Just so good

Rating: Null/10 (13 July 2001)

I have to admit, I've never been a true fan of Stanley Kubrick. Most of the films I'd heard of with him directing just didn't appeal to me. So I was taking a risk and going on the advice of my mother when I actually saw this film. I only wish I'd seen it sooner.
This is sheer brilliance, right from beginning to end. The vast open hotel, the creepy music, the visions of horror unlocked by the child, and best of all, the total descent into madness of Jack Torrance, played excellently by Jack Nicholson.
This is the sort of horror that scares you, and doesn't give you buckets of blood and gore from start to finish. In truth, it is rare. As Torrance slips further into madness, the script was often funny, and I was left wondering whether wife and child would both escape, or just one of them, or neither, right up to the end.
If Stephen King hated this film, he is a fool, and I don't care how good the book is. If Kubrick said this was his worst film, then he's an idiot. Because this is just so good.
9/10.