The Shining

“Heeeeere’s Johnny!” Jack Nicholson suffers from one helluva case of writer’s block in Stanley Kubrick’s eccentric adaption of Stephen King’s metaphysical horror novel, The Shining. Frustrated novelist Jack Torrance (a perfectly demonic Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker of the isolated Overlook Hotel, with his long-suffering wife Wendy (Shelly Duvall) and introverted young son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow. The fast-fragmenting family tries to make the best of things at the lonely resort, but as the snow, isolation and cabin fever begin to pile up, the true horror of the Overlook begins to emerge. As Jack’s sanity is pushed to the breaking point, the denizens of the demonic hotel start to take control and everyone is going to wish they’d never checked in. Filled with bizarre humor, jolting shocks and an ever-escalating atmosphere of pure dread, The Shining was a box-office disappointment upon its initial release in 1980, but has since become an obsessive fan favorite and a cultural touchstone that is continually referenced, analyzed and parodied. (Dir. by Stanley Kubrick, 1980, USA/UK, 146 mins., Rated R)