The Shining

1980 • 143 minutes

About this movie

Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall star in director Stanley Kubrick's disturbing adaptation of Stephen King's blockbuster horror novel. When writer Jack Torrance (Nicholson)--who has a history of alcoholism and child abuse--takes a job as winter caretaker for a hotel high in the Rocky Mountains, he, his wife (Duvall) and their psychic young son will be isolated until spring. But once the first blizzard closes the road out, the accumulated power of evil deeds committed at the hotel begins to drive Jack mad. Now there may be no escape for his wife and son in this haunting madness, memory and family violence.

Ratings and reviews

Pretty interesting. Not scary in the way you'd expect but it was scary nevertheless. I enjoyed all the scenes of Jack going crazy, they were intense and definitely the best bits but some of the acting was very bad, especially with the wife. The supernatural bits of this film hardly ever fits because there isn't much. I think this would of been better if it was just about a guy going crazy and killing his family without any of the little supernatural elements because there isn't many.

This movie wasn't as good as the mini series which was written by king himself based on the real novel. King himself didn't care for the 1980 film. So if you want a true version of the novel find a copy of the 3 part mini series made in 1997.

So crazy to think this film was despised when it came out, and now is a true masterpiece, but it does have a problem, Jack Nicholsons character, Jack Torrance. If you read the book, Jack going insane was a truely sad thing, going so far to make you feel truly sorry for him. In this, Jack was always insane, just holding it in. But the film is so divine with Cinematography, script, and acting. It's just the film's faithfulness to the book that takes one star.