The Shining - classic horror

Rating: Null/10 (25 February 2010)

The Shining strikes me as one of only three Stephen King adaptations that are completely successful, the others being Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption. Unlike that other film, The Shining was from the start in for a substantial makeover, in this case by Stanley Kubrick and his co-screenwriter Diane Johnson. For this reason, the film has never really pleased many fans of the original book who believe that films must be faithfully and accurately transcribed to screen in order to be considered a successful adaptation.
Watching The Shining today, what strikes one are the uncommonly elegant sets, the lack of special effects (one trick shot of the hedge maze notwithstanding), the gliding Steadicam cinematography and the tricky tone the film manages to maintain between horror film, domestic drama and very black comedy. There are scenes in the film that never fail to make me laugh and others that give one the appropriate creepy frisson expected of a horror film.
The film takes a distinctly more psychological approach than the novel. While the hotel does appear to be truly haunted in the film (Danny sees ghosts, Jack appears in the portrait in the final shot, etc.), it's also possible to read all of the scenes between Jack and Lloyd (the bartender) or the Grady (the former caretaker) as the delusions of an alcoholic having a breakdown. Certainly, the subtext is at the very least made quite clear. Oddly, the one scene in the film that I recall making clear beyond question that the supernatural is at work (when the ghost of Grady opens the storage locker door to release Jack) is actually ambivalent. Jack speaks to Grady through the door and we simply hear the door being unlocked while the camera remains on Jack's face...the next time we see him he is hacking away at the bedroom door with an Axe. Perhaps he used the ax to bust open the locker door himself? In any event, Nicholson is great in the film, perhaps his finest performance.
The Blu-ray is (as expected) notably crisper looking than earlier DVD's. There is some grain evident and the colors don't quite "pop" in the same way that they do for some more recent films but this is undoubtedly the best The Shining has ever looked on video. Considering this is one of the best photographed films of it's period, I think most people will be pleased with the picture.