Movie Minx

Starring: a menacing Jack Nicholson, a sobbing Shelley Duvall and a little boy with a lot to deal with for his age (Danny Lloyd)
Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

Plot: Jack Torrence takes a job as caretaker of the isolated Overlook hotel over winter with his wife and young son, who Sees Dead People. It’s a wonderful environment for a kid and an unhinged father, who is working on a slightly repetitive novel. They all live happily ever after.

But is it any good?

I first saw this film on TV aged 14, home alone on a dark and stormy night. It took me years to recover and it’s been one of my favorite movies ever since, only improving with repeated (but not too many) viewings.

And after the thought-provoking but never-ending 2001: A Space Odyssey last week, The Shining is a blast of invigorating horror. While it’s not without some plot holes (why doesn’t the hotel help Jack find Danny in the maze?), the rest of the movie is so terrific it doesn’t matter.

I could rant on about this movie for hours, so let me do a quick comparison with the book and then summarize the best bits. First – it’s quite different from Stephen King’s novel, in that the hotel only seems to want Jack, not Danny. The book also delves far deeper into the hotel’s history and, well, personality. Jack Nicholson plays Jack Torrence as a borderline psychotic from the very beginning, a man who seems to find no moral struggle here whatsoever – in fact, he embraces his role as Crazy Hotel Pawn with gusto. King was so offended with Kubrick’s version that he made his own, and I’d love to see it although it’s been almost universally mauled.

But to the highlights of the movie. The tension is wound so tight it’s almost unbearable, from the opening aerial shots of the lone car ascending the mountain with a meticulous and foreboding score hinting none-too-subtly at things to come. Even before they arrive at the Overlook, Jack appears waiting to snap, revealing a thinly-veiled impatience with his timid (and, it must be said, ghostly-looking) wife and kid. We arrive at the hotel, tour its extraordinary rooms and watch helplessly as it rapidly empties of people. Soon it’s just the Torrences and us. Danny, with his psychic powers and warnings from a kindly chef, knows something bad’s going down. And so do we, thanks to a story about a former caretaker chopping up his family, plus shots of blood gushing down the hall and some ghostly girls.

But of course we know this whole hotel idea was ill-fated. What keeps us hooked is the mounting sense of doom, from the long tracking shots of the characters through this enormous place, to the steadi-cam shots following young Danny as he barrels round every corner on his bike. In another scene, Wendy and Danny are tiny, vulnerable specks as we look down on them exploring the hotel’s enormous maze, and we see a close-up shot of Jack’s ashen, vacant face as he stares out the window. And slowly the weather closes in…

Visually, the most horrifying things (in my opinion) are the twins – especially spliced with the the gore and Danny’s silent screaming reaction. Then there’s the REDRUM reflected in the mirror, the pages of Jack’s manuscript, the door of Room 237 (just imagining what’s inside) and the blood slowly gushing towards us (note: if you buy or rent the DVD, watch the trailer. It’s genius).

The hotel itself would almost be the main character if it wasn’t for Nicholson stealing the show. Its vast grandeur is completely overwhelming, and the concept (unlikely, but not impossible) of us being trapped in there to witness it come to life is part of the horror package. Luckily though, Nicholson breaks up this tension slightly by hamming up his role. He’s copped some criticism for this, but I think it was much-needed. From when Wendy’s reading his manuscript which confirms his nutcase status (as if there was any doubt!), to her swinging the bat feebly as Jack advances, up the stairs, to the full-blown slasher nonsense of his “Honey! I’m home!” (this play on typical domesticity in atypical circumstances is a motif through the whole movie) and classic “Heeeere’s Johnny!” as he merrily smashes down the door with an ax (“I’ll huff and I’ll puff…”).

The final few minutes of the maze chase in the snow is a stunning and suspenseful piece of movie-making, and the last thing we see in the movie – the slow approach to the photo and its caption – adds the final chilling flourish to a story well-told. The applause you hear in the hotel at the end is more than earned.

My rating: 10/10