GREAT SELECTION: The Shining (1980)

Let's start with this trailer and take you back in time in 1979 or 1980 when this advertisement came out...

We are in 1980. Does it get me hooked? Yes, for good reasons. It is a Stephen King adaptation that is going to be directed by Stanley Kubrick, one of the best working directors of that time. Now, the blood coming out of the elevator music anchored by that eerie music will make me ask myself: what was that and what is going on here? And, of course, you have Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall starring in this horror movie. For the former, he is the biggest movie star right now getting some great recognition for his work in Easy Rider, Chinatown, Five Easy Pieces, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Last Detail...that is great work. And, for him to be in a horror movie, sign me up because he is one of the most unpredictable actors ever. What kind of scary movie will we get?

After the commercial failure of Barry Lyndon, Kubrick needed to helm a more commercial movie that will receive box office success. Even though he got critical fame and acclaim for his earlier works, his movies did not have high monetary success. The thing with Kubrick's movies is people will not immediately grab hold on to the story or even get the story. It is all about one's thoughts and perspectives after your experience with a Kubrick movie is over. But, what gets people going back to his movies and spark more discussion on more positive enlightenment? It's the details or the literary allusion Kubrick is showing us or what is in the dialogue and the story. With this horror movie, it was a very interesting origin story between myself and this movie because I thought it was a very good horror movie but generally, I did not know it was a good movie because of certain aspects. More viewings later, there is one or two elements that bother me but this movie grew on me and is now considered to be one of my favorite horror movies because of its secluded and built-up mystery.

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) has driven 25 miles from Boulder for a job interview for the position of winter caretaker in the Overlook Hotel. Jack wants to have some peace to write his book. He meets manager Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) as they discuss both the specific details of the job and also its history of the hotel. The hotel is closed for the winter from October to May because of its heavily snowy conditions as roads will blocked and driving to the hotel will be difficult. Meanwhile, in Boulder, Jack's son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), sees a vision or premonition of the hotel of blood emerging from the elevator door and falls into a trance. Jack's wife and Danny's mother, Wendy (Shelley Duvall) talks to the doctor that Danny has an imaginary friend named Tony and because of Jack's drinking past, Danny's shoulder was injured and Jack stopped drinking.

The family arrives at the hotel on their closing day. While Jack and Wendy are still being on tour around the hotel, Danny meets the hotel's chef, Mr. Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), as he surprises by telepathically asking Danny if he wanted ice cream. They also have a deep discussion on Hallorann and his grandmother sharing the telepathic ability or memories as they call it a "shine". Hallorann tells Danny that the hotel has the "shine" but will have disturbing results, in particular, room 237, in which he warns Danny to avoid.

While a month passes, Jack's writing does not go anywhere as Wendy and Danny play and also explore the hedge maze. Wendy calls, via radio, the ranger as he tells her that the phone lines are down to the snowstorm. Jack becomes more frustrated as he spews violent outbursts and Danny becomes curious about room 237 as he opens the door and comes out with bruises on his neck, causing Wendy to accuse Jack of hurting Danny because of his behavior and past. Jack still become hostile as he enters The Gold Room and meets the ghostly figure of the bartender, Lloyd (Joe Turkel). And, strange visions and ghosts start to appear as Jack becomes more insane.

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS BELOW.

This is a movie made by a perfectionist as Kubrick allows you to explore certain aspects in such a diligent pace because he takes certain scenes its time to allow the characters to introduces themselves to someone and also to the audience. In the job interview scene, Mr. Ullmann lays an expositional story to both Jack and to us about the incident involving the previous caretaker, Charles Grady. Ullmann warns Jack to be careful as a person can suffer cabin fever as he can be isolated for months as Mr. Grady did, because he killed his wife and two daughters and committed suicide.

The harrowing clip above is one of the first revelations to Danny's premonitions as he sees ghosts of Grady's two daughters urging him to play with them and he sees for a brief second the two girls lying down, bloodied and dead. It's a potential foreshadow to us that what may come to one of the family members as a person will lose it due to cabin fever. It can potentially be the supernatural themes that will have the family descend into madness and may be hallucinations from both Danny's and Wendy's perspectives as they start to notice more when approaching the conclusion of the movie.

