Hello horror fans! Slick Dungeon here back to review another Stephen King adaptation. Out of all of the King films, The Shining (1980) might be the most famous. It is without doubt the most scrutinized. It’s a horror film classic made by a master film maker. One critic of the film is Stephen King himself as he hated this adaptation. Yet, it stands as film classic on its own and has an enduring legacy to this day. There will be spoilers in this review so if you have not watched it and that bothers you, check into a massive isolated hotel, ask for the key to room 237, ignore anything undead in the room, watch the movie, and then come on back here to read the review!

The Shining (1980) Background

While the movie is based on the novel, the screenplay was co-written by Stanley Kubrick and novelist Diane Johnson. Stephen King was not a fan of the tone this created. The film stars Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance, and Danny Lloyd as Danny “Doc” Torrance. Most of the film was shot at EMI Elstree Studios, not on location. This allowed Kubrick to do tons of takes, basically to the point of exhausting the cast and crew. Shelley Duvall in particular had a legendarily horrible time on this film set.

This is considered an all time film classic now but even at the time, not everyone liked it. In fact, the first Razzies in 1981 nominated Kubrick for Worst Director and Duvall for Worst Actress. The latter has been taken back after the treatment of Duvall by Kubrick was made public.

Despite the mixed reviews at the time, this film has done nothing but endure. It’s studied in film schools, there are entire documentaries about a single room in the film, one of the most recognizable images in film is Jack Nicholson’s face peeking through the hole he’s just made in a door with his ax, and even now, this film is flat out scary as hell.

So how did a film with such mixed reactions, and outright hatred by the originator of the story endure for so long? Let’s take a look and find out.

Jack Gets a Job

Stephen King visited a huge hotel and became fascinated with the idea of it being closed and isolated in the winter. And he hit on a pretty damn good idea for a horror story. A haunted hotel. King set out to make a story about falling into a cycle of abuse, addiction, and madness, and pulling your way out of it. Kubrick was more interested in the idea of a psychopath let loose and encouraged by the haunted hotel. For Kubrick’s version, Jack Nicholson is perfectly cast.

The film starts with Jack Torrance interviewing for the position of caretaker at the Overlook hotel during the winter months. For the winter, Jack and his family would have free run of the enormous place. Jack would be expected to fix anything that needed fixing and to keep the hotel in good shape. Jack is excited by the prospect because this will give him a chance to write a novel he’s been working on. For him, so he believes, the isolation is good.

The only problem? One of the previous caretakers killed his wife and twin daughters with an ax. In other words, this job can make some people go mad. Jack isn’t bothered with these ghost stories and he’s accepted for the job.

There’s More to Danny

Back home in Boulder, Colorado, young Danny Torrance has a vision. His “invisible friend” Tony who Danny describes as a little boy who lives in the back of his mouth, doesn’t want to go to the hotel. Tony also knows already that Jack has accepted the job. Danny has a seizure and ends up with the doctor. The audience knows Danny is psychic at this point but Danny doesn’t exactly understand it and Wendy is pretty far from believing it. Jack has no idea about Danny’s abilities and wouldn’t believe it if he saw it right in front of him.

Danny’s mother Wendy tells the doctor a story about Jack being drunk and yanking Danny’s arm hard enough to dislocate it. This is the first hint we get that Jack might hurt his own kid.

Wendy defends Jack, telling the doctor it was ultimately a good thing since Jack hasn’t touched a drop of booze since. The whole seizure incident is chalked up to a bit of a strange episode that could happen to any kid and nothing to be too worried about.

Danny’s Not the only One

The family gets a tour of the hotel on the closing day. There’s a bustle of activity as they are shown around. More than enough food is provided for the winter, there is a fun hedge maze for Danny to play in, and Jack has plenty of room to spread out and write his novel. Wendy is expected to cook all the meals and take care of Danny during these months.

On this tour, the family meets Dick Hallorann, the head chef at the hotel. Hallorann is played by the late, great Scatman Crothers who knocks this role right out of the park. Dick is showing the family around when his voice is heard inside of Danny’s head. Turns out Hallorann has the same talent as Danny. And it’s from Hallorann we get the name of the film and book. He calls this psychic ability The Shining and says some people have it and others don’t. Not only that, some places have it and others don’t. Hallorann basically warns Danny to be careful in this place. And specifically warns him about avoiding room 237.

Things Get Bad

Time passes and strange things start happening. Danny sees twin girls in the hallway. Jack isolates himself to write but mostly seems to be annoyed he isn’t drinking. He gets angry and snaps at Wendy. He starts dreaming about killing his wife and son.

Throughout this time Kubrik lets the tension build. It feels slow at times and I’m not sure any other film maker could have pulled off the pacing we see here. Ultimately, the long, slow shots, of huge empty corridors and endless patterned rugs, create an atmosphere of menace about to strike.

Room 237

In this story, there is no doubt Room 237 is the bad room. It’s likely where Grady, the caretaker who snapped, killed his wife and girls. Twin girls, just like Danny saw. Danny ends up in room 237, just as the hotel wants. He is attacked and comes away with some angry bruises on his neck.

