The Shining (1980) Review

           The Shining (1980) is a psychological horror movie where a guy named Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson) interviews for the position of winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel and gets the job. He then brings in his wife (played by Shelley Duvall) and son (played by Danny Lloyd) to stay in the hotel during the winter months. Unfortunately, things don't all go well as slowly but surely, some crazy, weird psychological shit happens.
           After just viewing this for the very first time, I think "The Shining" might be one of my personal favorite movies. I'm serious. The way that the movie slowly builds tension as it goes along, while the creepy-ass score plays amidst all of this, made it all genuinely scary. Jack Nicholson does a great job of portraying a man who seems normal at first but then turns into a fucked up individual. Danny Lloyd also creeped me the hell out at times, especially during scenes where he seems to take in a different soul.
           This is the type of movie where at a few points while watching it you may be going, 'Wait. What on earth is going on?' I may have to spend a devoted amount of time after writing this just trying to comprehend what was going on in certain portions of it. But thankfully, it never bothered that I couldn't comprehend things while watching it because, it's so consistently entertaining from beginning to end that I never feel cheated on as an audience member unlike something like "Muholland Dr.". Everything just seemed to click for me from the acting, direction, cinematography, storytelling, and atmosphere.
           I'm officially starting to become a horror movie fan with "Psycho" and now this. I look forward to trying out more of these. This was a masterfully crafted creepy and memorable experience for me. I know I heard this movie isn't faithful to the book its based on (which I never read), but really, that doesn't matter since "The Shining" holds up perfectly well on its own as a movie. Definitely check this one out if you're a horror fan.
           I give "The Shining" (1980) directed by Stanley Kubrick a 10 out of 10.