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''Darling. Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in. I'm gonna bash 'em right the fuck in. Ha, ha.''
A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
Jack Nicholson: Jack Torrance
Shelley Duvall: Wendy Torrance
The Shining as soon as it begins, as soon as the music eerily plays and the landscape zooms in and past, you instantly know this is a piece by Kubrick. I mean it's so blindingly obvious.
The film is based on Stephen King's novel and the combination of Stanley Kubrick bringing it to life on the big screen, we have before us gold.
We get a boy who right from the off is made apparent he has a psychic gift and visions of things best not seen.
Danny Lloyd plays Danny Torrance with remarkable skill for a boy so young which is a wonder to behold.
Shelley Duvall who portrays Wendy really annoyed the hell out of me. I mean here we have this strange looking woman who delivers her lines in such a flimsy fashion, and I mean some of the clothes she wears are so distasteful it makes The Shining in areas a horror movie for all the wrong reasons. Her scared disposition is believable in parts though and she doesn't do a totally bad job.
Moving on to the main attraction of Shining and yes you have guessed it, it's Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance who steals the limelight and ultimately the show. He's so insanely nuts and off the chain, my humour called for me to laugh every single time he went psychopathic. I mean he totally captures and freezes onto frame the sheer madness of Jack's character. Whether it be visions from his mind perhaps of figures from the past or real supernatural influences from the Hotel, we are treated to his mind and left to make up our own conclusions. Are the figures real or merely part of his sub conscious being drawn out? It's definitely an excuse for discussion and Jack going completely ape is an excuse to re-watch this horror masterpiece.
''Little pigs, little pigs, let me come in. Not by the hair of your chiny-chin-chin? Well then I'll huff and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in.''
The Shining features some of the most warped music which reminded me of the other greats of Kubrick like 2001 and Orange. The Cinematography especially the last scene in the dizzying maze and the start with the countryside being shown is virtually faultless.
Be it the creepy visions the boy has of past occurrences, rooms splashing with blood, or a pair of twins who were blatantly murdered by a previous caretaker. Be it Jack's spiraling maddened journey into the dark side, or his conversations with a surreal bar man who appears to be from the past and part of Jack's weathered conscience. Shining really shines as a masterful piece in the horror stakes and will remain a shining performance for Jack Nicholson and a directorial achievement for the late Kubrick.
The REDRUM and ''HERE'S JOHNNY!'' has become iconic and it's not hard to see why.
Overall I felt Shining is a work of genius that obviously will be replicated and copied by many more horror films trying to achieve the same shocking outcome but alas they all pale in comparison. The ending wasn't as bloodthirsty as I would of hoped, and the closing part with him in the picture wasn't totally understood by me. But the more I think about it, the cleverer it appears to be, like The Shining is telling me Jack has been consumed and become one with a Hotel and place that has buried an ancient angry foreboding embodiment of anger.
The shining grand achievement of Kubrick.
''Heeere's Johnny!''
9/10
