Released in
1980 and based on the
novel by
Stephen King,
Stanley Kubrick brought The Shining to life. It is the story of Jack Torrence (
Jack Nicholson), a writer who takes up a
position as caretaker for the Overlook
Hotel during the off-
season (the exterior of the Overlook Hotel is stunningly portrayed by
Oregon's Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, while the internal shots were all done on
Hollywood constructed sets), the hotel's sordid past and abundance of "spirits" drives Mr. Torrence
insane, resulting in true
horror for his wife (
Shelley Duvall) and child (Danny Lloyd). While on the surface this seems to be a mere
story about
ghosts and
madness, it touches on the much deeper subjects of child abuse, duality and morality.
The Shining is one of the few "Stephen King Movies" that Mr. King was not directly involved with, and it deviates quite significiantly from his written
work (a remake that Mr. King was involved with has been released as a miniseries), therefore it is
important not to view this
film as a Stephen King film, but more importantly to view it as a Stanley Kubrick film. It is a
masterpiece of suspense and Kubrick builds on that feeling throughout the film: it starts
slow (typical to Kubrick's
style) but the pace is fitting to the story. I have found myself staying up nights because I caught the beginning of this film, which never fails to keep me up for a couple
hours afterwards seeing
twins out of the corner of my eye and repeating the word "redrum" over and over again.