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The Shining
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Metascore
61 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.5 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 87 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall
  • Summary: A married couple with a small son are employed to look after a resort hotel high in the Colorado mountains. As a result, they are the sole occupants during the long winter. The hotel manager warns them not to accept the job because of a tragedy that occurred during the winter of 1970. (Warner Bros.)

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 10
  3. Negative: 2 out of 10
  1. Empire
    Reviewed by: Ian Nathan
    100
    Ostensibly a haunted house story, it manages to traverse a complex world of incipient madness, spectral murder and supernatural visions ...and also makes you jump.
  2. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    50
    It is a daring thing the director has done, this bleaching out of all the cheap thrills, this dashing of all the hopes one brings to what is, after all, advertised as "a masterpiece of modern horror." Certainly he has asked much of Nicholson, who must sustain attention in a hugely unsympathetic role, and who responds with a brilliantly crazed performance.
  3. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Jay Scott
    38
    Kubrick certainly doesn't fail small. One could fast forget The Shining as an overreaching, multi-levelled botch were it not for Jack Nicholson. Nicholson, one of the few actors capable of getting the audience to love him no matter what he does, is an ideal vehicle for Kubrick. [14 Jun 1980, p.E1]
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See all 10 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 20 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 23
  3. Negative: 2 out of 23
  1. grandpajoe6191
    8
    Illustrating the true, crazy countenance of mankind when confronted in extreme isolation and horror, Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" is a modern-horror masterpiece that criticizes not only us, but also the disjointed society. (P.S: This was probably the best movie Jack Nicholson performed in. Ever.)… Expand
    • 3 of 3 users said yes
  2. spacecaptain
    4
    One of the most over-rated horror pictures, yet based on one of Stephen King's finest novels. How could it go wrong? The primary problem is that the film simply isn't scary. I'll give it creepy, but only mildly. And only one scene stands out as being anything close to King's vision of supernatural fear ("Room 237"). Sure Nicholson is fun, and really, the cast is fine. But the secondary problem this film has is a critical fail: the movie's aim and thrust is completely muddled.… Expand
    • 1 of 3 users said yes
  3. KurtW.
    1
    Possibly the dumbest movie I've seen. Not scary at all. The characters and their acting were laughably bad, especially the wife... every time she walked, talked or screamed, I could not take her seriously.… Expand
    • 0 of 5 users said yes

See all 23 User Reviews

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