Review of The Shining (1980) by Emily W — 07 Oct 2013

Now, I will admit that I saw the Stephen King mini-series adaptation first a long time ago before I watched this movie. And I've never read the book. Yeah. Shame on me. But this is my second or third time watching it, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The horror of the film comes more from the world that Kubrick sets in it. While most horror movies currently build up the suspense with jump scares that just don't work, this movie uses the lighting, camera shots, and the music to build up the suspense.

As a matter of fact, the music plays the largest role in making this movie horrifying. From the very beginning, the movie was creepy because of the music. The music is very simple but just makes everything uneasy for the views.

And then, there's the performance of the actors, most notably Jack Nicholson. He just has this terrifying performance that shows his descent into madness and just makes you want to stay at least 50 feet away from him (or may be a mile).

Kubrick also throws in plenty of things to keep you up until at night, such as the bleeding elevators, and those creepy twins, and that dog..... bear..... thing. it was a thing. But those little things, even the setting with the snow piled up to the top floor and the white barren walls of the hotel, that brings the most unnerving feelings about the film.

My only problem was that a lot of things go unexplained, such as that photograph with Jack Torrance in it at the end. I think I can guess what it means, but I have no clue. I guess it's alright if things go unexplained, it does make it creepier, but I want to know "why put that in there?".

The Shining is an excellent horror film for this current October season. It's got plenty of suspense and it will not disappoint unless you are a hard core fan of the book it is based off of. I would say it's okay for anyone 14 years or older (nudity and some really unnerving scenes, but not as graphic as other works of Kubrick's).

I give this film a perfect rating of 5 stars out of 5.