Classic drama and horror movie

Rating: 10/10 (19 January 2019)

This movie is so classic it has been parodied by College Humor and by The Simpsons, the latter in one of their Treehouse of Horror episodes, about the "Shinning" with Homer saying "No TV And Beer Make Homer Go Crazy" to Marge, while it says "feelin' fine" on his typewriter, with Marge grabbing a bat to only use in "cases of spousal insanity," lol. Apart from the "here comes Johnny!" scene, this film, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is effective in many ways. Stephen King hated the film but that doesn't mean we have to share his viewpoint. In fact, we should vehemently disagree with it, as this film has staying power and I say that as a person that generally dislikes horror films.
Apart from Jack Nicholson's performance as Jack Torrance, I think that Shelley Duvall's performance as Wendy Torrance is also effective. Of course the performance of Danny Lloyd as Danny Torrance is also good, but performances by Nicholson and Duvall steal the show. This haunting film is made more dramatic with the music score, pulling you in. I think it is unfortunate that none of the main cast were people of color except Scatman Crothers, whom plays Dick Hallorann, whom is killed by a White man. So, you could say that this film is not only about male violence against women but pure White male rage, to say the least.
The fact that the ending is ambiguous about whether Jack died or not means this isn't necessarily a happy ending like typical Hollyweird movies but it keeps the audience guessing. You could say it would be hard to connect with the characters, like Roger Ebert said at the time, after the film was released, or that the film had slow pacing. But, not every film needs or should have the same pacing, as some films should have slower and more methodical pacing. I'd say that while some at the time said this was an "ineffective scare movie," the result at the present is that it is an effective scare movie without question. With that, my review of this film comes to a close.