Every genre has its Kubrick

Rating: 10/10 (26 June 2012)

Apparently there's no genre Kubrick cannot ace. Be it sci-fi, historical drama, political satire, war movie, film noir, erotic mystery thriller, or - as in this case - horror. "The Shining" undoubtedly has a very firm Kubrick stamp on it and made Stephen King's material entirely his own, a fact that King didn't particularly like and thus had it remade for TV years later. While the TV version has some merits and follows the book more closely, the way it is it will always be compared to a master film maker's take on the material King provided and therefore doesn't stand a chance. As what Kubrick's "The Shining" offers is Stephen King plus the necessary extra to make it legendary horror cinema.
"The Shining" shines most of all because of Jack Nicholson's tour de force performance. He plays the protagonist Jack Torrance chillingly real, making his inevitable descent into madness in the deserted haunted winter resort a frightening experience to observe. The traditional horror clichés are all there of course: stimulation of imagination, the ghostly apparitions lurking in the corners, the air of eeriness and anticipation that permeates the place, the constantly widening shadow of a deadly menace. What makes it different is the director who knows his craft, uses effective POVs in intimate scary moments, long shots to add to the felt isolation and dehumanization, convex lenses to enhance surreal qualities, so that the master's handwriting shows in every action. Undoubtedly creating a unique horror picture is difficult. But well, fortunately every genre has it's Kubrick!