The Shining

Rating: 9/10 (7 November 2005)

From director Stanley Kubrick (Spartacus, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Full Metal Jacket), this is probably the best known and most admired adaptation of a Stephen King novel. Basically, aspiring writer, husband and father Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has been interviewed and hired for the job of winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel. In the secluded Colorado mountains, the hotel is built over an ancient Indian burial ground. The hotel manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) warns Jack of the previous tragedy, that the previous caretaker murdered his family with an axe before shooting himself, but Jack is unphased. Jack brings his family, wife and mother Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd), to the hotel. There, one by one, they experience the hotel's dark past with a series of apparitions, hallucinations and time-warps. Danny is confirmed to have "The Shining" (telepathic abilities) by hotel cook Dick Hallorann (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest's Scatman Crothers). He sees the ghosts and bodies of the caretaker's murdered identical twin daughters (Lisa and Louise Burns), and a tidal wave of blood. Jack meanwhile has his mentality deteriorating, having writer's block, and nightmares when he does sleep. Wendy is shocked after Danny has been injured, she says the Danny entered room 23 and was strangled by a woman in the room. Jack investigates, and hallucinates a naked woman in the bath (Lia Beldam), and when she steps out they kiss. Moments later, she turns into a hideous naked old woman (Billie Gibson), and he walks out in terror. While hallucinating, he speaks to Lloyd the Bartender (Joe Turkel) in the Gold Room. Jack also has a hallucination of a ball taking place in the Gold Room, where a number of other ghosts appear. The ghost of butler Delbert Grady (Philip Stone) is part of an evil and spiritual presence influencing him he should "correct" his family, meaning to kill them. One day, Wendy looks at Jack's manuscript, and realises Jack is insane seeing that on every page he has written the same sentence over and over again, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy". Jack threatens Wendy, and she bashes him on the head with a baseball bat. He tumbles down the stairs, injuring his ankle, and gets locked in the pantry. When Jack gets out, Danny is in a trance repeating and writing the word "REDRUM", in reverse that spells "MURDER". At that moment, Jack starts chopping through the door with an axe. Danny escapes through the bathroom window, while Wendy is trapped. Jack chops through the bathroom door and tries to unlock it, but is cut by the knife Wendy is holding. Hallorann is concerned for the family, after hearing about the severe snowstorm, and travels back to the hotel. He arrives at the hotel in a snowcat, and Jack ambushes and murders him in the lobby. Jack chases after Danny through the snow, into the large hedge maze, he loses him when Danny covers his tracks and escapes with Wendy. Jack collapses and freezes to death. The film ends with a photograph on the wall of the hotel's 1921 dinner party, with Jack in it! While this film is not very shocking, it is very chilling and disturbing, especially with the help of a fantastic performance from Nicholson, who is both fun and hammy as the disturbingly unhinged man driven to madness. His finest moment is of course chopping through the door, stopping to deliver the iconic (and ad-libbed) line, the introduction for Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show", and number 68 on 100 Years, 100 Quotes, "Here's Johnny!" Duvall is alright enough as the emotionally distraught wife and mother terrified of her insane husband. All shot with gliding Steadicam, making the never-ending hotel corridors very claustrophobic, with very good opening aerial scenes, and assisted with very screechy music by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind, this is a brilliantly disturbing horror film. It was nominated the Razzies for Worst Director (why?!), and Worst Actress for Duvall (understandable in a way). Jack Nicholson was number 6 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, he was number 71 on The 100 Greatest Pop Culture Icons, he was number 63 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and he was number 7 on The World's Greatest Actor, Jack Torrance was number 25 on 100 Years, 100 Heroes & Villains, the film was number 29 on 100 Years, 100 Thrills, and it was number 1 on The 100 Greatest Scary Moments. Very good!