Review of The Shining (1980) by Jason M — 30 Jan 2016

Have anyone with a strong cinematic sense and ask them what the top 10 horror films are, and it's likely The Shining will be among them. This is classic Stanley Kubrick applying his mastercraft to yet another genre. He has achieved the pinnacle of filmmaking in so many styles including war, history, period piece, sexual, science fiction and here he provides horror. Kubrick's patent style of low dialogue, high visuals is used to stunning and terrifying effect here. Jack Torrance is one of Jack Nicholson's greatest roles and one he is best known for.

Ironically, Stephen King hated this telling of his book of the same name. As I am not a Stephen King fan, I can simply explain that Kubrick took a typical mediocre King novel and transformed it into a work of art. Contrast this film to adaptions such as Cujo, Pet Sematary, Christine and countless others (except Carrie) to understand what I mean by this.

The most frightening attributes of the horror genre are suspense and realism, which trump the gore and violence you find so often in lesser productions.