Wendy sees a bloody party guest hoisting his champagne glass, two men perform some kind of activity and then blood emerging from the elevator and cobwebs spreading throughout a section in the hotel. But, one of my two criticisms was that these figures come out for scaring purposes but are not explained quite well because Wendy does not know what is going on and we clearly understand that they are from a party but do not know who they are and why they are appearing. They are clearly tactics for scaring purposes.

However, in Jack's case, what is so odd is while interacting with Lloyd's ghost, he appears "normal" in his cabin fever state as he is complaining about his wife, Wendy. But, right after the conversation, Wendy is worried because Danny told her that there was a woman in room 237. Jack investigates while being prone to anger is distracted by the ghostly woman's nudity but becomes normal as he is frightened by the old woman's bruised nudity. But, when Jack returns to the hotel room, he lies to Wendy and say that there was nothing in the room. Why did he do that? The answer is to protect his family and maybe stabilized with his peace as he wants to finish his work.

But, there is a revelation, while being angry, that Jack is normal while he is not frightened by all these ghosts dancing or having discussion when he gets another drink offered by Lloyd and then that leads to him accidentally meeting Grady after spilling drinks on his jacket. It leads to Grady being revealed of who he was and now it has transitioned to Jack being the caretake to "correct" his wife and son and maybe meet the same demise. The scene with Grady in the bathroom is a potential foreshadowing device that hopefully Wendy and Danny do not succumb to.

Now, there is a case as to why Jack becomes prone to anger especially in the second half. Is he being demonically possessed? Maybe. The hotel may be taking advantage of Jack of him trying to redeem himself after being locked in the storage room in the kitchen. Grady's ghost restores Jack's confidence  and opens the door and that is the scene I think that transitions our feelings that the superstitions actually exist in the Overlook Hotel consuming his innocence and his soul. He is not Jack anymore, he is his own demon and maybe an outlook of his past hunting down Wendy and Danny as he earlier learns that Danny communicated with Mr. Hallorann telepathically.

Even before he was tormented, they are not one, big happy family. They are an unbalanced, hurt family trying to improve themselves to live in peaceful harmony together for months in isolation at a beautiful hotel despite the manager's warnings. There is both psychological and physical violence within the family as Danny had his shoulder hurt from Jack's alcoholic behavior. But, even though there was psychological violence from the past, it comes back to haunt all three of them as they are consumed by these hallucinations or ghosts. I mean, a prime example is when Jack kills Mr. Hallorann with an axe as he is being consumed by either the hotel or his own conscience as he has been isolated for a while. You decide.

Ok, now, let's talk about the last shot of the movie in which it features a photograph of the 1921 photo  of party guests celebrating some occasion at the Overlook. Jack is front and center. It is ambiguity that surrounds this photo as to how he entered in that picture. Well, this is not a clear answer but again, after his soul has being taken over and his death in the maze, Jack is consumed by the hotel and now lives as one of the ghosts of the Overlook potentially forever. But, the question is: did all of those party guests suffer from isolation? Did they suffer in the hotel and became consumed by other demons from the past living in the hotel or being caretakers? We do not know.

Stephen King, the author, clearly was not a fan of Kubrick's version of his novel saying that he "thinks too much, but feels too little". I can agree and disagree with his criticisms as Kubrick again is a perfectionist staging the scene and trying to have the characters over-exaggerate. I mean agree that Kubrick's many takes sometimes hurt both Nicholson's and in particular Duvall's performances as they become more lifelike and not human in a few scenes, saying the dialogue in a flat manner instead of acting and being the characters. In the scene above, it is crazy that Duvall had to overcome illness and hair loss in the making of this movie and also acted that scene over 100 times. I mean, how many tears can she take?

But, this is a horror classic as Kubrick's patient pacing allows us to observe so much detail and behavior that we can interpret open-ended themes and symbolism to discuss what is going on in their heads while being isolated in the hotel. We are the observer but they are victims in unfortunate events and we question if they will make it out alive. One does not. The movie has the right balance and ingredients of quiet and loud suspense, shock value, family drama and gore to slowly consume us into the world of the Overlook Hotel in both present and past times. Thankfully, I am still alive while writing this analysis of this movie. Hahaha! It is a superb movie that one can watch repeatedly to observe what you do not get and what you may get from the details of the story, characters and the set designs.