How'd you like some ice cream, doc?

Rating: 9/10 (3 November 2019)

There's perhaps no horror film more enduring than Kubrick's 'The Shining (1980)', an enigmatic and unsettling piece still debated to this day. Its reputation is, in my option, wholly deserved. It's easily one of the best in its genre, a genuinely masterful affair that's as creepy as it is compelling. Every inch of it oozes with unease, from the sets to the soundtrack to the stars. Indeed, Nicholson is as phenomenal as everyone says, veritably terrifying from the moment he appears. He goes big, he goes small, he goes exactly where he needs to. He is perhaps the definitive antagonist, given as much time as he needs to evolve into the axe-wielding maniac we all know and, ostensibly, love. The picture's protagonist is perhaps given less time but he's equally as engaging, plagued with visions of the past and premonitions of the future. His increasingly strung-out mother is great, too. Her exhausted anxiety is utterly gripping, a result apparently provoked by long and unkind shooting hours. Whether this sort of direction is worth its human cost is debatable yet, in a way, irrelevant; the on-screen results, which can't be altered now, speak for themselves. The thing is just so intriguing, chock full of mystifying moments and an ending that's, essentially, as ambiguous as possible. There's so much to ponder over after it's done. It's incredibly satisfying and, somehow, holistic. It's also brazenly unique, its horror coming not from the consequences of the supernatural but from the results of a psychological decline. Practically every scene is brilliant, every escalation heart-pounding. It's weird and wonderful. Most importantly, it's intangibly scary. There's nothing quite like it. 9/10