The Shining: A Quick Review

First of all, I have not read Stephen King's "The Shining" (I have started it...but have yet to finish it) and Stephen King did not like Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of his novel (several aspects have been changed in the film version). So judging the movie just as a movie, and not an adaption of a book, "The Shining" is great and one of the best horror movies that I have seen. The reason for this is the great cast led by Jack Nicholson, who is fantastic as usual and someone with whom you would never want to be snowed in at a hotel in Colorado... The rest of the cast includes Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd (the reason you do not know who the heck this is is because he made this movie, then a TV movie - yep, one of those, then quit acting to become a teacher and was essentially never heard from in Hollywood ever again), and Scatman Crothers.

Everyone's acting is great in this movie and just adds to the suspense and intensity. The music score in "The Shining" is amazing as well (the same cannot be said for the score in "Carrie" which was awful and ruined a potentially really good movie). The score adds something to every scene and the movie most likely would not have been as scary without it. It fits with all the scenes so well. Would the shower scene in "Psycho" be as famous without the amazing score by Bernard Hermann? Would "Jaws" be "Jaws" without John Williams's score?...the answer is no...don't even argue with me.

Finally, the camera angles in this movie are great and I love talking about them. We start off with beautiful aerial shots of snowy Colorado then throughout the movie there are plenty of great tracking shots and just really well set of scenes. You really need to experience this movie for yourself...plenty of suspense, horror, fun things like that...although a couple scenes I felt didn't have a point and the ending really confused me...that may just be me...I have issues following things...short term memory loss. So yeah...watch it and love it and make sure you are never alone with anyone like Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson) unless you have a baseball bat...

-Joseph Sbrilli