The Shining Movie Review 1980

Very loose adaptation of the Stephen King horror novel about a writer and his family, snowbound in a huge hotel, who experience various hauntings caused by either the hotel itself or the writer's dementia. Technically stunning, and pretty dang scary, but too long, pretentious and implausible. Nicholson is excellent as the failed writer gone off the deep end.

Distribution

Warner Home Video, Inc., 5775 Linder Canyon Rd., Westlake Village, CA 91362, URL: http://whv.warnerbros.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 143 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Sanity Check, Great Escapes, Grand Hotel, Psychotics/Sociopaths, Trapped with a Killer!, Creepy Houses, Books to Film: Stephen King, Bloody Messages, Bad Dads, Cold Spots, Blizzards, Psychic Abilities, Writers

Screenplay

Stanley Kubrick, Diane Johnson

Cast

Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Joe Turkel, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Lia Beldam, Billie Gibson, Barry Dennen, David Baxt, Lisa Burns, Alison Coleridge, Kate Phelps, Anne Jackson, Tony Burton

Cinematography

John Alcott

Director

Stanley Kubrick

Music

Walter (Wendy) Carlos, Rachel Elkind

Other

Ray Lovejoy, Leslie Tomkins