31 Spooky Nights: The Shining

A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.

Amelia: TWO AND A HALF HOURS? TWO AND A HALF HOURS! TWO? AND A HALF? HOURS! I could have trimmed about an hour off the movie and gotten everything I needed to. I think Stephen King and I (who famously despises the movie adaption of The Shining) could sit down and have a lot of bitchy fun talking about how much we don’t like this movie. I mean, I’m not mad for King’s writing either, but I wouldn’t tell him that, we’d just go on about Shelley Duvall’s screamy, whiny, too-many-teeth performance as Wendy.

Billy: Depending on who you ask, Stanley Kubrick was either a madman or a genius. The Shining was one of his great works, and it’s become iconic in horror for the surreal nature of its images alongside a tense portrayal of a man violently turning against his family. It’s not without faults. Everything that leads up to the family’s arrival at the hotel is just blatant exposition. What takes place over multiple scenes in the book, unfolding naturally and with subtle world-building, is accomplished by two people sitting in a room and talking in the movie. Over. And over. And over. There’s a lot you have to cut to make a novel work on screen, and I honestly think that this is where the movie falters the most. It’s a brilliant movie, but a clumsy adaptation, and while it unfortunately puts a bad taste in my mouth early on, the hotel scenes are the stuff that really make the movie worth it.

One aspect of the opening I can’t fault is the music. Wendy Carlos composed a fantastic score for the film, and while the majority of it went unused, that opening track as we follow the Volkswagen up the mountain is breathtaking in its ominous tones. It’s a score that meshes perfectly against the grand vistas we get visually, and it’s one of the best openings any film has ever had. Much of this original score has been retained on Carlos’ Lost Themes albums, which I highly recommend to anyone who considers themselves a fan of one of the pioneering woman of electronic music.

Amelia: My biggest problem with The Shining is the pacing. Shelley Duvall sitting down to have a slow, back and forth talk with a pediatrician isn’t exactly thrilling. It’s done more organically in the book but here it’s two characters sitting across from each other. One of them says something, then the other says something, then they go back and forth like this for WAY TOO FUCKING LONG. I first saw The Shining on television. I caught it one night at, what I thought, was about half way through. Turns out, I came in during the last fourth of the movie. When ¼ of your movie feels like a half of a regular movie… that ain’t right. I feel like Kubrick was trying to drive me as crazy as Jack was with this tedium!

Billy: I’ll spare you the majority of my pretentious film school ramblings, because there’s honestly too much to talk about in terms of what Kubrick did to make The Shining worth watching. The main element that makes it a classic can be summed up in one word: craft. Like a cathedral made by an old master, this film is solidly made. Take any element from any scene in this film and there’s something to analyse or impress you as a viewer. The papers beside Jack’s typewriter, for instance, in the scene where Wendy finally sees what Jack has been writing? Those pages are insane to me because I know it took Stanley Kubrick’s secretary months to type every one of those pages out by hand and that every page in that stack was handmade and unique. I know the geography of the house doesn’t line up and that the hotel is filled with impossible windows and that there are shots in this film that just don’t make real world sense. If you’ve seen either of the documentaries Room 237 or Making The Shining, you’ll understand how much meaning and intention this film holds apart from the surface-level plot of the film. Not that any of the theories in Room 237 are accurate, but it’s the fact that there was so much here to theorize about that’s the point.

Amelia: I don’t believe in legacy as much as some people, which is why I think The Shining is held up on such a pedestal simply because of Stanley Kubrick. A lot of people will say that if you have Stanley Kubrick he can do whatever the fuck he wants because he’s Kubrick. Personally I think creative types should have to earn your admiration in every single thing they do. It shouldn’t be that they do some good things and everything else gets a pass for all time. That’s what sent M. Night Shyamalan into the tailspin of flaming garbage movies he’s in nowadays. It’s what protects Roman Polanski from people seeing him as a child rapist to this day. Seriously, if you don’t question a creator every step of the way, what’s the point? Some of Kubrick’s choices should have been questioned. Stephen King agrees with me on this!

Billy: There’s obviously still so much to say about The Shining, but I want to bring it back to Scatman Crothers for a moment because, even though I’ve watched the movie several times, his performance is something that still consistently holds my awed fascination. His musical background is so clear in the way he acts and speaks throughout this film. There is a jazz in his words that’s entirely at odds with the tone of the film, including Wendy Carlos’ droning score. Because of this, Crothers is uniquely positioned as the best character in here to explain the idea of “shine” to Danny. His cadence just draws you in. I was enthralled just listening to him list groceries, but actually expounding untold knowledge of the universe? Yes please. And I love the way we cut back to him when he picks up Danny’s call for help. We follow him as he makes this long journey across the country that culminates in a quick and uneventful death that really only serves to buy everybody a little more time. You are missed, Scatman Crothers. You are missed.

Amelia: There’s jazz in his performance? Jesus fucking Christ that there is some film school bullshit!

Spooky Verdict

Amelia: Three and a half something somethings out of ten

All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl. All talk and no action makes Amelia a bored girl.

Billy: Seven something somethings out of ten

As a film nerd, I have to appreciate all the little things Kubrick did to make The Shining such an intriguing film, but it’s not my favourite horror movie either from a subjective standpoint. Stephen King famously didn’t like this movie, and I get that. He said it changed the meaning from the book and he’s right. Nobody could ever buy Jack Nicholson as a possibly sane man. It’s an iconic movie from a filmmaker’s perspective. Should you watch this movie? Yes. Absolutely. Its greatness is all over the screen. But if you end up hating it like Amelia, I get it. It’s 31 Spooky Nights for a reason. There’s still tons of horror out there to see.