Watching the shining and no work makes Jack a dull boy

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2006)

I thought i'd write this without reading the other posts because I didn't want to be influenced by them. The Shining is quite simply the best horror film ever made and will not, repeat will not, ever be bettered because mostly the makers of horror films work to a cheap trick agenda.
Now, the fact that this is a Stephen King story is all the more remarkable because, let's be honest he ain't going to win any literary prizes and how on earth could the grand master, Mr K, spot the potential of this story from Stephen King's vast repertoire? Ultimately it doesn't matter because we, the viewers, are treated to the scariest movie ever, the most delightfully subversive in terms of misogyny, that almost gets away with it because of the movie's setting. It's a bit of a crazy place to be! And we'd all go crazy and misogynistic there. Wouldn't we? If there was an Oscar for locations then unquestionably the hotel would have won it, in fact it would have won a lifetime achievement award.
The whole cast excels of course and I cannot find higher praise than "perfection".
Only one other film meets its level of perfection for me and that is PT Anderson's Magnolia and it goes without saying that that is a very different movie.