When I think of a horror movie, I think of a film that is going to scare me in some way. There doesn't have to be any gore involved, no actual acts of violence need to be shown (the greatest horror directors know that less is more), and I usually am startled at least a couple of times. I didn't find THE SHINING to be a scary movie. At times it was disturbing, but it really never was scary.The movie stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, a writer who is hired to be the winter caretaker of a huge hotel in Colorado. The hotel, the Overlook, is over twenty-five miles away from any inhabitants and is in such a secluded area that the place is virtually cut off from the rest of the world during the winter. Jack moves his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and his son Danny (Danny Lloyd) to the hotel with him. Danny has a type of ESP that he learns from the hotel's cook is called the shining. The shining allows him to see events from the past and forsee events in the future and speak into other shiners minds. Danny's gift warns him that the hotel is full of evil and is haunted by ghosts, but even Danny's mother doesn't really listen to Danny until he starts chanting "redrum" in a strange voice. By, then Jack is a total psycho and wants to live up to the ghostly Joneses and butcher his family just like the ghosts that haunt the hotel.
Jack Nicholson is usually always a joy to watch and THE SHINING is no exception. His portrayal of a man driven mad by alcoholism, mistakes from the past, cabin fever, and a haunted hotel is riveting. Shelley Duvall pulls of a remarkable job of a wife blinded by false hope to all signs of trouble until it is almost too late. And Danny Lloyd is a delight to watch as the young boy blessed with a gift to powerful to control.
Kubrick may have been satirizing the horror genre in this film. Or maybe he wanted to make an "artful" horror movie. I'm not really sure. However, outside of a few disturbing scenes (e.g. the lady in the bathtub), THE SHINING isn't scary. It doesn't cause one to think; it doesn't really examine the nature of evil; and outside of a few famous lines (heeeeere's Johnny) is forgettable. The movie was just plain strange and wierd in a very bizarre way. It reminded me of a Coen Brothers picture, but without much taste or class. I don't really know what the big deal is about, but unless your a huge Kubrick, King, or movie fan I really wouldn't reccommend THE SHINING. It's rather dull.
