Now Watching: The Shining (now with Questionnaire)

Since no one (PSPIDDY!!!!!!!) has taken the initiative let's just start with a classic shall we? Every major streaming service should have easy access to The Shining if you don't own it already.

It's a classic by one of my personal favorites, Stanley Kubrick, based off the novel by Stephen King. King notably disliked the movie, feeling that shifting the focus away from the child and removing the overtly supernatural elements hurt the story. But Kubrick was never much for appeasing the authors he adapted. Film was also fairly innovative in its use of steadicam to wind around the hallways of the hotel.

It's a great film, both as a horror film and as a film in general by one of filmmaking's best. Check it out. Will post up a questionnaire in a few days...

I might just watch The Shinning instead

The Shining/Shinning is the best movie/parody combination ever

Which streaming service can I watch this on?

I lied apparently The Shining, one of the most classic horror movies is not on Netflix. One of the many reasons I hate Netflix's streaming service.

Well, you're the one who lied. Maybe the fault lies elsewhere...

avidacridjam wrote:Well, you're the one who lied. Maybe the fault lies elsewhere...

Thanks Obama

Joking aside, it sucks that it isn't streaming. I should own this on blu-ray but I don't.

All of the Kubrick blu-rays are criminally low price.

Krubixcube wrote:All of the Kubrick blu-rays are criminally low price.

When that collection came out the individuals tanked. Which is awesome when you find them in the $5 bins  

I thought The Shining was BORING when I was a kid. I watched it again -for the first time, really- when I got into film in college, and man does it creep me the hell out. I'm not a King fan, but Kubrick really knocked it out of the park with this one. Which is stupid to say about someone who is a master of their craft and in their prime.

Since spoilers are long gone with this, my favorite scene is the bar scene. It really captures the madness.

As promised: questions!

Do you find the film scary? Silly? Unsettling? Why?


Steven Spielberg said of The Shining that on his first viewing he felt Jack Nickelson's performance was "too much" (he subsequently changed his opinion later). Did you think Jack's crazy was too much or just right?


Scariest/Most memorable scene?


Horror films tend to have one scene that doesn't hold up with time, that just isn't scary anymore. Is there a scene like that for you?


Kubrick famously disliked child actors, and that was a large part of changing the story to shift the focus away from Danny. How do you feel the performance is?


How do you feel about that ending?


Dog-men giving blowjobs, ammiright?

Do you find the film scary? Silly? Unsettling? Why?

I find it to be all of those, but with a greater emphasis on unsettling. Kubrick creates, from the first frame, a sense of dread and apprehension and it doesn't let up until the end credits finally end (more on that later). It's a very meticulously made haunted house film with supernatural/fantasy elements that extend outside that location (Danny and Hallorann's shining ability isn't limited to the hotel). It also makes the wise choice of never explaining why the hotel is haunted, why it affects Jack Torrance in particular (although there is an implied reason, more on that later) or the shining ability. The film gives you answers depending on what you bring to it as a viewer.

Steven Spielberg said of The Shining that on his first viewing he felt Jack Nickelson's performance was "too much" (he subsequently changed his opinion later). Did you think Jack's crazy was too much or just right?


I feel that the cultural awareness of Nicholson's persona has got in the way of some of his work (80s and later, definitely) and this film actually shows a very restrained performance from him. Even when he mentally unspools in the 2nd half, I think his choices are logical given the plot progression. He's not a conventional villain. Despite the fact that he was an alcoholic and has physically abused his son at least once, he clearly is a man who wants to change and get better. The forces of the Overlook ruin that completely and the demons that come with alcoholism (and maybe demons that were not influenced by substance abuse and were dormant in some way) and his frustrations come out with no filter or restraint. He was completely compelled to "correct" his wife and child and it's a fine performance.

Scariest/Most memorable scene?

The vision of the blood spilling out of the elevator doors. I love the way that it doesn't force the doors open but comes through the side of one door and then hits the furniture of both hallway sides where it momentarily becomes a Rorschach painting. The ominous music aids it very well.



