Skip to main content

31 Days of Horror Movies: The Shining


With the possible exception of Suspiria, all of the films I've written about this month have been personal favorites. It's my blog, so that makes sense. But if one is doing an overview of a particular subject, there are some entries that must be made which may be admired, rather then liked, by the person doing the write-up. And that brings us to today's horror film...

The Shining

Y'all know the drill with this one. Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall as husband & wife Jack and Wendy Torrance, and Danny Lloyd as their strange son Danny, who talks to his fingers. Oh, and the woefully under-used and too-easily dispatched Scatman Crothers as a chef with special powers.

Anyway, the Torrance family arrives at the isolated Overlook Hotel so they can look after the place while it's closed during the winter. Some weird stuff begins to happen: Jack writes a very simple book. Wendy walks around looking goofy and concerned. Danny generally acts creepy, except he's little, so it's not so bad. Odd bartenders and freaky twin girls show up, and some blood gushes down the hallways.

If it comes across as though I dislike The Shining, that isn't the case. It's just that I view its sums to be better than its whole. It certainly has some wonderfully horrific moments: the 'Redrum' bit, the aforementioned creepy characters and bloody hallway, the mental deterioration of Jack Torrance and, of course, the maze behind the hotel. But as an overall movie, The Shining has always seemed a bit lacking.

I do think it possible to appreciate something while not really enjoying it. Thus we have my view of The Shining. It has riveting performances by the three leads (Duvall, Lloyd and Nicholson), and features a pretty nifty melding of Kubrick & King (even if the latter has issues with it). It should definitely be included in a month of horror films, but more out of respect than anything else.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Yesterday's Restaurants

The local newspaper has a feature from one of Champaign-Urbana's most legendary restaurateur's, John Katsinas, on what his favorite area restaurants were that have now since closed (or will soon be closing).  It's a nice little read, and has made me stop and think about the restaurants that have come and gone that have left an indelible (and edible) impression on me throughout the years. Here we go....
Post a Comment
Read more

31 Days of Horror Movies: Thir13en Ghosts

While not a scholar or even a purist, I am somewhat of a film snob. Not a big fan of remakes, specifically when the originals don't need updating. It is therefore an unusual position I find myself in, preferring a remake to an original, and by leaps and bounds. Let's take a look at today's feature...
Post a Comment
Read more

31 Days of Horror Movies: The Woman In Black

Yesterday, we had a lady in white, and today we have.... The Woman In Black Just as Nosferatu was our oldest horror film to be reviewed this month, The Woman In Black is our most recent. Released earlier this year, the film stars Daniel Radcliffe in a more adult role than previously seen in his Harry Potter career. He plays a young lawyer whose wife died in childbirth, so he has been raising their son (mostly) on his own. With money tight, and his job on the line, the young attorney takes an assignment in a remote village, much to his dismay. The small, closed community Radcliffe's character finds himself in is apparently haunted by a woman dressed in all black. When she is seen, a child dies. She is seen quite a lot during the course of the film. The locals get edgy with the attorney, making him feel most unwelcome. And when he is doing his work, sorting through the papers of a deceased elderly woman, he discovers the secret of the woman in black. It doesn't
Post a Comment
Read more