Scary indeed

Rating: 8/10 (3 December 2005)

Well if the best criterion to rate a horror movie as good lies in its power to scare you I must say this movie is scary indeed. I won't exaggerate if I say this is maybe the greatest horror movie I ever saw. The horror here, if you overlook a few ominous ghostly apparitions in human shape some bleeding some not but always in broad light, lies more in the narrated situation developed through a series of scenes all of them well illuminated. As a matter of fact we don't have here the usual dark atmosphere nor lots of vampires, monsters or deformed ghosts. And if the haunted hotel house when seen from outside is sinister indeed all the interior scenes are filmed in broad light and the scenery is shown mostly in light colours contrasting with the omen always present almost from the beginning chiefly through the eyes of the little boy who has got supernatural knowledge powers. That makes it even more terrifying by creating the idea that it could happen to any of us. It's indeed the story of a nice normal couple with a beautiful young son that suddenly becomes a whirl of horror by the power of some hidden evil forces. I must confess I liked the performance of Shelley Duvall in the role of the frightened but courageous young mother better than Nicholson's. Though he is doubtless a great actor and has a good performance here, in the second part of the movie he is a bit too Grand Guignol for the general atmosphere of the movie with too many facial tics and grimaces. I wouldn't like to finish this comment without referring to the last scene of the chase of the boy in the snowy labyrinth which is thrilling indeed. Summing it up, it's an excellent movie with an excellent story (inspired in a Stephen King's novel), very well directed and with an excellent cast and an excellent scenery of interiors with inspired frames.