Broadway Turk's Top 10 Horror Flicks (#3)?

Although this doesn't have the overall shock effect of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre or the subliminal fright enhancements of The Exorcist, The Shining still rules the roost at No. 3 on BT's All-Time Horror List. Unlike so many flicks who lose their aura as modern-day F/X leave them in the dust, The Shining, like TCM and Exorcist, makes it happen with a timeless storyline, over-the-top acting and choreographic sleight-of-hand that makes our nightmares come to life.

We've got to give a big hand to late director Stanley Kubrick, who spent a year bringing Stephen King's horror masterpiece to the silver screen. Working with the odd couple of Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall, he siphoned some of their best work from them during that rocky winter (filmed in Mt. Hood, Oregon) and came away with a virtually unparalleled psychic horror flick. The solid support from child star Danny Lloyd, character actor Philip Stone and black actor Scatman Crothers makes the entire project shine even brighter. The downside was that Jack, like Clockwork Orange star Malcolm Mc Dowell, never worked with Kubrick again after the tumultuous experience.

The atmospheric pressure maintained by Kubrick throughout the flick is what makes it work so well. Recovering alcoholic Jack Torrance (Nicholson) is hired as caretaker for the Overlook Hotel, a mountain resort closed for the winter due to inaccessability. Jack, an aspiring writer, finds the situation ideal in seeking completion of his great unwritten opus. He brings wife Wendy (Duvall) and son Danny (Lloyd) along, both sharing a feeling of trepidation about the gloomy ambiance of the hotel. Exacerbating the situation is hotel cook Dick Halloran (Crothers), a psychic who finds the kindred spirit in Danny. The 'shining' is the psychic aura, a quality enveloping the hotel itself. Both Halloran and Danny share a vision of horror in Room 237, and despite Halloran's stern warning, Danny eventually crosses the threshold and opens Pandora's Box of carnage in the cavernous resort.

As Duvall mentions in the DVD interviews, Kubrick and crew spent much time with Nicholson in character development, and it paid off in spades. Jack fits the role of Torrance like a glove, portraying a yuppie alkie by alternating casual cockiness with white-knuckled paranoia from scene to scene. We see a brittle relationship between Jack and Wendy barely held together by Danny, whose 'shining' is perceived as psychological instability. The family relationship is shattered, along with Jack's sanity, by the demons of the Overlook before Danny's eyes. We watch as Jack slips into darkness step by step, from writer's block to mind-numbing nightmares into psychotic madness. Jack makes the transition from concerned parent to self-absorbed paranoiac into an axe-wielding madman, and Kubrick's depiction of Jack's translations is a magnificent work of cinema art.

The conflict between the protagonists of the storyline makes the subplots all the more complex. Halloran finds himself compromised by Charles Grady (Stone), described earlier in the flick as a former caretaker of the hotel. Grady informs Jack of Halloran's bond with Danny, and tells him that he will have to "correct" his wife's behavior as well as put a stop to Halloran. The conflict escalates to tragedy as Grady continues to goad Jack into implementing the 'correction' of his family, while Halloran follows his instincts in braving a numbing blizzard in driving out to the Overlook to intercede on behalf of the family. Grady succeeds in pushing Jack over the edge, taking out Halloran during the axe-wielding sequence that has become a mainstay of Hollywood legendry.

This is one you'll find for a great price in most video retail stores due to its age, having been made in 1980. However, if you've waded through the garbage passing for horror movies towards the end of the century, this one is guaranteed to be the flower in the horror flick dustbin.