A runner-up would be Jack slowly terrorizing Wendy on the staircase, when shit finally gets real.

Horror films tend to have one scene that doesn't hold up with time, that just isn't scary anymore. Is there a scene like that for you?

Hard to say. I guess the shot of the dead, frozen Jack Torrance just seems goofy now but it was once kind of shocking. But to echo the previous answer, Wendy's witnessing of the blood spill seems less effective than when Danny envisions it.

Kubrick famously disliked child actors, and that was a large part of changing the story to shift the focus away from Danny. How do you feel the performance is?

This is the first time I've ever read that about Kubrick but it's probably fitting seeing's how his films rarely involved children as main characters. I find that Danny Lloyd is a major player here and he gives a great performance as well.

I haven't read a lot of books on Kubrick but the one that I own and find definitive is Kubrick by Michel Ciment. He interviewed Kubrick regarding the production of the film and Kubrick found working with Lloyd to be wonderful. According to Kubrick, Lloyd knew all of his lines, rehearsed well and was well-behaved on set for a boy of his age.

If Kubrick had a problem with any actor, it was Scatman Crothers. Crothers had a problem with remembering lines, which resulted in many takes (like the shot of him talking to Lloyd, which consisted of 160 takes). Yet Kubrick didn't fire him. Good thing, too. I love the scene where Crothers is laying in bed watching tv when he suddenly gets a psychic vision of what's happening at the Overlook; the white knuckle panic on his face is amazing.

How do you feel about that ending?

It's freaking weird but I love it. I've always believed that he became one with the Overlook after he passes away in the maze. He didn't "correct" his family but they're gone. Again, why the Overlook chooses him is unclear but there's the implication that it preys on caretakers; consider his conversation with Grady, a previous caretaker, in the restroom. Grady tells Torrance that he "corrected" his wife and twin daughters (I'm sorry but I love the use of "correct" instead of "kill"). What I'm curious about is how many times this has happened in the hotel's history and if the hotel manager (who offered the job to Jack) is involved in anyway.

By the way, what really creeps me out about that sequence is the music that plays when that picture shows up and continues through the end credits until it stops and all you hear is unintelligible crowd banter. Very unsettling to me.

Dog-men giving blowjobs, ammiright?

Hey, a mouth's a mouth.



Before I end this, I need to speak out about the most impressive performance in the film: Shelly Duvall.

Duvall reportedly had the roughest time making the film. She's given what can be considered the thankless role but it turned out to be the most physically demanding; while Nicholson got to turn it up to 11 in the 3rd act, she had to convey a sustained and believable sense of hysteria, to cry and tremble and scream, take after take after take after take. The scene on the staircase between Jack and her took three weeks and each take took 16 minutes; the shoot lasted a year and she was there through all of it.

After the film was over, Duvall never regretted working with Kubrick. What a class act. She said, "as Stanley said to me, 'Nothing great was ever accomplished without suffering.'"

I think about the sequences where she's running around the hotel, knife in hand, hiding from Jack, looking for Danny and seeing all sorts of strange, horrifying shit (like dog-men blowjobs) and she's fucking freaking out the whole time. People who think acting is easy can get fucked; there's no way that's easy and not every actress could pull that off. Hats off to her.

If you haven't checked it out already, check out the making of The Shining that (I think) Kubrick's wife shot. It's wonderful and on youtube. Part 1 below for those of you who haven't seen it:

pspiddy wrote:

Krubixcube wrote:All of the Kubrick blu-rays are criminally low price.

When that collection came out the individuals tanked. Which is awesome when you find them in the $5 bins  

I thought The Shining was BORING when I was a kid. I watched it again -for the first time, really- when I got into film in college, and man does it creep me the hell out. I'm not a King fan, but Kubrick really knocked it out of the park with this one. Which is stupid to say about someone who is a master of their craft and in their prime.

Since spoilers are long gone with this, my favorite scene is the bar scene. It really captures the madness.

I didn't care much for The Shining movie. I read the book first, and when I watched the movie, I could see why Stephen King hated the movie. From the casting down to the movie itself, Kubrick completely missed the point of the book.

