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Mood:
- AtmosphericBleakSuspensefulScaryTense
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Plot:
- GhostLosing-it HeroIsolationConfinedDangerHeroesMind and SoulSupernatural more...
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Genres:
- Horror
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Time/Period:
- 20th Century70s
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Place:
- ColoradoHotelIndoors
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Praise:
- Critically AcclaimedModern Classic
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Style:
- Surreal
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Attitudes:
- SeriousSemi Fantastic
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Flag:
- Strong Violent Content
Does this gene fit The Shining?
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The Shining, 1980
English
UK, USA
Profile of The Shining
The mood of The Shining is bleak, tense, and atmospheric. The plot centers around a losing-it hero, isolation, and ghosts. It is a horror movie. Stylistically, The Shining is surreal. In approach, it is serious. It takes place, at least partly, indoors and in a hotel. The Shining is set in Colorado. It happens in the 20th century. The movie is known for being a modern classic and critically acclaimed. Note that The Shining includes strong violent content.
Summary of The Shining
Opening with spectacular aerial shots of a beautiful, mountainous landscape, Stanley Kubrick's horror classic THE SHINING sucks the viewer into his frightening tale with quiet, relaxing visuals--but the ominous soundtrack warns that all is not right at the gorgeous Overlook Hotel. Based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, the film stars Jack Nicholson at his eyebrow-raising best in his portrayal of Jack Torrance, a Vermont schoolteacher working at the Overlook as a winter caretaker. The glorious early-20th century resort only operates in warm weather because the snowy roads deny access in the colder months, so Jack brings his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), with him, as well as his young son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who possesses some unique psychic powers. As the Torrances settle in for the long, lonely months ahead, strange, unexplainable things start occurring in the hotel--and in every scene Jack seems to be growing a little more evil and dangerous....
Cinematographer John Alcott (who also worked on BARRY LYNDON and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) allows his Steadicam to float eerily through the deserted halls and corridors of the hotel, creating a creepy air of tension as Jack plummets into madness. Kubrick's obsessive eye for detail is prevalent throughout; the famous scene where Danny rides his toy buggy through the hotel is remarkable for Alcott's gliding camerawork and the desolate sound of the wheels alternately scraping across the hardwood and carpeted floors. Nicholson and Duvall are outstanding throughout, with both actors running the full gamut of human emotions as the film races towards a thrilling conclusion. Supplemented by an oddball cast of dead twin girls, suicidal ax-murdering ghosts, Scatman Crothers as the hotel cook, and many other weird and wonderful figures, Kubrick's film is a pulse-racing treat that is among the best in his inimitable body of work.
Details
| Language: | English |
| Country: | UK, USA |
| Release date: | 23 May 1980 |
| Runtime: | 146 min |
Cast and Crew
as Jack Torrance
as Wendy Torrance
Photos
Clips
Critics Reviews
Variety
The crazier Nicholson gets, the more idiotic he looks. Shelley Duvall transforms the warm sympathetic wife of the book into a simpering, semi-retarded hysteric.
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- by: Staff (Not Credited)
Time
It is a daring thing the director has done, this bleaching out of all the cheap thrills, this dashing of all the hopes one brings to what is, after all, advertised as "a masterpiece of modern horror." Certainly he has asked much of Nicholson, who...
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- by: Richard Schickel
Users Reviews
The last thirty odd minutes do not save this utterly wooden movie from being laughable. Shelly Duvall's performance is Razzie worthy, but the long, drawn out bits of exposition, static camera, and stoicalness of Danny kills any narrative movement....
- 28.July.2010
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- by: Brad
- Brad rated this movie5/10So-so
The story, in Kubrick's hands, is less of a ghost story than about one man's descent into homicidal insanity; and is less about the acting or the gestures than about the photography. The visuals are so well constructed, so effectively lit, and so...
- 08.October.2009
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- by: DukeofOmnium
- DukeofOmnium rated this movie
0/10
