"The Shining" Movie review (some spoilers)

The Shining is, by far, the scariest movie I have ever seen in my life. At first glace, I thought it was mighty creepy, but nothing special. Then, I saw a video on YouTube titled something like "The Shining Theory," and, thus, I was swept into a wave of conspiracy theories, hidden meanings, themes, and things, and the mind of Stanley Kubrick. I was instantly obsessed.

I read the book, written by my favorite author, Stephen King, in January, 2016, and it became the scariest book I had ever read--fitting for, arguably, the scariest movie ever made. The movie was very different from the book, but had the same basic plot and characters. There was Jack, Wendy, and Danny Torrance, who are the new caretakers of the Overlook Hotel over the winter. Jack's working on a writing project, and Danny has a supernatural gift: the shining. The ending of the book and the ending of the movie were exact opposites, but still had a great effect. The book and the movie each have their own atmosphere, and I love both of them. As an accurate book-to-move adaptation goes, this is very unfaithful, but as it's own thing, it is a cinematic masterpiece beyond words.

To look into the theories, just watch the documentary Room 237 which is basically the guide to digging into what The Shining was really about. There's tons of stuff on YouTube, too, like, if you look closely, there's a body falling out of the elevator, and there's a door open over there and you can see someone standing there watching Danny and stuff like that. It adds to the terror. But, I would rather you watch the movie first before watching theories and everything.

A lot of people say that the lady in the bathtub was the scariest part, or the twins, or the Here's Johnny scene, but I think that there are a lot of underrated scenes in it that gave me chills. Including the one on the right. If you look to the right of Danny, at the door closest to the camera, you can see that the door is open, and, if you brighten the image, you can see someone clearly watching him! This scene at first may seem dull, but when you see that door, this becomes one of the scariest scenes in the entire movie. I'm always creeped out by the feeling that I'm being watched, and this is the perfect example.

I literally cannot look at the image on the left. It is the scariest image in the entire movie. When it comes on the screen, I need to look away for some reason because I feel like it's a cursed image or something. It also doesn't help that the shot is after a really creepy, intense scene, and almost feels like a jumpscare. The shot of his frozen corpse is drawn-out and it has haunted my thoughts and dreams since I saw it.





So, in the end, this is one of the best-planned, best-made, most-studied films of all time. A lot of people just think that it's creepy, but that's because they aren't looking around the characters, at that open door, or at that corpse falling out of the elevator, or all of the foreshadowing. It is also one of my favorite movies, too.