The Shining

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer’s block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack’s writing goes nowhere and Danny’s visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel’s dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family. “Though it deviates from Stephen King’s novel, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a chilling journey into madness, ditching more formulaic horror elements in favour of a study in madness and ambiguous evil. Kubrick was elevating horror to a different plane, removing its camp wiggeries to infuriate and bedazzle with sinewy suggestion and sumptuous, awe-inspiring technique. Technically, there is no better film in the genre. Its chills are less direct, rather something that creeps under the skin to unsettle and disturb.”—Empire Magazine “A masterpiece.”—Time Out “Essential viewing. Prepare to be disturbed.”—Little White Lies