Shining (Blu-ray) (1980)

"...a complex world of incipient madness, spectral murder and supernatural visions...  Ian Nathan, Empire
"The first epic horror film.  Jack Kroll, NewsWeek
"...never less than fascinating...may be the first movie that ever made its audience jump with a title that simply says "Tuesday."  Janet Maslin, The New York Times
"Kubrick is a master of the haunting visual...  Motion Picture Guide
"...[an] intense, epic, gothic horror film masterpiece--a beautiful, stylish work...the ultimate horror film.  Tim Dirks, The Greatest Films

Editor's Note Opening with spectacular aerial shots of a beautiful, mountainous landscape, Stanley Kubrick's horror classic THE SHINING sucks the viewer into his frightening tale with quiet, relaxing visuals--but the ominous soundtrack warns that all is not right at the gorgeous Overlook Hotel. Based on Stephen King's best-selling novel, the film stars Jack Nicholson at his eyebrow-raising best in his portrayal of Jack Torrance, a Vermont schoolteacher working at the Overlook as a winter caretaker. The glorious early-20th century resort only operates in warm weather because the snowy roads deny access in the colder months, so Jack brings his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), with him, as well as his young son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who possesses some unique psychic powers. As the Torrances settle in for the long, lonely months ahead, strange, unexplainable things start occurring in the hotel--and in every scene Jack seems to be growing a little more evil and dangerous.... Cinematographer John Alcott (who also worked on BARRY LYNDON and A CLOCKWORK ORANGE) allows his Steadicam to float eerily through the deserted halls and corridors of the hotel, creating a creepy air of tension as Jack plummets into madness. Kubrick's obsessive eye for detail is prevalent throughout; the famous scene where Danny rides his toy buggy through the hotel is remarkable for Alcott's gliding camerawork and the desolate sound of the wheels alternately scraping across the hardwood and carpeted floors. Nicholson and Duvall are outstanding throughout, with both actors running the full gamut of human emotions as the film races towards a thrilling conclusion. Supplemented by an oddball cast of dead twin girls, suicidal ax-murdering ghosts, Scatman Crothers as the hotel cook, and many other weird and wonderful figures, Kubrick's film is a pulse-racing treat that is among the best in his inimitable body of work.

	Danny Lloyd
	Jack Nicholson
	Scatman Crothers
	Shelley Duvall
	Diane Johnson - Screenplay
	Jan Harlan - Executive Producer
	John Alcott - Cinematographer
	Leslie Tomkins - Art Director
	Rachel Elkind - Original Music By
	Ray Lovejoy - Editor
	Roy Walker - Production Designer
	Stanley Kubrick - Director
	Stanley Kubrick - Screenplay
	Stanley Kubrick - Producer
	Stephen King - Based On Novel By
	Wendy Carlos - Original Music By

When Jack Torrance finds a job as a caretaker for an old abandoned hotel during the winter, he thinks of it as the perfect place to focus on his writing. Even his son's misgivings about the move don't deter him. But soon after the Torrances arrive, strange things start happening...and it looks as if the spooky hotel has a plan of its own for Jack and his family.

"Well, you can rest assured, Mr. Ullman, that's not going to happen with me."----Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) to Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) when told about a previous caretaker who killed his entire family with an ax, then put a shotgun in his own mouth

"Redrum! Redrum!"----Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd)

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

"You've always been the caretaker here, Mr. Torrance."----Delbert Grady (Philip Stone) to Jack

"Heeeeere's Johnny!"----Jack (ad--libbed)

"Forever, and ever, and ever..."----Grady's daughters (Lisa and Louise Burns) to Danny

"I'm not gonna hurt you. Wendy, darling, light of my life, I'm not gonna hurt you. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just gonna bash your brains in."----Jack to Wendy (Shelley Duvall)

Variety
"...The atmosphere of the hotel is properly menacing and glamorous..." 05/28/1980

New York Times
"...Spellbinding....Nicholson's Jack is one of his most vibrant characterizations, furiously alive in every frame and fueled by an explosive anger..." 05/23/1980 p.C8

Total Film
"THE SHINING works as a standalone masterpiece." 01/01/2004 p.134-5

Premiere
"Few monsters are more frightening than the loving and trusted dad (played to tightly wound perfection by Nicholson)..." 04/01/2004 p.56

Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "[With] agoraphobic locations and magnificent sets....Truly unnerving to watch." 04/01/2008 p.72

Reel.com 9 of 10
"Twenty-one years after its release, this adaptation of the Stephen King novel -- about a family in mortal danger while snowbound at a remote Rocky Mountain inn -- still invokes both thrills and giggles as it alternates between creeping terror and black humor. Though moments of it have fallen into camp legend -- notably Jack Nicholson's axe-wielding, wild-eyed psycho yelling, ""Here's Johnny!"" as he breaks through the bathroom door, and the child's hysterical cries of ""Redrum"" (which has even inspired a brand of liquor) -- taken as a whole, the film remains a shining example of the best that the horror genre has to offer...Few directors have ever used music as effectively as Kubrick, and here he sets the tone long before rivers of blood flow from the hotel's elevators and ghosts appear in the ballroom. Furthering the creepy feeling is the dichotomy between prosaic Overlook and its tacky '70s furnishings (a riot of orange, yellow, red, and turquoise -- Kubrick was never afraid of color) and the spectral underworld that inhabits it." - Pam Grady

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
"Stanley Kubrick's cold and frightening ""The Shining"" challenges us to decide: Who is the reliable observer? Whose idea of events can we trust? In the opening scene at a job interview, the characters seem reliable enough, although the dialogue has a formality that echoes the small talk on the space station in ""2001""...The movie is not about ghosts but about madness and the energies it sets loose in an isolated situation primed to magnify them. Jack is an alcoholic and child abuser who has reportedly not had a drink for five months but is anything but a ""recovering alcoholic""...Kubrick delivers this uncertainty in a film where the actors themselves vibrate with unease. There is one take involving Scatman Crothers that Kubrick famously repeated 160 times. Was that ""perfectionism,"" or was it a mind game designed to convince the actors they were trapped in the hotel with another madman, their director? Did Kubrick sense that their dismay would be absorbed into their performances?" - Roger Ebert