"HEEEERE'S JOHNNY!!!"... Brilliant.

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2005)

This is the best directed film ever made. The style used by Stanley Kubrick is always fantastic but for this film I think he overwhelmed all expectations, he uses the camera with such eerie bluntness that the effects are astounding. The props are unbelievable and I just cannot comprehend how dedicated he must have been to take over 60 shoots for some of his scenes, and also how he could have been bothered to use the huge prop of reams and reams of paper that read "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy" in many different styles, this must have taken a lot of persistence to have carried on writing it.
Jack Nicholson plays his part to perfection, as the winter caretaker of an isolated hotel in the Rocky Mountains, in which the mysterious ghosts and other supernatural inhabitants begin to take over his soul and turn him against his family, in which to the latter part of the film he tries to murder. His family is played brilliantly too by Shelley Duvall and 5 year old Danny Lloyd as his son who possesses a special ability of telepathy in which he can communicate over long distances through his mind, this is The Shining. The direction is well highlighted by these two actors as it seems that they abandon completely what would normally be an impulse to laugh, in exchange for believable, realistic seeming terror. It is fantastic.
Scatman Crothers makes a dignified approach as a man facing the horrors of the overlook hotel, and a man who feels deeply for his Shining friend who is trapped amongst the horrible images of the overlook that only he can see, for whom he must save from the forces at work.
Philip Stone is also brilliant as a previous caretaker in which the hotel has claimed, and he goes around persuading Jack to revolt against his family. Joe Turkel is Lloyd the barman and he pulls of one of the most eerie performances in the film as he uses calm and collected wordage to encourage Jack to sell his soul for the drink he craves, that will send him back to his old violent ways, and ensure that the hotel claims the most powerful and important soul of all, his son Danny, The Shiner.
With a brilliant script loosely adapted from a Stephen king bestseller, this film uses the material to perfection, yet does not copy it outright. It uses the eerie surroundings of the ornate hotel to create the best atmosphere of any horror film ever and it is this atmosphere, that is backed up by the best horror film soundtrack of all time.
Honestly if you have not seen it and you want to scream, and at the same time be overwhelmed by the originality of the blunt direction, then get this film watch it and I guarantee you WILL enjoy it, with its most memorable quotes and most fantastic acting quality I can definitely say this is the best directed film and best horror film ever made. Hail Stanley Kubrick, for this he shall always be remembered.