The most terrifying film I have ever witnessed.

Rating: 10/10 (17 May 2012)

The twin girls that haunt little Danny's visions in the corridors of the Overlook are not ghostly spectres that waft through walls or dissipate into thin air. They are not glimpsed running away, suggested by muffled giggling, or implied though distant sing-song voices. Like many other unsettling images in The Shining, they stand out starkly in garish colours against the equally bright and lurid background of the Overlook's interior. As with the twins, the symmetry of the Overlook's design and decor is where much of the dread in The Shining resides. The layout of the rooms, the uniformity of the corridors, the control of colour and light all contain a pattern of fear that unravels as Kubrick's camera passes through.
The genius of this interior is that it is at odds with the hotel's snowbound and castle-like exterior. The Overlook's insides are pristine, not in a state of Gothic decay and in fact, are protected from the elements by Jack Torrance and the caretakers that have gone before him. The horror within is therefore also preserved. It remains fresh and powerful. Such is its power, that the ghosts of the Overlook will be ultimately seen by all. Not just Torrance (who is mad) or Danny (who is psychic) but also by Wendy who is neither. The viewer is no more spared and is exposed to several types of terror; from the creeping insidiousness of the surroundings, to the raw violence and the awesome displays of fear conveyed on the faces of Danny and Wendy.
Accompanied by a demented score, The Shining spirals downwards with visceral acceleration towards a living nightmare where the corridors literally overflow with blood. It is as if the Overlook has ruptured at the knowledge of its own evil. Truly frightening in its starkness, there is no escape as we are pursued with Danny though the labyrinthine hotel towards inevitable horrific punctuations; Grady's sentinel daughters, the red elevator doors, room 237 and finally (and fittingly) the Overlook Maze.