The Shining (1980)

	Director: Stanley Kubrick	COUNTRY UK GENRE Horror NORWEGIAN TITLE Ondskapens hotell RUNNING TIME 146 minutes
	Producer: Stanley Kubrick
	Screenwriter (based on a novel by Stephen King): Stanley Kubrick Diane Johnson

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Jack Torrance	Jack Nicholson
Wendy Torrance	Shelley Duvall	½
Danny Torrance	Danny Lloyd
Hallorann	Scatman Crothers
Ullmann	Barry Nelson	-
Grady	Philip Stone	-

Review

The thing about Kubrick, judging from most accounts, is that it was almost as unbearable to be on the set of his films as it is watching the horror he creates. This was probably never more true than with The Shining – a film that has set its own standard in horror and remains the source of numerous interpretations nearly thirty years after its release. Being the one and only Stephen King/Stanley Kubrick collaboration, the story seems to have brought out something very distinct in both, without the end product necessarily feeling as complete or fulfilled as it could have been. Kubrick and King reportedly disagreed on quite a few things regarding the adaptation. Not surprisingly, it was Kubrick who got his way and made the film as he wanted it.

One of the things Kubrick insisted on was casting Jack Nicholson in the lead. The effect was predictable but absolutely harrowing, as Nicholson delves into his character with frightening conviction. It's as if Jack Torrance is the real Jack Nicholson, and the actor had just been waiting for the chance to exhibit his demons. This does, of course, take away some of the surprise effect in the character that King had intended, since Nicholson seems ready to snap from the very beginning, but on the other hand it generates even more questions about that famous final shot. Was something in him yearning to go back?

What makes The Shining a horror classic are its bold and enormous sets and scenes. They are unworldly and completely uncontrollable – for both the characters and the viewer. This is pure Kubrick: he overwhelms us and makes us completely defenceless against the vastness and endlessness of the Overlook Hotel and the powers it holds. The delicate and stylish way he portrays it makes the film a poetic work of art – in everything from Danny's tricycling through the corridors to the scenes in the vibrant Gold Room and the eerie segments in the incredible maze.

All great horror films has something inconclusive at the core of its story – this is what makes them scary. Because the scariest things are what we can feel but not quite define. This is not the same as making something unexplainable or random, as many recent horror films have succumbed to. The Shining maintains a delicate balance between the story's psychological aspects and supernatural suggestions, and it is disturbingly real and unreal at the same time. For this reason, it remains one of the eeriest films of all time.