The Shining

The Shining is often called the "first epic horror film." True. Director Stanley Kubrick maintains an encompassing, immersive cinematography and couples it with leading performances that certainly could be called epic. Epic, however, in this case, makes for a euphemism for overacting.

Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall play assigned caretakers to the Overlook Hotel, an expansive location that needs tending for five months. It isn't long, though, upon staying in snowbound isolation, that initially wild-eyed Nicholson and shaking, unsure Shelley have their already unstable personality traits expanded to the nth degree. Evil hotels can do that to people.

The film intermittently crosses over into supernatural terrority-the crazy couple's son has the ability to "shine," a confusing and somewhat arbitrary concept that I won't even begin to start explaining. There are also ghosts, men in bear suits, elevators from which flows blood. So on and so forth.

Yes, this is a weird film to be sure. It's haunting to observe but incredibly odd to understand. The nature of the ghosts, the hotel, and the ability to "shine" itself are all concepts that will leave your head bloody from scratching. Advice: Don't even try to make sense of it. Rather than make a mental exercise out of it, just sit back and enjoy what you can out of an absolutely insane Nicholson pursuing a shrieking Shelley Duvall. Epic indeed.