Year of Release: 1980Country of Origin: UK, USA
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd
Plot outline: 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 (IMDb).
Time and space are elements that Stanley Kubrick toys with in all of his movies, but a near empty hotel may be the perfect place for him to explore those particular elements. He has plenty of long hallways to play with, interesting rooms and confines to scope out and a stark surrounding landscape to finish it all off. Quite often the camera starts far away from its subject and either the camera closes in or the subject slowly approaches the camera. This creates a permanent sense of unease, nothing is ever quite in focus, objects take up more space than they should or are confined to a smaller area that feels comfortable. At every moment Kubrick plumbs the depths of the landscape of the hotel, leaving no area safe. His camera is always pervasive yet standoffish at the same time. Much like its lead character The Shining never feels quite right visually and in that way it is perfect. The question then becomes, sure, the craftsmanship is great, it’s a great looking picture, but how does it work as a horror movie? The answer to that isn’t easy, or maybe it is, I’m not sure. The simple answer is that The Shining may be the best horror movie ever made, but to get to that conclusion requires a bit of complexity. Most great horror is all about the mood and atmosphere of the picture, and The Shining has mood and atmosphere in spades. It starts with the eerily artificial score, there’s no better way to instill horror in a naturally beautiful setting than by having a score that sounds like something from another world entirely. Every scene has a bit of an edge to it, even when there isn’t any malicious intent in the story the score implies that there is and the viewer is taken aback by this contradiction. I’ve already covered the visuals, so that moves us onto the acting. Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd are very naturalistic and minimalistic in their approach. This isn’t Jack being Jack, this is Jack adapting his natural persona into a creepy atmosphere to great affect. Duvall is scared and because we relate to her fear we are scared for/along with her. Lloyd isn’t a typical child actor, he is mighty creepy and never once feels out of step with his adult counterparts. All of the above elements combine to form the slow cooker approach to horror. For those who don’t understand what I mean, think of that crock pot in your parents kitchen. You watch them put all sorts of ingredients in and then walk away. Hours pass by and the ingredients slowly combine and join together to form what will eventually be a scrumptious meal. That is the horror on display in The Shining, not the fast slasher type or the twist type, but the kind that slowly cooks over the course of the movie. It cooks and cooks until it reaches its conclusion, a conclusion that never had any choice but to be great, because all the ingredients were slowly added and cooked to perfection. (BT)
My judgement: **** out of 4 stars
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