Classic

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 2010)

If there is one thing we want to gain from a horror movie, it's the feeling of sheer terror and this movie does just that. I watched this movie not too long ago around ten in the evening and after the movie ended, I constantly looked over my shoulder at every little noise that was made. I'm not one who scares easily but this movie got my heart pumping a good bit throughout it's entirety. Hands down, one of Stephen King's best stories.
The cast, minus Shelley Duvall, was perfect.
Jack Nicholson, as always, was phenomenal. It's amazing to watch him slowly mold from hard working father to a mad man. One of the many great things about Nicholson is his eyes. He has the most amazing, story telling eyes. You could put him in a silent movie, with no subtitles, and understand the story just by watching his eyes.
Shelley Duvall was awful. In fact, she was down right horrible and it was painful to watch her act. When watching a film, we want to get lost in it and feel like it's actually happening. Her acting took so much away from the movie that every time she was in a scene, I remembered I was watching a film.
Danny Lloyd was excellent. This kid blew me away. It's very hard to find a child actor who can reach certain aspects of a character, especially in a horror film. Somehow, the crew were able to find this boy who has the ability to make you paranoid.
The only thing, besides Duvall's awful performance, that slowed the movie down was the dialog. Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson could have done a better job at transferring the story from paper to screen. The dialog sounded as if a child wrote it and didn't flow as well as it could have.
But overall, great movie! Classic Horror Film.