Here’s Johnny!. Review on The Shining Movie

I don?t usually watch horror movies. I made an exception with this one, because of the following reasons:

• It?s a Stanley Kubrick film based on a Stephen King novel of the same name.

  
  




• The Stanley Kubrick - Jack Nicholson collaboration.

  
  




• Jack Nicholson baring his teeth in an animalistic fashion on the DVD case. I knew there?d be a very fine display of acting to look forward to.

  
  




• There were a few pictures from the movie on the back of the DVD case, pictures with Kubrick-white backgrounds [For those who don?t know, Kubrick-white (I don?t know if this word has been coined yet) is this dazzling soft-white shade seen in most Kubrick movies; hard to describe. If you?ve seen his movies, you?ll know what I?m talking about.].

  
  

I played the DVD and first chose ?Theatrical Trailer? from the menu. Now, a trailer, as we know, is something one makes to incite viewers to watch the movie. I wanted to see what Kubrick did to lure people into the theaters. This is what I saw:

Two red elevator doors. Kubrick-white walls. A sofa in a corner of the screen, against a wall. The credits roll up from bottom to top. As soon as the credits end, a whole lot of blood just pours out of the closed elevator doors, seeping it?s way through in abundance, filling the floor with a river of blood, the violence of it?s motion splattering even the top of the white walls with blood and making the sofa float from one corner to another. The camera is almost at floor level and the lens is soon hit by blood, blacking out vision for a brief second or two with it?s overwhelming flow, soon clearing up to show the same visual, now blood-tinted.

Now, the best part about this trailer was that the aforesaid happened ENTIRELY in slow-motion, which enhanced the cold-bloodedness of the whole thing. It was visually powerful. Very powerful.

After a few minutes of awe-inspired open-mouthedness, I hit ?Play Movie?. The story was something like this:

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), an author with writer?s block, decides to take up the job of off-season caretaker of the remotely located and ?on-the-mountain-and-inaccessible-during-the-winter? Overlook Hotel, despite being told the story of Charles Grady, off-season caretaker of 1970, who killed his wife, two daughters and finally himself due to an over-extensive bout of isolation. Jack is accompanied by his bucktoothed wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd) who has prognostic vision. The movie revolves around Jack, Wendy and Danny, the sole inhabitants of the hotel during the off-season.

[A little more of the story and I?d be giving it all away. I hence stop.]

The movie was awesome. The actual ghost-encounter scenes are very few yet very disturbing. The movie is built-up very well, scene by scene.

This review would be incomplete if I didn?t mention anything about the other aspects of the film, apart from the story.

The acting by the three principal actors is brilliant. Jack Nicholson excels with a very menacing portrayal of Jack Torrance. He very beautifully oscillates between sanity and abnormality. His body language is magnificent. His smile turns from a nice one to a terrorizing, evil grin by the mere raise of an eyebrow. Shelley Duvall, though loud, does a commendable job as Wendy. Danny Lloyd, simply put, is very good. He switches between the multiple personalities of Danny and Tony with absolute ease.

The camera work is awesome. Scenes to watch out for: The opening credits displaying a gorgeous landscape, the scenes of Danny cycling all over the hotel, the scene where Jack Torrance is locked up in a store room by Wendy and he pleads to her to let him out.

The background score haunts. The sound effects are minimal yet spine-chilling. There is always a feeling of ?danger?s-right-around-the-corner? throughout the movie.

The screenplay and direction are superb. The movie contains typical Kubrick-esque colors, if you know what I mean. Kubrick?s indulgence in colors adds to the powerful visual impact of the film.

The only thing that would probably put people off is the pace of the movie. The movie moves a little slow most of the time. But I thought that a slow pace was necessary for building up the story and developing the characters.

To sum it up, I would say that ?The Shining? is very much watchable. If you, like me, are not a horror movie freak, you could watch it for the acting and the camerawork and the sound. But if you ARE a horror movie freak, be prepared for this ?milestone of the macabre?, as the DVD cover says.