Good film! Butis it really worth the status of `Horror Classic'??

Rating: 4/10 (5 May 2004)

Stanley Kubrick's the Shining is a powerful cinema experience and a fine adaptation of Stephen King's novel, but I think the high status it enjoys is rather questionable. Too easily this film is labeled as the `scariest' horror film ever and many of the sequences are a bit overblown, if you ask me. Recently some website published the hundred scariest movie moments and multiple parts of the Shining positioned high in this list. True, legendary sequences like Jack Nicholson screaming `Heeeeeeeeere's Johnny!' and the little boy approaching room 237 on his tricycle look impressive when seen separate, but when you watch this film as a wholesome (like the way it was intended, naturally) it loses some of its power. I think Stanley Kubrick himself is to blame for this. Often during the Shining, he undercuts the tension himself by showing repetitive images and underdeveloped ideas. The cause of Jack Torrance's madness isn't explained like it should be and comes a bit sudden (in case you're not familiar with the plot: Jack Nicholson's character suffers from a writer's block and accepted a job as caretaker in a famous Colorado hotel, during the dead-of-winter. Along with his wife and son, he spends the winter up there while the isolation and impact of previous drama's that took place there slowly cause Jack to go insane and threat his family with an axe). Not a bad word about Stanley Kubrick and his (almost) flawless career, but I feel he's to blame for the partially missed opportunity that is The Shining. All the other necessary elements to create a horror milestone are there. The setting is uniquely isolated and perfect for the story. The cinematography (by John Alcott, who previously worked with Kubrick for Barry Lyndon and A clockwork Orange) simply is outstanding and the acting is GREAT! That surely has to be said: Jack Nicholson gives one of his most amazing performances of his already brilliant career. Really, Jack's facial expressions often make you wonder whether he isn't the reincarnation of the devil himself! Especially in The Shining, he's the kind of guy you don't want to mess with! Good film and certainly recommended butthink twice before ranking it as `essential'