Review of The Shining (1980) by Jeremy K — 19 Feb 2014

When it comes to horror movies based on Stephen King's stories, I would actually prefer "Misery." But I feel like I can talk more about "The Shining." I know a lot of people get scared by "Carrie," "Pet Sematary" or "It," but I don't really get invested in those movies that much, mostly because a lot of the characters are horrible people for no good reason and/or the stories and main characters are a little stupid. And I do think the first two I mentioned are alright, but...Tim Curry as a clown? Am I really supposed to find that scary? But I'm rambling; let's talk about "The Shining.".

Jack Nicholson, in one of his most famous and most bizarre roles, plays Jack Torrance, who is hired to be a caretaker during the winter season at the Overlook Hotel in Colorado. It's months in isolation for him and his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd), but he's not worried because he wants to get some writing done. He's told by the manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) that a previous caretaker got cabin fever and killed his family before killing himself, plus that the hotel was built on an Indian burial ground. Don't they watch horror movies? Don't they know that building anything atop burial grounds just leads to trouble? But on the other hand, "Poltergeist" wasn't out yet.

Anyway, they meet the African-American chef of the hotel Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), who shares some telepathic link with Danny, that he calls "shining." Danny's a little oddball, by the way. He talks to his finger and frequently sees weird images, like blood gushing out of an elevator and two little twin girls in dresses. There's also a back-story that Jack is a recovering alcoholic who once hurt Danny; I feel at some point, it becomes a little too weird and convoluted. Soon enough, Jack, Wendy and Danny are the only ones at the hotel, as they have to take care of the place during the winter, when snow will basically bury the place.

So Jack tries to get some writing done, but can't concentrate and eventually starts losing his sanity. He wanders into the lounge area that has a bar, and meets a barman named Lloyd (Joe Turkel), who gives him some Jack Daniels. These are hilarious scenes because while Jack acts truly bizarre in his mannerisms, Lloyd just smiles politely at him; all the time, we don't know if he's really there or if he's only in Jack's mind. Eventually the whole room fills up with people; again, we don't know if they're really there or not. Jack meets the previous caretaker Grady (Philip Stone); at least, Jack calls him the previous caretaker, but Grady insists that Jack has always been the caretaker. He also gives Jack some strange, creepy advice on "correcting" his wife and son. I do like how the conversation starts off harmless and then descends into cold-blooded territory. But I do feel like it goes on a little too long and starts losing whatever creepy effect it was going for.

And that's actually a problem I have with the movie. Some of these conversations start off as though they're moving to accomplish something, but they just go on forever and I seriously start to lose interest. "The Shining" is quite long; close to two and a half hours. I don't necessarily take issue with that; it puts you into the same mood as the characters of being cooped up in one place for a long period of time. But I feel as though the story has to be engaging; too often, it isn't.

There are also just a lot of really strange, bizarre moments. The scene where Jack meets the girl in the bathtub, the moments where Danny sees the girls, the moment where Wendy sees a guy with someone in a bear costume (I'm totally serious), etc. I guess they're there to be creepy scenes, but often I don't see any real rhyme or reason. And Hallorann, who I liked for the most part, almost feels irrelevant to the story after he leaves the hotel. He has a few scenes after that when he wants to get to the hotel, but they don't really have any value to the story.

Now what do I like? Well, it's probably one of my favorite Jack Nicholson performances; I heard that King didn't want him in the role, but I don't see this movie being as memorable as it is without him. The kid who plays Danny is actually pretty decent as far as child actors go. The music, of course, has the classic stings along the same degree as "Psycho." And it does succeed in getting you into that feeling of isolation that the characters go through. I just wish the story could have flowed together a little better.

So a Stephen King story adapted by Stanley Kubrick certainly gives us something memorable, but does that make it good or scary? Well...I can't exactly get scared by it. True, there are some weird, creepy things that happen, but there's this huge degree of randomness to it all, like they just wrote weird stuff down on pieces of paper and pulled them out of a hat. Also, Jack's mannerisms and dialogue come off downright hilarious at times, even in the climax when he's attacking his family; I never quite felt frightened watching this guy. He was far creepier as the Joker in "Batman." And like I mentioned, the runtime, though sensible when it comes to the atmosphere of the story, still feels excessive. I feel like I'm harping on a number of things when it comes to this film, but I still like it. It's not my favorite King film and definitely not my favorite Kubrick film, but it has its own style that I can't deny.