Movie Review, The Shining:

It took me a long time to actually watch The Shining but when I was at work I noticed that the electronics department had horror movies on sale for Halloween and one of them just so happen to be The Shining. The movie starts with the camera "flying" over the lake of Colorado with very eerie music playing which I did enjoy cause it made the movie more creepy. Jack Torrence was on his way to the Overlook Hotel for a interview to be the new caretaker from November to May. Meanwhile back at home Jack's wife Wendy was telling their son Danny about moving to the Overlook Hotel if his dad got the job but Danny wasn't too pleased with this idea and tells his mom that his imaginary friend Tony doesn't want them to move there. Jack's interview goes great and he gets the job as caretaker and one of the workers tells Jack about the old caretaker in the 70's how he suddenly had a mental breakdown and murdered his wife and his two daughters by killing them with an axe.

If someone told me that someone snapped and killed his family while staying at a hotel I wouldn't even want to go into that hotel let alone live there but apparently that didn't scare him since he took the job. While Jack is still at the hotel Danny starts brushing his teeth while talking to his friend Tony then suddenly he starts to have weird flashback of things that happened before but he doesn't know what it is. After that he had a spazz attack so Wendy called the doctor to come check him out but she didn't really find anything wrong with him that's when Wendy and the doctor started talking about his past and how Jack would drink a lot and one night he got drunk and hurt Danny's arm. They get packed up and head off to the Overlook Hotel, once they got there the guy who interviewed Jack was there and gave the whole family a tour of the hotel. Dick Hallorann the hotel's chef offered to give Danny some ice cream while they showed Wendy the other part of the hotel. While Danny was eating the ice cream Dick talks to him about how he was able to talk to his grandmother without even opening his mouth and his grandmother called it "The Shining"

About a month or so goes by and Jack starts showing signs of anger and Danny's flashbacks start getting worse and more intense. Every now and then he would see two twin girls and then he would see them laying on the floor dead with the whole hallway covered in blood with an axe by their body and it shows blood rushing out of the elevator which in fact was my favorite part of the movie. Time goes by and Jack starts to get more hallucinations and his anger starts to sky rocket. He heads down to the bar and starts to have a conversation with the bartender but there is no one in the bar but Jack. He meets Delbert Grady who use to be the caretaker in the 70's who killed his wife and two daughters. Grady tells Jack that Wendy is starting to become a problem and his son is bringing an outside party into the situation and he needs to stop them before they get out of hand. Jack starts yelling at Wendy so she gets a hold of a baseball bat to defend herself and ended up hitting him over the head knocking him out. She locks him in one of the food storage rooms and tries to get Danny out of the hotel since his hallucinations are getting worse day by day.

Jack gets out of the room and gets an axe and starts chopping up the door to get into the room where Wendy was while he's chopping up the door Wendy opens up one of the windows and puts Danny through it and tells him to run and hide. Once he chopped a big hole in the door he sticks his head up against it and says the famous line "Heeeeeres Johnny!" he sticks his hand through the hole of the door to unlock it and Wendy cuts his hand with a knife, Jack leaves to take care of his hand and Wendy runs out of the room to escape the hotel then she starts seeing ghosts of people who stayed in the hotel in the 70's. Jack runs outside sine he could hear Danny out there so he tries to run after him but couldn't find where he was hiding. After trying to find Danny, Jack starts getting tired since being possessed takes a lot out of you and he's running around in the snow then he gets stuck outside and freezes to death. Wendy and Danny drive away from the hotel in a snow tractor and it shows a picture of the Overlook Hotel Ball in the 1920's with Jack standing in front of the crowed wearing a tux then the closing credits appear.

I really liked this movie and it was one of the best Stephen King movies since my personal favorite Children of the Corn. The music was tastefully done and the acting was wonderful. Jack Nicholson did a great job as Jack Torrence. He was mean, cocky and a major douche bag, every time he opened his mouth I had the sudden urge to punch him in the face. Shelley Duval wasl great as Wendy Torrence, even Danny Lloyd was great as Danny Torrence. The acting in this movie was very outstanding for being in that time back in the 80's. My only complaint of this movie was I wish it was more creepy and more dark, it had some creepy parts but the whole movie in general wasn't very creepy and if they remake this movie since I heard rumors they were thinking about it they should make it more dark and creepy then this one. All in all I did enjoy this movie very much and I would watch it again and it's definitely one of the best horror movies of the 80's. I give this movie 4 1/2 out of 5 Skulls.