The Shining (1980) Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Joe Turkel, Danny Lloyd, Phillip Stone, Anne Jackson, Tony Burton, Billie Gibson, Lia Beldam, Barry Dennen, David Baxt, Manning Redwood, Alison Coleridge, Jana Sheldon, Kate Phillips, Robin Pappas, Burnell Tucker, Norman Gay.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
Runtime: 90 minutes.
Rating: (Horror Violence, and Coarse Language)
"There ain't nothin' in room 237"
One of the most deeply disturbing horror films in the history of American cinema.
Within the isolated and claustrobic setting of in the Colorado Rockies in a lush mountainside hotel resort during its five month offseason, alcoholic writer Jack Torrance (Nicholson) works as caretaker. Having relocated from Vermont with his spectacularly homely wife Wendy and flaky son Danny (who has a creepy imaginary friend named Tony) he is looking for a change. It is his dreamjob and would be for many of us given the immaculate living arrangement it provides.
Since Jack is a writer he also likes the potential it has for quiet and isolation to concentrate on his prose. He has been hired after an excellent interview and things look too good to be true. But he is informed of a couple of troubling facts relating to the hotels past. He is told that it was host to a multiple murder spree and was built over indian burial grounds (check me in!).
The family is haunted by the memory of an axe murder that happened in same hotel some years before and numerous other bizarre phenomena. Jack goes completely insane. But he was a little bit out there before taking up residence in the hotel anyway.
Jack, as we hear has a history of violence and alcoholism. Like most writers he is less difficult to deal when having a bout of writers block than he is when he is actually inspired and flowing with ideas. His wife probably looked a lot better back when he was drinking and seemed a lot less irritating. Interupting his work the way she does strikes a bigger nerve than usual.
Atmospheric shots of panoramic vistas give way to close-ups that are surreal in their ugliness and the composition is well accentuated by a kind of clash of light and shadow. I don't know if enough fans of this movie appreciate the production value of the deliciously desolate Overlook Hotel set. Its own depth and balance give an added dimension to telling the story that is essential to communicating the isolation of the characters and situation.
This mainstream horror classic captures the feel of an eerie, hideous nightmare. Genuinely eerie all of the elements including the remarkable soundwork capture a very ominous and creepy ambience. It is indeed much more effective than most of the other big budget studio efforts made for the genre that I have ever seen. Critics at the time and since have lauded the production, effusive in saying this was a frightening film. It is not difficult to see why this feature stands out amongst other mainstream titles in the genre. The big studios have never had much imagination when it comes to horror.
There are references to American history and continuously we see exemplars of Americana within the background of the frames. But this is not your typical American horror film with neat and tidy violence. It is in fact very much like the kind of Giallo that Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci were making in Italy around the same time.
This however had all of the advantages that go with an American production including an exorbitant budget (compared with Italian films) and extravagant visual effects that boarder on CGI. Stark images of exceptional quality within the genre of horror are to be seen. The blood spatters outdo the Italian Giallo masters.
The film nor the written work which inspired it was not intended to be a reflection of reality but instead to be a reflection of real nightmares which trigger a sense of familiarity within the subconscious of the viewer.
What the historical references seem to suggest is that American history is rife with incidents of utterly horrific bloodshed that could make any horror film look like a folk dance. The Donner party, the massacres of Navajo and Apache people are all touched upon briefly yet danced around within the foreshadowing.
If Nicholson is more creepy than usual here take note of how he is shaving his eyebrows. His tour de force performance carries a psychological thriller in which the more superficial aspects of horror are minimised. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy so he avoids that here.
Nicholson has had a tendency to work with great directors he had not yet worked with and to do so in films based upon the solid ground of popular fiction. As a result many of his films are a combination of the two.
Notes:
Based on the very best of Stephen King's novels. Hollywood is pretty much willing to adapt anything King has written for the screen because of the early successes of films like this one. One of these days they might make a movie from one of his old shopping lists.
Remade for TV in a vastly inferior version with Steven Weber in the Nicholson
role.