Thursday, October 24, 2019

Classic Film Night - The Shining






The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror drama film based on the Stephen King's 1977 novel of the same name. The movie was produced by The Producer Circle Company, Peregrine Productions, and Hawk Films and distributed by Warner Bros. The Shining was written and directed by Stanley Kubrick.





The story is a writer named Jack Torrance takes his family to Colorado and spent their time at an isolated hotel called Overlook Hotel. Jack's hoping that this will cure his writer's block however the more he finds out about the hotel's dark secrets the more and more he begins to unravel and fall deeper into madness, which puts his wife and son in grave danger.








My Thoughts




Let's just get this out of the way right now, the performances are amazing. Jack Nicholson is definitely the main attraction for this movie. His acting for this movie is just amazing, he can really play a crazed man. Although I also feel like the performances from Shelly Duvall and Danny Lloyd are highly underrated. Shelly's character (Wendy Torrance) is a mother who gets completely devastated and scared that her family is being terrorized and torn apart from this supernatural force and Shelly knocks it out of the park. You'll really feel for her. Then we Danny Lloyd playing Danny Torrance and he had great acting for a six year old.



One of the many great things about the movie is there are legitimately scary moments. There aren't any set up for jump scares but actually set up. Which is what's great about the more scary moments. Stanley Kubrick wanted us to be scared by the atmosphere and the overall story. And I think other than Jack finally going mad and trying to kill his family my favorite scare might just be the Lady in the Bath Tub. That scene both terrified and grossed me out.



What also makes The Shining great is the writing. I already talked about how the story has great scares but there are also many quotable lines. I'm not just talking about "Here's Johnny!" but also lines like "I didn't. I wouldn't touch one hair on his god-damned little head. I love the little son of a bitch. I'd do anything for him." Other lines like that.



Then we have the score by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind-Tourre. What's so interesting about is other than the opening theme there's really not music here. It's mainly just sounds. Which I find quite interesting.



The other thing that made The Shining a classic film is well Stanley Kubrick's directing. There are so many shots that you'll instantly keep on remembering. Even if you haven't watched the movie in months some of those shots will still be in your head.



The final thing I'll give the movie credit for is how there's so many things to analyze. I have never seen a horror movie of all things have so many fan theories (one in which apparently Kubrick faked the moon landing and is admitting it. Don't know how that works but okay), people having different interpretations of the ending, or anything else.








The Shining is definitely one of the best of many horror classics. All of the performances are great, brilliantly made scary moments, spectacular writing, a great score, Kubrick's amazing directing, and just so much to dissect.








My final rating is A Must Watch








Alright guys, that's all for me. Come back on Thursday, October 31st the exact day of Halloween. On this day I'll review the greatest Ed Wood film ever! That movie being Plan 9 from Outer Space. I can't wait to watch, then write, and then upload it. I'm really excited why more excited for this movie than I was for Reefer Madness and Troll 2.

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