Do you like the movies that scare you slowly rather than the ones that use jump scare? I can assure you that The Shinning (1980) is a movie that will affect you slowly since it is a psychological horror film. It also is a movie that will make you think about some details which will make sense when you have a short research on it.
The Shinning is a movie based on Stephen King’s 1977 novel of the same name. The movie tells us the story of the Torrance family. Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, is a writer who is having a writer’s block. He decides to become the winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel which he thought would help him get over his writer’s block. So he moves to the Overlook Hotel with his wife and son for winter. While they stay at the hotel they discover some of the dark secrets of there and Jack Torrance starts to lose his mental stability slowly.
The movie is directed by Stanley Kubrick who is a real perfectionist. Even the scenes that were not really affecting the quality of the film were shot more than twice. At some point, the perfectionism of the director affected the actors in a negative way. For instance, Shelley Duvall who played Wendy Torrance was having a hard time playing Wendy. Because of the stress her hair loss was incredibly increased. Not only her, but the actors and even the crew had a rough time working with Stanley Kubrick. Although it was a hard process for the whole crew, I believe it should be worth it. Even it is a movie that was shot around late 1970’s, it is still a qualified film thanks to Stanley Kubrick’s perfectionism. Not only worked a lot, Stanley Kubrick tried to keep Danny Lloyd away from the fact that he was playing in a horror movie. Danny Lloyd was around the age 5 when he was playing Danny Torrance and Stanley Kubrick told him that he was taking a role in a dram film instead of telling him the truth. Kubrick didn’t want to affect Lloyd’s psychology in a negative way.
The film contains a lot of references to cartoons which makes the movie colder and more frightenning. Not only to the cartoons, it refers to racism and some other social problems too. Even though Kubrick pays attention to every single detail, there still are some impromptus that makes the movie so much better. Even the movie is almost perfect, Stephen King didn’t like the film at all. It is mainly because Stanley Kubrick wanted to change some scenes and didn’t hire the actors that Stephen King wanted in the film. After all I can’t imagine any other actors/actresses playing those characters.
The Shinning is a horror film that does not really scare you when you just watch it without thinking because it is an old movie, but when you take a look at the details and just pay a little attention it will affect you so much more. I believe it is a movie that should be watched by everyone. I can suggest this film to the psychological horror film lovers. Even if you are not fond of horror films, I can tell you that this film is worth a shot.