Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 thriller The Shining is a cult classic and then some. It has achieved a status few other horror films have, with a multitude of oft-quoted moments and creepy scenes that make the skin crawl. Following a haunted hotel and a little boy with a psychic twinkling, The Shining is a horror that stands out from the crowd in any decade.
All work and no play certainly do make Jack a dull boy, but Jack Nicholson’s performance was anything but. The charismatic, sly-eyed actor took to the role of Jack Torrence, writer and family man, and made him an incredibly believable psychopath. Shelley Duvall held her own against the power of Nicholson’s performance with a compelling take on meek Wendy Torrence with some great inner strength.
Kubrick used vivid imagery and cutting-edge filming techniques in his adaptation of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. The slow pacing builds a lasting tension and a great atmosphere of claustrophobia, with the hotel itself an inescapable, menacing chasm of horrors. Add the screaming string instrumentals and the deep sweeping classical soundtrack, and you have the makings of one of the greatest horror films ever made. REDRUM.
Published: Sep 4, 2011 01:10 pm