Review of The Shining (1980) by Jacob L — 11 Mar 2017

Although this movie is a retelling of Stephen Kings classic Novel (in the fact that there are a lot of differences between the book and the film) this still manages to capture the uncomfortable presence that the novel had.

This by far is one of the scariest and creepiest movies I have ever seen, the atmosphere is perfect as it has very little music creating a sense of isolation. The performances are great, especially Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance who at the beginning of the film is an ordinary likable hardworking father and later becomes a psychotic alcoholic killer with an ax.

This movie has a Creepy 60's feel during its creepy moments as it has random shots were it just zooms into Nicholson's devious grin for no reason, which in any other film would feel out of place but here feels completely natural as we are dragged to the break of madness along with these characters.

I loved this film even with the changes they made from the book. Some changes include the use of an ax instead of a mallet like a book, and the ending that I won't give away. But anyway these changes are appropriate, as those aspects would not work very well if they copied the book exactly.

Anyway, this is up there as one of my favorite horror movies of all time. 5/5.