The Shining
Loosely adapted from a classic Stephen King novel, The Shining tells the story of a family of three who move into an isolated hotel in Colorado. Set on curing a case of writer’s block, Jack Torrance keenly applies for the job of winter caretaker and is able to move into the Overlook Hotel with his wife Wendy and son Danny. It isn’t long before terrifying visions begin to consume the family and Jack is overcome by a madness that drives him to plot a brutal double murder. Only Danny’s psychic premonitions can help save the family from irreparable damage as the hotel lures their patriarch into complete psychosis.
The Shining is a classic Amityville-style horror that takes cabin fever to another level as a trio of characters experience complete isolation within the confines of a haunted hotel. Suggested to be on the cusp of a bitter divorce, Wendy and Jack are at the centre of a story that tears apart the ideals of the American family unit. There’s no beautiful blonde wife, businessman husband or white picket fence. Everything is off-kilter and sinister, with even the simplest of interactions tainted with an underlying sense of nightmare. It’s like hearing a constant scream in the distance; a feeling that only increases as the family are flung into an echo chamber of madness.
Despite the hotel itself being at the foundation of the story, Stanley Kubrick takes great pleasure in throwing his actors into the meat grinder as he squeezes a maniacal performance out of Jack Nicholson while pushing the quivering Shelley Duvall to breaking point. The Shining’s spacious setting works wonders on its themes as scenes feel so expansive that they become uncanny. You can practically feel the air whistling through corridors and bedrooms and there are so many twists and turns that it’s easy to forget the surprises that are around every corner, even after multiple viewings.
Suspense is something that the film never loses and many sequences are so terrifying that they become hypnotic. It’s a story that retains many mysteries, with so many horror elements left ambiguous that it’s more intriguing than disturbing. Although the film strays greatly from the intentions of the novel (something that writer Stephen King has openly criticised on many occasions), it’s a classic in horror cinema that still works wonders on audiences today. The film is a masterclass in outrageous storytelling that takes its original ideas to another level on the big screen.
