The Shining

The Shining is a classic ghost movie from 1980, starring Jack Nicholson and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It was based on a horror novel written by Stephen King after he stayed in the haunted Stanley Hotel in Colorado.

Jack Nicholson plays a struggling author who takes a job as the caretaker of a hotel that is closed for the winter. He moves into the Overlook Hotel, in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, with his wife and son because he wants time to concentrate on his writing.

However, his young son has psychic abilities and experiences frightening visions of the future. He is also able to communicate with ghosts and his mother becomes concerned when she notices him going into trances. He tells her he has an imaginary friend called “Tony” who tells him things.

Soon after settling in, the family is trapped in the hotel by a snowstorm and Jack gradually becomes influenced by a supernatural presence. A recovering alcoholic, he begins to descend into madness and insanity as the ghosts of the haunted hotel use him to play out a horrific murder from the past.

The Shining is packed with horrific imagery and a building sense of menace. Anyone who watches thim film will never forget a number of terrifying scenes. A pair of twin girls lurking in the hallway, the corpse of an old woman emerging from a bath, an elevator door opening to unleash a river of blood that splatters down the hallway. Everything builds slowly and methodically, making the final act all the more powerful, as the audience watch the terrified mother and son run for their lives.