At first, Wendy confronts Jack because that’s the logical conclusion. Jack flies off the handle and really does nothing to dissuade anyone. But he does agree to check out room 237 after Wendy decides it was a crazy woman in the hotel who attacked Danny.

In the room, Jack sees a beautiful woman in the bathtub. And he starts kissing her. For a moment, let’s forget how bad of a husband that makes him. What happens next is horrifying. The beautiful woman turns old and decayed and Jack gets a glimpse of what she really looks like in the mirror.

Jack gets out of the room but when Wendy asks what he found, Jack says he didn’t find anything. And then, this dude has the nerve to say his own kid caused the bruise marks on himself. If you liked Jack at all before this, here is the point where you should realize he is an out and out sociopath.

A Hair of the Dog That Bit me

Jack is an alcoholic. There’s no question about this in either the book or movie. But, he’s even more tempted when he walks into the hotel bar and is served drinks by a man named Lloyd. Maybe Jack thinks this all is a hallucination but I suspect he doesn’t care. He’s got his alcohol and that’s what he wants. He’s only slightly disturbed when a man named Grady talks to him. Jack knows this is the caretaker who killed his family. Yet, with a drink in his hand, Jack is nothing but friendly to these guys.

More and more we see Jack slip into a kind of madness. He’s either obsessively typing, having drinks with ghosts, or yelling at his wife to leave him alone. At one point he does reassure Danny he would never hurt Danny. But it is anything but believable when he says it. I don’t think even Jack truly believes it, he’s just making excuses for his past behavior.

Finally, Jack complains to Lloyd about his wife and kid. And he says he never meant to hurt Danny in Boulder, it was just an accident because of, “physics.” He says Wendy will never let him forget the incident for the rest of his life. Grady tells Jack that Danny has been speaking with Hallorann. Jack doesn’t know this is because Danny thought of the man when he was in room 237. And this sent out a sort of signal to the fellow psychic. Grady tells Jack that Hallorann is on his way to check in on the snowed in family. Grady also tells Jack his wife and child must be, “corrected.” And by corrected, he means cut into pieces with an ax. Yep, two amazing fathers here.

All Work and No Play

Wendy ends up in Jack’s writing room. She takes a peek at the manuscript but all that is there are pages and pages and pages and pages, like seriously a ton of pages that say, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” For those of you who are not writers or not old enough to have learned to type anything on a typewriter, this is a warm up sentence used to help you learn to type and one that writers use until an idea comes to mind. But it is especially eerie here because the man writing the words is in fact named Jack and his head space is really not good.

This and a confrontation with Jack makes Wendy paranoid enough to grab a bat. Jack basically threatens to kill Wendy so she knocks him unconscious and locks him in the kitchen pantry.

Now is the chance for Wendy and Danny to make their escape.

RedRum

Wendy goes to grab Danny but Jack has sabotaged the two-way radio they use to communicate with the outside world. The only vehicle that can get the two of them out of there is the snowcat but Jack has sabotaged that as well. In the hotel room, Danny goes into his “Tony” voice and repeats the word redrum over and over. Danny writes the word on the bathroom door in red lipstick. Wendy is confused by this until she sees it in the bathroom mirror. It’s the word murder spelled backwards. And it’s one of the most memorable moments in both the book and film.

We’re Running for Our Lives

Essentially, from here on out the film becomes a chase sequence. Grady unlocks Jack from the pantry. Jack grabs an ax. He chases Wendy and Danny all around the hotel. At one point Dick Hallorann does show up and he’s able to distract Jack momentarily but Jack kills Dick.

Danny escapes his father because he can make it through the hedge maze in the snow. As Wendy runs through the hotel looking for Danny she encounters all of the ghostly phenomena Danny did. Including an elevator that opens to buckets of blood filling the hall.

In the hedge maze, Danny covers some of his footprints in the snow and misleads Jack. Wendy finds Danny and they make it to Hallorann’s snowcat. This time they are in luck and make it out.

As the camera pans out, it’s clear Jack has frozen to death in the maze.

The final shot of the film is Jack in a photograph of the hotel hallway from July 4th, 1921. Jack has joined the Overlook hotel staff. Permanently.

In Conclusion

If you are the right age, and watched this film as a kid, like I did, it made an impression. As a kid I could imagine myself zooming down the hallways of a huge, empty hotel, only to be confronted with malicious visions. It was terrifying.

As far as films go today, the movie still holds up. It has a unique look and feel to it. The directing is amazing, although Kubrick pretty much bordered on abuse to get this made. And Shelley Duvall actually has a great performance here, despite what critics said at the time. The soundtrack is fantastic and the cinematography is unforgettable.

But, whenever he is on screen, the only thing you can look at is Jack Nicholson. There is a reason this is one of his most iconic roles. It’s an intense performance in an already intense film.

While I will always prefer the book to the film, this is one I would re-watch any time.

Want More?

Like Stephen King books and movies? Let me know which one is your favorite in the comments below!

Looking for a good King read? Check out this one!

Shiningly yours,

Slick Dungeon