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The Shining (1980)

tomatometer

88

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Reviews Counted: 49
Fresh: 43 | Rotten: 6

Though it deviates from Stephen King's novel, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a chilling, often baroque journey into madness -- exemplified by an unforgettable turn from Jack Nicholson

57

Average Rating: 6.9/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 3

Though it deviates from Stephen King's novel, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a chilling, often baroque journey into madness -- exemplified by an unforgettable turn from Jack Nicholson

audience

91

liked it
Average Rating: 4/5
User Ratings: 423,027

My Rating

Movie Info

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- or, rather, a homicidal boy in Stanley Kubrick's eerie 1980 adaptation of Stephen King's horror novel. With wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and psychic son Danny (Danny Lloyd) in tow, frustrated writer Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes a job as the winter caretaker at the opulently ominous, mountain-locked Overlook Hotel so that he can write in peace. Before the Overlook is vacated for the Torrances, the manager (Barry Nelson) informs Jack that a

Jun 29, 1999

Warner Bros. Pictures

Cast

All Critics (49) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (48) | Rotten (7) | DVD (28)

Kubrick has made a movie that will have to be reckoned with on the highest level.

October 21, 2010 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment (1)
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

As a ghost story and adaptation of the Stephen King novel, it's largely a failure. On the other hand, as an example of directorial bravura and as a study of madness and the unreliable narrator, it's a brilliant success.

April 30, 2009 Full Review Source: ReelViews | Comment
ReelViews
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Kubrick is after a cool, sunlit vision of hell, born in the bosom of the nuclear family, but his imagery -- with its compulsive symmetry and brightness -- is too banal to sustain interest, while the incredibly slack narrative line forestalls suspense.

Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The movie is not about ghosts but about madness and the energies it sets loose in an isolated situation primed to magnify them.

Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

With everything to work with, director Stanley Kubrick has teamed with jumpy Jack Nicholson to destroy all that was so terrifying about Stephen King's bestseller.

Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I fear all work and no play has made Stanley a dull boy.

March 7, 2005 Full Review Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Comments (22)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Kubrick doesn't dumb it down or anything, but he's not actively trying to appeal only to film connoisseurs either. If any of his movies could be called mainstream, it's this one.

October 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Film Threat | Comment
Film Threat

The Shining is an intense and not always ingratiating experience, a natural bookend to 2001...

July 13, 2009 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | Comment
eFilmCritic.com

The result may not quite match Kubrick's greatest films, but it is enthralling and hypnotic - a brilliant, ambitious attempt to shoot a horror film without the Gothic trappings.

February 3, 2009 Full Review Source: ESplatter | Comment
ESplatter

The Shining met the fate of several other Stanley Kubrick films when it came out; most viewers did not like it, so they rejected it. Most importantly, they did not understand it in any way which allowed them to deal with it constructively.

February 2, 2009 Full Review Source: tonymacklin.net | Comment
tonymacklin.net

It's arguably the talented director's least appealing film, as it feels empty and soulless.

April 24, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comments (9)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Come and play with us, Danny--in anamorphic widescreen--forever, and ever, and ever.

November 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

It's the experience more so than the actual content of The Shining that radiates cold, anti-humanly indifferent terror.

November 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

...not your average horror movie, but, then, Kubrick was not your average movie director. (HD DVD Edition)

November 1, 2007 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Obviously this 2-disc doozy is the "must own" version of The Shining. Yes, even if you own the older DVD.

October 25, 2007 Full Review Source: FEARnet | Comment
FEARnet

Ostensibly a haunted house story, it manages to traverse a complex world of incipient madness, spectral murder and supernatural visions... and also makes you jump.

September 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

One of the late 20th century's finest tales of the supernatural and a justly famous classic.

September 19, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

With remarkable visual panache and a keen sense of irony, Stanley Kubrick rehabilitates Stephen King's trashy, terrifying novel.

May 8, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | Comments (3)
TV Guide's Movie Guide

Kubrick's mostly riveting attempt to rewrite the conventions of the horror genre

March 12, 2006 Full Review Source: Cinemania | Comment (1)

Kubrick's unbalanced approach (over-emphasis on production values) results in soulless cardboard cutouts who can do little to generate audience empathy.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comments (11)
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The Shining

Jack Torrance: Mr. Grady. You were the caretaker here. I recognize you. I saw your picture in the newspapers. You, uh, chopped your wife and daughters up into little bits. And then you blew your brains out. "The Horror is driving him crazy."There is absolutely no horror film like The Shining. I've seen it described as

January 13, 2011
blkbomb
Melvin White

Super Reviewer

A lot of people may disagree with me but I see Stanley Kubrick's The Shining to be his absolute best film. This movie is proof that blood special effects dont rule the horror industry. From the films i've seen with Jack Nicholson this is the one role that fit him solidly and of course the role which he has acted at his

January 3, 2012
Michael M.
Michael Miller

Super Reviewer

    1. Jack Torrance: Word's of wisdom, Lyod. Words of wisdom.
    – Submitted by Jean-Philippe G (31 days ago)
    1. Grady: Your son has a very great talent. I don't think you are aware how great it is. That he is attempting to use that very talent against your will.
    2. Jack Torrance: He is a very willful boy.
    3. Grady: Indeed he is, Mr. Torrance. A very willful boy. A rather naughty boy, if I may be so bold, sir.
    4. Jack Torrance: It's his mother. She, uh, interferes.
    5. Grady: Perhaps they need a good talking to, if you don't mind my saying so. Perhaps a bit more. My girls, sir, they didn't care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches, and tried to burn it down. But I 'corrected' them sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I 'corrected' her.
    – Submitted by Shawn H (2 months ago)
    1. Danny Torrance: Redrum.
    – Submitted by Daniel D (3 months ago)
    1. Jack Torrance: Here's to five miserable months on the wagon, and all the irreparable harm that it has caused me.
    – Submitted by John D (3 months ago)
    1. Jack Torrance: Wendy, you've got a big surprise coming to you. You're not going anywhere.
    – Submitted by Andrew M (3 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Shining (FR)
  • El resplandor (ES)
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