The Shining

So, Stanley Kubrick again. My 11th Kubrick film (leaving only Fear and Desire and Eyes Wide Shut to see of his feature length work) is his 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's The Shining. I wasn't sure what to expect, not being a huge fan of the Horror genre (but you already know that) and having an ambivalent feeling towards Lord High Stanley (you definitely know that), but Kubrick delivers on all cylinders here, creating an unsettling, perfectly-crafted piece of work that's both beautiful to watch and highly entertaining.

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is a teacher-turned-writer who is hired to act as caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, a huge, swanky hotel high in the Colorado Rockies. Bringing along his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd), who has either mental problems or psychic powers that the Hotel's chef Dick Hollaran (Scatman Crothers) calls "Shining", Jack settles into the labrynthian hotel to work on a planned novel. But soon the madness and isolation begin to play havoc on the family; Danny starts seeing ghosts and visions of a family murdered at the hotel several years ago, while Jack seems to grow increasingly angry, frustrated, and isolated from his wife. The denouement comes when a huge snowstorm completely traps the family in the hotel; Jack completely unspools, being convinced by a group of malevolent spirits (or hallucinations) to do away with his wife and child.

The Shining was perhaps Kubrick's first strictly commercial film since Spartacus, made with a mass audience in mind rather than the critical and art crowd who lauded his later works of the late '60s and early '70s (2001, Barry Lyndon). This might well explain its largely mixed critical reputaitn, besides its supposed dissimilarity with the source novel, unread by me. Regardless, Kubrick is able to harness his creative powers, latch them onto a strong narrative with well-drawn (if somewhat over-the-top) characters, and create a fine piece of entertainment.

If the film isn't terribly frightening (but then it takes a lot from a movie to scare me), it's certainly an unsettling piece of work. There's some patter about an Indian burial ground early on, and the murders committed by a previous caretaker (Philip Stone) play a major part in the film's build-up, but mostly it's a psychological drama as much as a horror film. Jack doesn't seem to be all there to begin with (whether or not this is intentional, the casting of Nicholson certainly enhances this perception), and the isolation of the situation gradually drives him mad, forced quite literally to confront his demons. The touches of the supernatural are generally effective, with a few exceptions - the egregious, constantly repeated shots of a torrent of blood flowing from an elevator are something out of an Argento or Bava flick - but the phantasmagoria is secondary to the character interactions; Danny's "gift" is the starting point for the horror, the imprints of the previous murder shape it, but the film is as much about a group of people going crazy from "cabin fever" as a supernatural horror film. Not, mind you, that the film is any less horrific for it.

As always, Kubrick's direction is fabulous. Kubrick creates a perfect sense of entrapment throughout, that goes beyond claustrophobia; every scene is a labrynth, from the hallways and kitchens of the hotel to the gigantic hedge maze in the backyard. The snowed-in final sequences, with Jack chasing Danny through the endless hedge maze and the surreal visions of the hotel completely coated in snow and ice, are just are foreboding and inescapable as 2001's moonscape and vacuums of time-space. The music and sound score by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind (with contributions from a variety of other composers) is eerie and effective, using plucking strings and moaning chorus to create a palpable sense of dread.

If there's any major criticism to be had of the film, it's that Kubrick allows his leads too much free rein to chew scenery and overact. Jack Nicholson, as one might expect, is the worst offender; he's clearly off his nut from the opening scene and degenerates to ravenous scenery chewing and ham acting by his final scenes. His performance is ultimately more comic than scary. Shelley Duvall is shrill and annoying throughout, preventing her character from gaining much empathy from the audience. Fortunately, the supporting cast picks up the slack: Danny Lloyd is suitably creepy and unsettling as the disturbed Danny, and Scatman Crothers, Joe Terkel, Philip Stone and Barry Nelson all give excellent supporting performances.

The Shining ranks pretty high on my list of Kubrick works. With his self-indulgence mostly in check, and forced to focus on a narrative rather than a peacock display of pretty images, Kubrick delivers a solid horror film and a great work of cinema in its own right.

Rating: 8/10 - Highly Recommended