A horror classic setting off the 80s: “The Shining”. It was originally a book, written by Stephen King, made into a film by Stanley Kubrick. Today, it’s known as one of the best horror movies of our time, but when it was released, it was met with lots of negative reviews by critics; even earning Kubrick “worst director of the year”. Despite the negativity, it’s still a fan favorite to this day.

The movie starts off very slow with Jack (the main character) in an interview talking about the hotel (and his new writing project). Essentially, Jack and his family will be left in complete isolation for five months, while he takes care of the Stanley Hotel. He wants to use this time to work on a writing project, however, he’ll eventually hit a writer’s block and spiral down into insanity. This is foreshadowed when the hotel manager tells Jack about the same thing happening, about the previous tenant going insane, while taking care of the hotel. Jack brushes this off and takes the job, anyways.

The movie from there on out is Jack slowly going insane, while his wife, Wendy, and son, Danny, each have their own equally terrifying experiences within the hotel. Jack continues to grow more distant from his family as the movie goes on, because of the isolation and frustration with his writing. He begins to see ghosts in the hotel which motivates him to eventually turn against his family.

The movie does a great job of catching the audience’s attention, with the main character always changing personality and shocking the viewer. There’s also always something new every time you watch the movie (I watched it for about the tenth time and still noticed some new things). My only complaint is: since it’s an older movie, some of the acting can be a little bad, or unnatural, mainly from Wendy. However, the very few parts where acting is questionable, are overshadowed by great performances where you can tell they put a lot of passion into it (that, and because Kubrick was a perfectionist).

Like I’ve said, the movie starts off very slow, but it reels you in and gets you hooked, only to leave you in confusion. It’s a long watch, but every minute is dedicated to the story and character development, so it will not get boring. You can now watch “The Shining” on Netflix and they still play it in some theaters. So, whether or not you’re easily scared, it is still an interesting film for you and your friends to watch this Halloween.