Intense and Intriguing psychological horror film

Rating: 8/10 (11 December 2015)

******Spoiler Alert****** The Shining is a classic thriller derived from psychological instability and a dysfunctional family dynamic. Jack Nicholson plays the part of Jack Torrance, a father watching over a spiritual hotel in Colorado while writing his book. Jack gets pulled into the dark spirits within the hotel and succumbs to their control. Sandy Duvall plays Wendy, the wife of Jack Torrance, a stay at home mom and an enslaved wife. Their son Danny is played by Danny Lloyd, he has the ability to see the past and some of the future, also known as "shining". Each play a part aiding in the suspenseful theme of evil sides of humanity and horror. The film depicts the small family that moves into a spiritual hotel that has an evil past. They are to stay there all winter as the hotel is closed. The setting portrays a sense of loneliness/remoteness and a feeling of being "swallowed" into nature, or one's own mind. We get the sense of a confused mind when we are able to see the maze on the hotel grounds and have a parallel view of Jack as he stares over the maze. This scene shows Jack's obsession with control and foreshadows into an evil plot. Each of the individual scenes takes you into a whole new depth of perception regarding the work as a whole. Nicholson plays a wonderful part, as a deranged psycho who falls into the evil within a building and ends up attacking his family. Selecting him to play that part has made it difficult for anyone to remake this film. Nicholson played directly into the intended meaning and storyline of the film, feeding his character with obsessive behaviors and erratic outbursts. The Shining led way to new movies that fed on a similar dysfunction and gore, such as I Spit on Your Grave directed by Monroe. These two films replaced, seemingly sane individuals with an evil obsession that caused outburst of violence and bloodshed. The camera angles used allowed us to feel a part of the suspense and literally feel anticipation for the coming violence. By zooming in on facial expressions and body language we are able to get a sense of what is to come. The lighting allows us to focus on the areas we are drawn. In most of the scenes the lighting is dim and tinted yellow, pulling an antique look to surroundings and allow us as the viewer to feel as though we are in a past date. Nicholson arches his back and places his arm over the back of his chair and cocks his head to one side when Wendy confronts him about coming to eat dinner. Jack releases an enormous amount of frustration on Wendy and simply tells her to never come into the room when he is working, his eyes are cinched and he looks at her with pure disgust. Each sophisticated technique pulls the viewer through the experience and thrills of a supernatural embrace. They show us the psychological break down of Jack and the "shining" ability Danny has. Each scene focusing on the parallel views portrays the sense of horror within the film.