One of the best

Rating: 7/10 (8 November 2017)

If you watched the shinning not knowing of Stanley Kubrick, his style, his history in film you could watch the whole movie on a surface level and enjoy it. There is that base level "Enter the dragon" way of watching where you suspend your disbelief and just enjoy the film for what it is. If you watch the shinning like that you will most likely enjoy yourself and not think much of it but when you start to unpack it, dig into the deeper meanings you find yourself watching an almost completely different movie. The biggest of these "easter eggs" has to be the Native American themes throughout. The first hint is when Ullman, Jack's boss says the hotel is built on a Native American burial ground. From then on we see multiple subtle nods to the conflict with jack throwing a ball at a Native American sand painting and cans in the pantry adorned with chieftain heads behind certain characters meant to represent the culture. And that is just the most obvious theme. So I definitely think Kubrick incorporated hidden meanings into the shinning. The shinning is a very talked about movie especially with people like my brother who loves Stanley Kubrick so I am familiar with the talk surrounding it. I can see what the hype was about with some claiming it is the best movie ever although I don't agree with that statement it is an undeniably a classic in my eyes. From shot one you are on edge with the creepy music making the peaceful atmosphere of the mountains, an aesthetic I usually feel quite at ease with, eerie and unsettling. I think it's best to say now I went into this movie almost blind only really knowing it was horror movie and a few things like the term shine and the famous "here's Johnny scene". So this unease continues on throughout the movie until we realize jack has finally snapped. From then on it's an intense chase that keeps you on the edge of your seat until the final almost unbelievable ending of the snow-cat driving away into the fog. We then see jack has frozen to death failing his mission and in complete contrast with other films in the genre making it a welcome change.