the Shining

(on a side note... isn't it weird that those girls aren't related in reality?)

So, I already watched the Shining although only once and my memory tends to not be very reliable... but still, I'll try to write a review about it.

now, most people know what's the story, but I'll explain anyway.

and just don't read the part in italic if you don't want to get any spoilers.

every year during winter the Overlook hotel gets closed and this time Jack Torrance gets hired to take care of the building during the hard winter. he brings his family with him and when they get snowed in they are basically cut off from the outer world and there's no way to leave the hotel.

Jack's son Danny senses something supernatural right from the beginning because he seems to somehow have a gift and is able to see ghosts as we later discover. his special gift is only called the shining without any further explanation why he has it or what exactly it is. so, the boy tells his parents that the hotel seems to be somehow bad or sinistert and in the 70ies a guy who was hired as a caretaker killed his whole family and finally himself when they were snowed in like the Torrance's are now.

later we also discover that an indian graveyard is beneath the hotel.

during the movie Jack becomes weirder and weirder, suddenly he's haunted by nightmares and has hallucinations or rather see's ghosts, it is not really clear wheter those things really happen or not, but to me it seems like those are real ghosts and not just in his head.

anyway, as the story goes on Jack goes totally mental and wants to kill both his wife Wendy and son Danny, but they manage to escape and when Danny runs away into the garden labyrinth Jack follows him only to get lost inside it and in the end he freezes to death.

Now, I really liked the movie overall. I think Jack Nicholson was at his best and nobody can ever forget the "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" part.

I think what was best about the movie was the fact that it was very slow paced and didn't have alot of cheap effects but rather a few well placed extremely creepy stuff like the sinister twins that try to lure Danny into playing with them, the blood coming from the elevator and the best moment (imo)... well, all I say is; redrum.

honestly, I think there is not much to say about it. Stanley Kubrick is known to be a perfectionist, and you see that in his movies. you can just feel how those poor actors where driven near insanity (at least Shelley Duvall) because they had to redo every scene until they had a nervous breakdown (yeah she really did) and it shows that he was very thorough with the details. everything is placed right, everything happens exactly when it should happen and nothing seems out of place.

all in all I think this is a milestone in the history of horror movies, and I think most people will agree.

oh, and here's a goody I found on youtube. (sadly I dunno if this was actually made or is just a demo version!)

try if you would win or not ;)