Stream it now The Shining Reset Status Want to Watch Already Watched Don't Want to Watch

Classic, Jack Nicholson is perfect in this. Alot of people say this a scary film, I can't say that I agree, Tho it is some what scary.

Alright. I love Jack Nicholson, I love Stephen King... but this movie didn't work for me. There wasn't enough contrast... I mean even in the beginning of the film, Nicholson's character didn't really appear to be affectionate toward his family. So its not really surprising that he would go nuts and try killing them lol.
Jack is a big star, the year this film was made was somewhere around his peak, i suppose you could say, so he was able to get away with sort of half-acting. and Shelley Duvall is adorable, but her performance in the movie was tired. I feel like the child was the best actor in the film.
I am aware this is a cult classic movie. And Nicholson is a big star, and i do love him. but the story wasn't developed enough for me to give darn.

I can't believe I've never written a review for The Shining! It's tied with 2001: A Space Odyssey as my favorite Stanley Kubrick movie, and I think that it's the best horror movie ever made. As with all Kubrick movies, The Shining is very methodical. But the slow pace sucks you in, letting the viewer soak in the quietly building creepiness, eerily beautiful images, and unhinged performances. The Shining has perhaps the best slowly-built tension I've ever seen in any movie. It starts out mildly eerie, and by the last half-hour has turned into an all-out horrifying, surreal nightmare.

With that being said, The Shining is also hilarious - I think this may be the only truly successful combination of horror and comedy. I love the hell out of horror-comedies like An American Werewolf in London and Evil Dead 2, but those movies definitely sacrifice scares for laughs. The Shining somehow manages to be both laugh-out-loud funny and one of the scariest movies ever made - it's a bizarre balancing act that makes The Shining unique in the world of horror movies.

Much credit for the awesome mix of humor and horror obviously goes to Jack Nicholson. His performance is gleefully deranged, inspiring plenty of uneasy laughter and deep chills. Nicholson deservedly has won endless praise for his performance, but Shelley Duvall has gone mostly unnoticed as his terrified wife. I think Duvall's performance is criminally underrated - maybe people ignore her because she plays a homely, pathetic oddball in a genre that's usually filled with supermodels. Instead of the usual vapid horror victim, Duvall is sweet, awkward, and near the end her character reaches a completely believable level of absolute terror.

The Shining is absolutely hypnotic, and one of the few films I wouldn't hesitate to call perfect. Kubrick tried his hand at a 'genre' film and ended up making a gorgeous, hilarious, terrifying work of art that remains unsurpasssed as the best horror movie ever.

My ratings of Kubrick films:
1. The Shining / 2001: A Space Odyssey - 10's
2. A Clockwork Orange - 9.5
3. Eyes Wide Shut - 9.5
4. Full Metal Jacket - 9.5
5. Dr. Strangelove - 9
6. Barry Lyndon - 8

Hands down, the best horror movie I've ever seen. A masterpiece.

A classic. The setting is amazing, it reminds me of some of the earliest horror writting.

A classic Kubrick film was groundbreaking for horror and suspense movies.

a horror masterpiece. one of the best.

It is not something that bludgeons you with action, and there is a real sense of ordinary adventure with only hints of the potential problems thanks to the lack of music; I wish I could enjoy the music, but the low, synthesizer/electronic sounds bother me; while the more typically orchestral sounds do work as being eerie, the low synthesizer or whatever, meant to be hypnotic, just sounds a bit off imo. A lot of this film is great. I like, more than the here's Johnny moment, the incredible suddenness of Jack chopping at the first door before that. After so long without any particular emphatic clash in the film until then (the baseball bat scene was even subdued), this was so jarring and perfect. The other famous parts are all pretty great. I really wish that the ax felt more realistic going in (there was just a bit of an obvoius time discrepancy). I do not see why people ever disliked the ending, it is just enigmatic psuedo-reality enigmatic shit, which perhaps does not soothe the desire for something EPIC (what, was his face in the ground not enough?! it was for me!), but it does leave something enigmatic and quirky. A greatly fun film all in all.

i love this movie this was one of the first scary movies i had ever seen and i love it

riveting, marvelous and grand horror, this Stanley Kubrick horror remains a classic in its genre, quite possibly the best in it. the crazy screamer Jack Nicholson's here. the cinematography and art direction were beautiful... they should've gotten Oscar noms