MOVIE REVIEW | The Shining (1980)

 

Rating: 6/10

My initial reaction upon struggling to finish this film was, "Stephen King novels should be left as novels and not be adapted on screen." I have not seen any Stephen King works in movies that impressed me. "Carrie" and "Children of the Corn" both gave chill but do not really end up well as a material for films, simply because the endings were too weak or the character development was abrupt.

For instance, in the case of "The Shining" the narrative was supposed to be about the "shining" which is Danny's ability to see past and future events. But the movie failed to utilize this ability as main element in the entire thick of things. In fact, I feel like the movie could have been OK as it is, without Danny even having this ability since it's pretty useless anyway. As opposed to the "Sixth Sense" where the boy's gift was the center focus of the conflict, and how everything was affected by his ability to see and talk to spirits.

The Shining would have been better titled as "The Caretaker" or "All Play and No Work Makes Jack a Dull Boy" because that is what it is - a story about how Jack lost his mind because he was too busy trying to write. At best, the movie becomes eerily scary because of the ambient sounds that give away if something is going to happen; well, to the point that it becomes too distracting already. Nobody wants to be told that this is a horror story. We already know that.