
MEGAVIDEO - I'm watching the Shining
The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by
Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and
starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, and Danny Lloyd.
The film is based on the novel of the same name, by Stephen
King, about a writer with a wife and young son who accepts
the job of an off-season caretaker at an isolated hotel. The
son, who possesses psychic abilities, is able to see things
in the future and past, such as the ghosts in the hotel.
Soon after moving in, and after a paralyzing winter storm
that leaves the family snowed in, the father becomes
influenced by the supernatural presence in the haunted
hotel; he descends into madness and attempts to murder his
wife and son.
Unlike most films by Stanley Kubrick, which saw a slow
gradual release building on word-of-mouth, The Shining was
released in a manner more like a mass-market film, opening
at first in just two cities on Memorial Day, and then a
month later seeing a nationwide release (including
drive-ins) after extensive television advertising.[1]
Although initial response to the film was mixed, later
critical assessment had been more favorable and it is now
viewed as a classic of the horror genre. Film director
Martin Scorsese, writing in The Daily Beast, ranked it as
one of the best horror films.[2] Film critics, film
students, and Kubrick's producer, Jan Harlan, have all
remarked on the enormous influence the film has had on
popular culture[3][4][5] which ranges from other macabre
thrillers to the cartoon series The Simpsons.