Mutant Reviewers from Hell do
"Here's Johnny!"

1980 R / Suspense Horror Directed by: Stanley Kubrick Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd

Tagline

Stanley Kubrick's epic nightmare of horror

Summary Capsule

Happy-go-lucky hotel springs playful pranks on the visiting family

Mutant Meter

Movie Store [proceeds go toward monthly MRFH upkeep]

Amazon.com: DVD

Justin's Rating: Slap my knee and call me Huck Finn!
Justin's Review: I get a bit of flak for my well-known dislike of several of Stanley Kubrick's films. I don't personally hate him, in the sense of wanting to revive his corpse to slap him around some, but just that taken individually, most of his movies come off as stylized pretentiousness and - what's that phrase? - boring as hell. Let me set the record straight that this is not universally applied to his movies; The Shining is a classic haunted house story that continues to creep me out even today.

"You have Shelly Duvall as the meek housewife, who for all intents and purposes looks like a fugative elf on the run."

Perhaps the creepiness starts with the casting. You have Shelly Duvall as the meek housewife, who for all intents and purposes looks like a fugative elf on the run. Those big eyes, flappy ears and pinched nose gives off such a seventies vibe that's eerie. At any moment I expected her to start summoning the spirits of the trees and sing in her high-pitched trills about the love of Mother Nature, except that Mother Nature is throwing about an ice storm.

Then you have Jack Nicholson, looking dark and crazy from the get-go, leaping into a psychotic role that isn't much of a stretch. One of the complaints I've heard about this film (particularly from the standpoint of the book fans) is that the role Jack has was meant for a normal guy to go slowly psychotic over the course of the story; Jack, however, never seems like he has far to go. He's just not a sympathetic character.

Finally, there's some standard Stephen King "specially gifted child who's target Number One for all the evil forces in the state". Apparently, the forces of evil are just constantly peeved that a seven year old with a bedwetting problem has the potential to crush the evil with a pinky.

A struggling writer and his family become winter caretakers of a seasonally abandoned hotel in Colorado. The Overlook Hotel has many great features: honest-to-God built on an Indian burial ground! Past history of madness and murder! Ghosts and tacky decor! There's no way this couldn't be wacky fun! As the father goes mental and starts communing with etheral bartenders, the little kid goes equally bonkers and starts writing "REDRUM" and other educational tidbits on the wall.

Now, the kid channels his supernatural powers through a finger that he twitches and calls "Tony" (he's grrrrrrreat!). While memorable, this is possibly one of the tackiest ways to channel a supernatural force known to mankind. It's supposed to be eerie and spine-chilling, but when the kid starts wagging around his index finger and croaking, the mental image of a bad finger puppet show comes to mind.

As the spooky haunted house, the Overlook Hotel just doesn't go all out, halloween-style. No plastic skeletons, or fake cobwebs, or quirky tombstones, or even one of those scary moaning soundtracks that you can buy for $3.99. How cheap is this place? It looks more sterile than an operating room, with just the occassional elevator full of blood to keep things macabre. My feeling is, this film could've become the greatest of all time if there was just a subplot about a mummy in the basement who was trying to find the family to kill them, but just kept getting lost along the way. The Little Mummy Who Could.

So how come The Shining works for me? I think it's because some of Kubrick's trademarks - long meandering shots, highly contrasting imagry, overblown electronic score - work well to heighten the suspense of a horror movie. It's very cool that the haunted hotel does most of its trade in horror with those small touches (such as a tennis ball rolling down the hallway to the kid when there's no one around) instead over going overboard as so many other like films do. Nothing is right in this little world, and yet there's also no possibility of escape. The perfect setting for a casual family murder, yes indeedy.

Jacksicle - now with the crazy center! Even before the Internet existed, MRFH was the bane of typewriters everywhere Okay. Creepy demon children OUT of the room!

Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

• Making out with full frontal nudity ghosts can scar you for life
• When you have a scary dream involving your murdering your family, might as well tell your wife about it. Sure won't upset her or nothing.
• According to the film, The Overlook Hotel was actually built on an ancient Indian burial ground... yes! Here's a question: how come places that are built on other types of burial grounds - like Presbyterians, for instance - don't get haunted as easily?
• The breathtaking opening shots from the perspective of a helicopter swooping through Colorado's mountains to the Overlook Hotel.
• During Wendy's final, horror-filled romp through the Overlook, she sees a lot of disturbing things. But the one that freaked me out -- most because I still can't understand it -- is when she sees a girl and a man with a pig-like mask in a bedroom. What is that supposed to be?
• Every time Jack talks to a "ghost," there's a mirror in the scene (except in the food locker scene).
• In the interview with Jack Torrance at beginning of the film, the Overlook Hotel Manager talks about a former caretaker, "Charles" Grady. Later in the film, Jack meets the former caretaker, "Delbert" Grady.
• During Jack's interview, he is told the Overlook Hotel closes in winter because the roads cannot be maintained and there are no ski sites. In the initial shot of the hotel as Jack arrives for the interview, ski lift towers are clearly visible very near the lodge.

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

Yes - The party music plays over the closing credits. After it ends, we hear the Overlook ghosts applaud. They then talk amongst themselves until their voices fade away.

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

Stephen King (the author of The Shining) and Stanley Kubrick had differing opinions on how The Shining turned out. King wasn't exactly pleased with the liberties that Kubrick took with his book (particularly having Jack be nuts from the start instead of a family man), and remade The Shining as a 1997 TV miniseries. The miniseries was more faithful to the book, and included the moving hedge monsters. Kubrick denied King permission to publish the miniseries in video format, however.

The Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood in Oregon was used for the exteriors, but all the interiors were specially built on a soundstage in London, England. The management of the Timberline Lodge requested that Kubrick not use room 217 (as specified in the book), fearing that nobody would want to stay in that room ever again. Kubrick changed the script to use the nonexistent room number 237.

Kubrick demanded 127 takes from Shelley Duvall in one scene.

Nicholson ad-libbed the line "Here's Johnny!"

The title "The Shining" comes from the song "Instant Karma" (Plastic Ono Band), particularly the lyric "And we all shine on..."

Groovy Quotes

Dead Girls: Come play with us Danny, forever and ever and ever.

Jack: Have you ever thought about MY RESPONSIBLITIES?
Wendy: Jack, what are you talking about?
Jack: Have ever had any SINGLE MOMENT'S THOUGHT about my responsibilities? TO MY EMPLOYERS! Has it ever occured to you that I have agreed to look after the OVERLOOK until May the FIRST! Does it MATTER TO YOU AT ALL that the OWNERS have put their COMPLETE CONFIDENCE and TRUST in me that I have signed an agreement, A CONTRACT, in which I have accepted that RESPONSIBLITY?

Mr. Halloran: Some places are like people: some shine and some don't.

Grady: My girls, sir, they didn't care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches and tried to burn it down. But I... CORRECTED them, sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I CORRECTED her.

Jack: You WERE the caretaker here, Mr. Grady.
Grady: No sir, YOU are the caretaker. You've always been the caretaker. I ought to know: I've always been here.

Danny: Redrum! Redrum! Redrum!

Jack: Darling! Light of my life! I'm not gonna hurt you. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just gonna bash your brains in.

Jack: Here's Johnny!

Danny: Don't worry, Mom. I know all about cannibalism. I saw it on TV.
Jack: See, it's OK. He saw it on the television.

Hallorann: Nothin'! There ain't nothin' in Room 237. But you ain't got no business goin' in there anyway. So stay out! You understand? Stay out!

Jack: The most terrible nightmare I ever had. It's the most horrible dream I ever had.
Wendy: It's OK, it's OK now. Really.
Jack: I dreamed that I, that I killed you and Danny. But I didn't just kill ya. I cut you up in little pieces. Oh my God. I must be losing my mind.

If you liked this movie, try these:

• Full Metal Jacket
• House on Haunted Hill
• Rose Red