his performance is over-the-top or if he's not acting. Whatever it shall be, Nicholson scares you plenty. Shelly Duvall does a wonderful job as Wendy. What an actress! She doesn't even have to mutter a line of dialog. Her facial expressions tell you everything. The look on her face during the "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" scene is probably just as frightening as the moment itself.
In the end, what hasn't been said about "The Shining" that hasn't been said already? It is one of the most disturbing and nightmarish horror films ever made, and one of the most quotable ones. Rob Zombie says "You meet so many people who say 'Nah. I don't really like horror movies. But they always love 'The Shining.'" That could be a fact. It's not only a flawless exercise in terror, but just a flawless movie. Period.
P.S. I don't know what's scarier. Those two creepy-as-hell twins in the hallway or Jack Nicholson bursting through a bathroom door with an ax, howling with maniacal glee "HEEEEEERE'S JOHNNY!!!!"