Movie review -- The Shining

Yup, I've been thinking about doing this review for a long time, and I thought, why not?

The Shining is a movie from Stanley Kubrick, the same madman who gave us A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. This guy is totally in his own world, but bloody hell has he given us many classics!

Shining is an horror movie, but it is an atmospheric, psychological kind of horror, one million miles away from the crapfest gore horror movies like Saw, I can't stand those pieces of crap "movies".

The movie is the story of Jack Torrence -- played by Jack Nicholson, NO ONE touches this guy when it comes to portraying psycho villain characters. He accepts the job of taking care of an hotel which is in a location so remote they close it during the winter and reopen when spring comes. Jack is accompanied by his wife Wendy and his son Danny, who posesses a supernatural gift called Shining. That gift allows him to see things that others cannot, allowing him to see the true horrors that happened in the hotel in the past.

As time ticks by, slowly Jack turns into a ticking time bomb. When I said the movie is atmospheric horror, it is just that -- the movie shows the slow descent of Jack into total insanity.

Even though this is an older movie, I do not want to spoil anything. I will say this, though -- Shining is a type of horror movie that is almost never seen nowadays. The movie has a slow pace, but this is perfect to showcase Jack's mental breakdown and gives the movie a dark, creepy atmosphere.

I pop this one into my PS3 every now and then, and even though I have seen the movie many, many times, I consider it a timeless classic that shows how good a horror movie can be without the need of gore or a gazillion murders.

I give this one a five star. If, for some reason, you have never seen that movie... go see it. NOW!

Good review, Skorp. That is a great movie.

I enjoyed your review Skorp, and agree the movie is a great one, with a really creepy atmosphere. Kubrick does a good job of translating King's novel to the screen. Not many directors movie translations of King's novels work well. De Palma did a sterling job with Carrie tho'.

Great movie and the performance of we all know who is brilliant


Good review

Indeed. I've read that they're (re)making a TV series based on the Shining... I guess it was only a matter of time since they've already made a show based on Hitchcock's Psycho (or the Hannibal series based on the Silence of the Lambs -which doesn't bother me that much). Still I don't get why they feel the compulsion to remake great movies and I don't get why they feel they have to make TV series out of great movies. Especially when it comes to very unique films like The Shining that have already been made into pathetic TV series before (perhaps you'll remember that Stephen King didn't like Nicholson's portrayal of Jack Torrance so he produced a made for TV miniseries in the late 90s). Is it that hard to come up with new ideas from time to time?

Because this is an era of remakes, only a few movies, mostly comix based have sequels, so we are past sequel era

To be serious, people ran out of ideas, blockbusters don't do what they used to, I can't remember any recent movie that relies mostly on suspense, everything should be CGI mess and gore. Speaking of gore there is usually nothing to back it up like in Re-animator thrilogy - there was an excellent crazy obsessed scientist. Anyway Hollywood is squeezing money from famous titles because new ones don't make money. The Thing, Total Recall, Evil Dead are great titles and I just couldn't enjoy new versions of them. Take Evil Dead it was a low budget movie but the camera work is awesome and Bruce is good at playing chaotic guys. New one is a gore fest and again wtih nothing to back it up = boring.

I think that's why I find Frightfest so enjoyable. Yes there are some horror films that are a gore fest, but most aren't. Many are psychological, many have a Sci-fi orientation, some are very unique. Often those that use gore will be taking the mickey out of genre conventions, some are genuinely funny, others are too slapstick for me.

Maybe I should review those I've found interesting over the past 3 years of going to Frightfest.....

Maybe you've started something Skorp!

I watched the movie for the Nth+1 time, and I still enjoy it as much as I did when I first saw it.

Now tonight I am continuing in the Kubrick vein with A Clockwork Orange. Another freaking classic. Then Full Metal Jacket.

Full Metal Jacket is a superb film - it's fascinating and a fantastically constructed film in relation to dialogue and the central characters. I'd love to know what you make of it, how you read the film.

Good choices although I personally prefer Barry Lyndon.