Danny Lloyd | Scott's Film Reviews-1,521 Reviews posted!!! RECENTLY LAUNCHED-MY TOP 250 FAVORITE FILMS AND TOP 40 HORROR FILMS!!!

The Shining-1980

Director Stanley Kubrick

Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall

Top 250 Films #21

Top 40 Horror Films #6

Scott’s Review #313

Reviewed December 31, 2015

Grade: A

The Shining is one of the great horror masterpieces of all time.

Released in 1980, and atypical of the slasher craze that was rampant at that time, the film is a psychological ghost story with frightening elements, including a musical score, long camera shots, and a haunting, grandiose hotel set in a deserted locale.

Without the brilliant direction of Stanley Kubrick, The Shining would not be the masterpiece it is, to say nothing of Nicholson and Duvall’s talents in the lead roles.

Based on the popular horror novel by Stephen King.

Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, an author and alcoholic, who takes his wife Wendy (Duvall) and son Danny to serve as caretakers at the vast Overlook hotel, for the winter in snowy Colorado.

The lavish hotel will be deserted for the season, and Jack looks forward to months of peace that will enable him to complete his novel.

Unfortunately, the hotel is haunted by spirits of the past, and the added burden of the previous caretaker going mad and chopping his family to bits with an ax.

The real success of The Shining is that the hotel itself is a character with its own nuances. The hotel is deathly quiet as the Torrances take over for the season-long hallways are featured, and the forbidden Room 237 takes on a life of its own.

Creepy images of two young girls and red blood gushing from the elevators take over. Young Danny can communicate with the chef without speaking to each other. Jack imagines a gorgeous nude woman in the bathtub, only to discover she is a shriveled old hag.

The film’s cinematography, coupled with the looming, morose musical score, goes hand in hand and, in my opinion, is the reason for the film’s success.

Throughout the film, there is a sense of dread and a forbidden presence that works beautifully.

The first scene is an aerial shot of the Torrances driving along a mountainous road as they are interviewed for the caretaker position. The vast land and mountains, as we eventually see the Overlook, immediately convey a sense of isolation, which is really what the film is about.

These exterior scenes are also gorgeous to marvel at.

The crisp, gloomy winter scenes and the endless maze of animal shrubbery come into play in the film’s final act as Jack, now completely mad, chases Danny along snowy paths that seem to lead nowhere.

The catchphrase, “Here’s Johnny!”, that is uttered from an ax-wielding Nicholson, is permanently ensconced in the relics of pop culture.

Nicholson and Duvall have such dynamic and palpable on-screen chemistry that makes the film work from a character perspective. There is something slightly off about each character, readily apparent from the outset, but it has more to do with each actor’s rather non-traditional appearance.

I can imagine no other actors in these roles.

Author Stephen King, who reportedly despised the film version of his novel, has since grown to respect the film and Kubrick’s direction a great deal.

The Shining (1980) is one of my favorite horror films and one of my favorite films of all time.

Doctor Sleep-2019

Director Mike Flanagan

Starring Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson

Scott’s Review #1,026

Reviewed May 22, 2020

Grade: B

Based on the 2013 novel of the same name written by Stephen King, a sequel to his own 1977 novel The Shining, Doctor Sleep (2019) is also a direct sequel to the film adaptation of The Shining (1980).

Events are set several decades after the original events and incorporate elements from the 1977 novel as well. A fun fact is that King hated the film version of The Shining but approved of the script for Doctor Sleep.

The first and last parts of the film are superior to the rest, mainly succeeding when elements of The Shining are incorporated.

The rest meanders and teeters too much into supernatural and computer-generated imagery territory, taking away from the haunting ghost story elements that made the original The Shining such a frightening treasure.

Ewan McGregor plays Danny Torrance, the little kid scarred from the trauma he suffered when his father Jack went mad at the looming Overlook hotel decades earlier.

Danny, now a grown man and a suffering alcoholic, lives a life that is out of control, suppressing his “shining” gifts that allow him to possess psychic abilities.

Hitting rock bottom, Dan moves to a tiny town in New Hampshire and befriends Billy Freeman (Cliff Curtis), who sponsors him in AA. Dan is regularly visited by the spirit of Dick Hallorann, the deceased chef from the hotel who teaches Dan how to contain his demons.

Meanwhile, the True Knot, a cult of psychic vampires led by Rose the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson), extend their lifespans by consuming “steam”, a psychic essence released as they torture and kill those who have the shining.

They primarily feed on young children and pursue Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran), a young girl whose shining is even more potent than Dan’s. She communicates telepathically with him and forms a pact to destroy Rose and her cronies.

Let’s take the good with the bad.

The film gets off to a perfect start with the recreation of scenes from The Shining when Danny rides his big wheel throughout the winding 1970’s 1970s-style hallways of The Overlook and gazes at the forbidden Room 237.

The synth musical score that made The Shining atmospheric and unforgettable is also included as the bass-infused heartbeat is showcased amid overhead camera angles, a clear ode to The Shining.

The finale of Doctor Sleep comes full circle as Dan and Abra travel from New Hampshire to snowy Colorado and revisit the Overlook, now tattered and ill-forgotten from decades of abandonment.

The showdown between Dan, Abra, and Rose treats fans to clips of Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall.

Visits from familiar characters and sets, such as the ghostly bartender, the conjoined twins, the wrinkled, old, naked woman, the gushing elevator blood, and the hedge maze, make their return, providing a lovely feeling of nostalgia.

Unfortunately, between the first thirty minutes and the final thirty minutes, there are another ninety minutes of screen time that don’t always work. For starters, a running time of two hours and thirty-two minutes feels too long for a horror film, and the filler lying in between is that much more apparent.

The action meanders, especially given the anticipated final battle, which is inevitable.

Taking nothing away from either Ferguson or Curran, who are fine in their respective roles of Rose and Abra, neither is the most interesting aspect of Doctor Sleep. They are new characters in the novel and therefore the film but are secondary to Dan and his intricate relationships with Jack, Wendy, and Dick.

The only parts of the story that were interesting to me were the connections and thoughts Dan had to experiences forty years earlier.

The battle scenes between Rose, Abra, and other characters do nothing for the story and take the film too far in the direction of the supernatural and slick technological aspects that The Shining didn’t need.

Since Doctor Sleep was adapted from the successful recent King adaptations of It Chapter Two (2019) and Pet Sematary (2019), perhaps this is the reason for the modern additions.

If Doctor Sleep (2019) could be sliced and diced to eliminate the middle and keep the bookends of the beginning and finale, the result would have paid proper homage to The Shining (1980); instead, we get only halfway there.

The film has some nice elements and stays true to its history, but it contains a few unnecessary additions that detract from its overall quality. And how can a film ever compare to the greatness of The Shining (1980)?