Review of The Shining (1980) by Nixy — 27 Sep 2012

Pretty much any Stephen King fan will tell you that all of his books are just in a totally different league to the films. His books are incredible, the films tend to be....meh (no, Green Mile and Shawshank you are in a different category altogether).

Firstly, I think 'The Shining' needs defending. For one, it was made in 1980 and as such there are certain technicalities that are just simply unfair to compare to films of 2012. What this film does do incredibly well is make the audience afraid of something realistic and plausible (i.

E. this extreme reaction to isolation) without using cheap jump scares like so many more modern horror films rely on. The reason for 7/10 would mainly be because I felt that Jack Nicholson, as brilliant as he is, was made to be a pretty unsettling character right at the start of the film whereas in the book, the main 'scary' aspect of it is that it's a slow decline and as such, you start to feel the strain.

The book would be 10/10, I just felt like this film didn't make the most of certain aspects of the storyline. Bottom line is, it's not scary to a 2012 audience. The concept will always be unnerving but it's very unlikely that you'd walk away from this film genuinely scared simply because of how much more extreme horror films have become.

However, it is a classic film, there are hundreds of good things to say about it I just think it needs to be watched as a piece of horror film history instead.