Heeeeeere's Johnny!

Kubrick at his finest, Nicholson at his finest. What else could anyone want? This version of Stephen King's book has almost nothing to do with it. And that's one of the best things about the film.

In 1997 King did a remake with many more elements of the book, and the film is a sleeper. I had to watch it like four different times to get through it.

Anyway, I'm not here today to write about the 1997 version, but Kubrick's version. Which is much more worthy.

The story is about Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) an unemployed writer who gets a temporary job as the caretaker of a summer-time hotel, during the winter. All alone up there with his wife, Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd) as time goes by the father begins going crazy because of the solitude and also that he can't work on his book.

Kubrick with his masterful direction makes everything about the Overlook Hotel scary, even when Wendy and Danny are playing in the garden, shortly before the snow falls.

One little thing that bothers me is that the film answers a question that I feel could remain without an answer: Are the ghosts that Jack sees all over the hotel real or not?

But this doesn't compromise at all the film. It is supposed to be scary and it is. Kubrick-like scary, what makes it so much better.

10/10