The Shining

“Here’s Johnny!” and he’s back on the big screen with neurotic, yet submissive wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and their preternaturally gifted son Danny (Danny Lloyd). When writer, Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson), accepts a job as an out-of-season caretaker in the isolated Overlook Hotel, built on ancient Native American burial grounds, he uproots his dysfunctional family to spend the long winter living alone in the hotel. The manager’s foreboding warning that the previous caretaker killed his family foreshadows the terrifying series of events that lead to Jack’s steep descent into madness.

As a snowstorm traps them inside and supernatural forces begin to manipulate Jack’s growing cabin fever, Wendy and Danny find themselves at threat from his escalating and unpredictable violence. Danny’s psychic ability remains all that can save them from his father’s brutal insanity.

Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of Stephen King’s infamous novel has often been hailed one of the most outstanding psychological thrillers of all time. His expert cinematography unites improbably complex film challenges such as elevators that gush blood, realistically representing psychic abilities, and infusing the film with an inherent element of the supernatural. The Shining also delivers one of the most iconic musical scores in history, compiled by editor Gordon Stainforth. This seminal classic has been regarded as one of the greatest and most influential films in the horror genre.

Georgie Rawson