The Shining

- Halloween Part 3! - It's pretty brilliant but I think it's mostly excellent based off the many Kubrickism's rather than the story being told. - Obviously, the cinematography is pretty incredible throughout. Of course, there's super intense scenes like Jack in the freezer, Jack breaking the door down and the chase sequence through the maze, but I think the stronger parts of the cinematography are more subtle. Generally, the film isn't as flashy and stylish as something like A Clockwork Orange or Full Metal Jacket, but it just has this uneasy and claustrophobic aura throughout the whole film. The shots which glide through all the massive chambers of the hotel that introduce you to the space so it can break it down, the slow dragging shots across the hotel which build this masterful tension which makes you just as paranoid as Jack and Wendy. - Still, despite all the Kubrickism's that are great, the best part of the film is 1000% the performances. The child is alright but the two adults give two true masterpiece performances. Jack Nicholson gives a perfect performance, so manic and so expressive, got some weird Jim Carrey vibes from the way he contorts his face in such a cartoonish and exaggerated way. Shelley Duvall is also terrific, from the very beginning of the film you just get this vibe of tiredness(?) and kind-heartedness from her that really makes you feel such a deep sympathy for her. - in other words; Shelley Duvall is so pretty I didn't like it when they were mean to Wendy :( - I suppose my biggest gripe with the film isn't the pacing but rather the lack of consistency in the pacing. Like I'm fine if you want to make a film exploring the isolation and torture that you undergo with cabin fever and take your time exploring the environment and showing us the character dynamics, but I dislike it when you do that for half the film then quickly change into a horror genre movie. Just feels like a bit of tonal mismatch to go from bleak and glacial to a fast-paced slasher pretty much. - Thematically, I see it as an exploration of how the world warps around victims of domestic abuse. I think this because I believe that the maliciousness of the Hotel is intrinsically linked to Jack's own morality. Until Jack heads to the Gold Room to break his sobriety, the Hotel may be supernatural but I don't think it acts particularly hostile towards the Torrance's. Of course, Danny gets his neck bruise but I'm more of the opinion that that was Jack's doing. - So as Jack (the perpetrator of abuse) fully realizes his turn of morality, the house follows him as he's the caretaker, the host, in the same way it followed Grady. From there, the Hotel turns hostile to Wendy and Danny, beginning to pervert their lives with visions and impossible, haunted architecture. This occurs in the same way that the world bends and tortures victim of abuse. - The movie does feel remarkably modern in it's colours and it's lighting though, really slick film. - Maybe I've been poisoned by the jumpscare-slop of today but I don't really find this movie scary at all, not even in like a atmospherically disturbing way, it's just all right I suppose.