I'll bite; explain?

I've given Stephen King more tries than I can remember. Since reading Cujo and The Shining in grade school, to Nightmares and Dreamscapes in high school. He's tedious. But that's another thread.

Please elaborate on your opinions of the movie. I thought it was well done and solid. Except for the kid. I hate kid actors. Hate. Those television commercials with talking babies remind me of The Shining and Poltergeist. /shudder

I would argue Kubrick saw an aspect of the story that he wanted to emphasize and make it is his own. So yeah he may have missed the point of the book, but he certainly made his own.

So I guess X-Men was a more accurate adaptation?

I'm agreeing with you spiddy, jeez.

I was validating your point to my point about San's point...oh no! I've gone cross-eyed.

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez

On a slightly related note, it pains me that my stupid sense of humor doesn't come across in text. So apologies if I seemed rude =p

Okay, here goes. Sorry for no sooner response. Been busy.

For one thing, I didn't like Kubrick's portrayal of Torrance. He was a one-dimensional madman in the movie and a somewhat more layered character in the book. Jack Nicholson was all wrong for the role of Jack Torrance, and this is a criticism King had of the casting as well. Now don't get me wrong. I like Nicholson in a most of the stuff I've seen him in. When he's utilized properly, he's great. But he played the Torrance character as batshit crazy from the get-go. The novel's Torrance was a man that was in recovery and basically a good guy, but undone by his past of alcoholism and depression combined with cabin fever. He was a man whose temper was on a frayed leash, maybe, but he wasn't that batshit even at the end of the book. He never actually killed anyone in the book, and he was shown struggling with his alcoholism and depression throughout in a sympathetic manner. He came to enough lucidity at the end to help Danny, Wendy, and Hallorann escape, and he died desperately trying to shut down the hotel's boiler before it exploded.

I also disagreed with some of the thematic elements. I felt like they reduced the movie to some stock horror film. In the book, the boiler of the hotel was a key element, as it was the heart of the hotel, and it was ultimately the boiler that did the hotel in. In the movie, the hedge maze was the big deal. The book had topiary animals. Some of the stuff was done well enough, but I felt that, as someone who really enjoyed the novel, the movie overall was a letdown and Kubrick took too much license with the source material. It was, in fact, to the point where it could be considered a bastardization.

This airs on IFC this Sunday. So I am going to try and catch it then.

I remember when IFC had no commercial breaks for its movies. So hard to watch that channel now.

I'm pretty sure the whole movie is also on youtube somewhere. I used to love IFC when I had cable many moons ago. Glad to hear they're trying to screw it up.

@T-wolf: I think your humor comes across well on the forum! You're a regular Bob Saget!

@San: I TOTALLY agree 100% with Kubrick taking so many liberties with the source material that the movie itself is its own beast. And I like the film for it. Granted I'm not a big fan of the book. I think that if you look at the movie as a standalone piece of work, you may enjoy it a little.

That is a bummer regarding IFC. Didn't realize that. I just searched my cable to see if I could watch it somewhere on there (since Twolf refuses to pick something that I can easily stream...). I guess I'll just DVR it so I can skip commercials maybe.

Was going to watch it, but I ended up seeing Ghostbusters instead. I regret nothing.

I'm sorry, I don't own any streaming services and I thought "there's no way major streaming services wont have The Shining" I DIDN'T KNOW!!!!

Also, Greenman you are an abomination.

TripOpt55 wrote:That is a bummer regarding IFC. Didn't realize that. I just searched my cable to see if I could watch it somewhere on there (since Twolf refuses to pick something that I can easily stream...). I guess I'll just DVR it so I can skip commercials maybe.

To their credit, they don't edit/censor the films but it still bugs me. It's hard to believe but AMC once was commercial-free as well.

Yeah, when I was in the UK for school it was wonderful that most channels showed films uncut and uncensored. I feel when I watch films on TV they dont' seem as good because they're edited down by TV editors which makes the films feel like they're made for TV (among other things). Anyone else feel that way.

I hope you can watch it Trip...