The Shining

The Shining is a psychological horror film which was released on May 23, 1980
in the hand of Stanley Kubrick as the director. The major characters existed in this
movie are Jack Torrance who was played by Jack Nicholson, Wendy Torrance who was
played by Shelley Duvall, and Danny Torrance who was played by Danny Lloyd.
The movie begins with an introduction of a writer named Jack Torrance who is
being offered to be a winter caretaker at Overlook Hotel which is placed on Rocky
Mountains. The manager already warned about the previous caretaker who killed his
family and himself as a hope that this thing won’t happen again, but Jack takes it as an
opportunity to write because of its solitude. At the same time, Danny has a strange
vision about the hotel and Wendy is being told about the son’s imaginary friend. Wendy
tries to explain this to Jack, but he doesn’t want to because he is already excited and he
brings all of his family to said place instead. Later on Dick Hallorann tells Danny about
his telepathic ability named “shining” and the hotel has its “shine” and memories.
Besides that, Danny is also being warned to stay away from room 237.
After a month, Jack experiences writer block then starts to feel depressed of it
meanwhile Danny and Wendy explore the hotel’s hedge maze. Hallorann isn’t being
there as well since he goes to Florida. In the middle of Wendy’s exploring time, she
finds out that the phone lines are out due to the heavy snowfall and Danny experiences
a sudden episode where he sees Jack hurting him. Without telling his mom, he returns
to the hotel and gets inside room 237 out of curiosity. Wendy hears Jack’s painful
screams and tries to tame him although she is shocked after listening to Jack’s story
when he dreamed about him killed Wendy and Danny. Not long after that, Danny comes
out with a lot of bruises and Wendy accused Jack as the one who does it which
obviously is being denied by Jack. Due to his depression, he wanders into the hotel’s
Gold Room and meets a ghostly bartender to complains about his married which is
being replied that he needs to correct his family. While Jack gets back to Wendy again,
Wendy tells him about a crazy woman from room 237 who tried to strangle Danny and
argues to take Danny home which is being rejected by Jack. Right at that time, Danny
also starts to shout “redrum” out of nowhere.
 On the next day, Wendy discovers that Jack has been typing pages filled with the
phrase “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” which successfully frightens
Wendy out. Later, she begs Jack to brings Danny home, but Jack threatens him. Wendy
defenses herself with a baseball bat that she uses to knock him then she locks him in
the kitchen pantry. She and Danny are both trapped after Jack disabled all way which
makes the situation becomes more stressing, but she finally gets the way out to a
bathroom. Jack chases her after Grady freeing Jack out. In the middle of the frightening
situation, Danny starts to chanting and drawing the word “REDRUM” to Wendy sees the
word reversed in the mirror and later revealed as “MURDER”.
Jack starts to break the door with an axe while Wendy sends Danny through the
bathroom window, but he can’t get out herself. He breaks in then steps back after she
slashes his hand with a knife to makes her escaping easily. At the same time, Hallorann
arrives with a snowcat which triggers Jack to ambushes him and kills him in the lobby.
Jack gets crazier to the point he tries to chase Danny into the hedge maze. Wendy runs
through the hotel looking for Danny, but the things that she get are ghosts, a cascade of
blood which Danny envisioned in Boulder, and Hollorann’s corpse. Danny makes false
trail to confuse Jack and hides in the snowdrift which turns out successful. While Jack is
being trapped inside the maze, Danny reunites with Wendy to leave the hotel with
Hollorann’s snowcat and leaves Jack dies in cold. In the end of the movie, it’s revealed
that Jack is pictured standing amid a crowd of party from July 4 th, 1921; which is also
being figured that Jack is a reincarnation.
I’m not a type who loves horror movies for its frightening sound effects and
makes me feel scared to sleep at night, but “The Shining” hits different. The way
Stanley Kubrick frames it in realistic way without any sounds and movie, he successfully
brings the real horror to me while watching the movie until it finishes. Besides that,
Stanley also makes the plot is being easy to understand which makes me pick this one
as my comfort movie. Not going to forget to mention that the characters’ expression
delivers the scared and confused feelings in the solitude especially Wendy who is being
played pretty well. I can feel that she has been going through a lot to survive during this
depressing situation while he needs to take care of Danny and later discovers that Jack
is a psychotic because of his drug addiction in the past. I recommend that you watch
this movie whenever you need a movie which successfully makes your mind blown out
as long as you are not scared with screams and bloods.