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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Shining, The

EMAIL PRINT

9.1 User Score:

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 10 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 19 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Horror | Suspense/Thriller

Written by: Stephen King (novel)
Stanley Kubrick
Diane Johnson

Directed by: Stanley Kubrick

Release Date:
Theatrical: May 23, 1980
DVD: June 12, 2001

Running Time: 119 minutes, Color

Origin: USA / UK

Summary

RATING: R for restricted, under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel, Lisa Burns, and Louise Burns

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.)

Also On Metacritic

FILM: 2001: A Space Odyssey A Clockwork Orange Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb Eyes Wide Shut Full Metal Jacket

Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Empire Ian Nathan

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.

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Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

But there is no way, within the film, to be sure with any confidence exactly what happens, or precisely how, or really why. Kubrick delivers this uncertainty in a film where the actors themselves vibrate with unease.

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The New York Times Janet Maslin

Meticulously detailed and never less than fascinating, The Shining may be the first movie that ever made its audience jump with a title that simply says "Tuesday."

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Film Threat Jeremy Knox

For a supposed mainstream movie, Kubrick’s The Shining isn’t very audience friendly. Half the time you have to guess what the hell is going on, and if you're not familiar with Kubrick's narrative style you’ll be completely lost.

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Boston Globe Bruce McCabe

When you sit down to The Shining, you sit down with normal expectations of being diverted, perhaps even being gripped, but not being undermined. But the film undermines you in powerful, inchoate ways. It's a horror story even for people who don't like horror stories - maybe especially for them. [14 Jun 1980, p.1]

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Stephen King reportedly loathed the liberties Kubrick and co-writer Diane Johnson took with his story, but King's ur-villain, the emasculated husband from hell, has never been more clearly presented on-screen.

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Time Richard Schickel

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.

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Variety Staff (Not Credited)

The crazier Nicholson gets, the more idiotic he looks. Shelley Duvall transforms the warm sympathetic wife of the book into a simpering, semi-retarded hysteric.

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The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jay Scott

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]

Chicago Reader Dave Kehr

Kubrick is after a cool, sunlit vision of hell, born in the bosom of the nuclear family, but his imagery--with its compulsive symmetry and brightness--is too banal to sustain interest, while the incredibly slack narrative line forestalls suspense.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 19 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rick L gave it a10:
A classic is the only word that can truly define this film. Really well shot, great acting for the most part (some little flaws here and there) and great character development. I highly recommend this film.

Matthew R gave it a9:
Kubrick presented the interchangeable nature of internal disturbance and external terror, establishing an ominous undertone that accompanied the creepiness of the foreground imagery. The film doesn't settle for superficial scare tactics,instead, it quietly sustains an level of palpable menace throughout the entire piece.

Pat C. gave it a9:
Each scene is meticulously crafted to perfection as only Kubrick can. Though not a huge hit when it came out, in the test of time it has imparted a host of icons and one liners on to our culture. Towards the end, the rooms full of scary things was deviantly anticlimactic, as the real horror was always what was happening in Nicholson's head. But consider the beginning: Kubrick made Glacier Park, the most beautiful place on the planet, the doorway to the 10th level of hell. As a film opening it rates right up there with the first Star Wars movie. It's just totally too good.

Kurt W. gave it a1:
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.

Jerry O. gave it a9:
This film is underrated if you ask me, it's always been one of my favorites if not my favorite horror movies. The best part, I think, is that it manages to be scary even though very few people die, as opposed to modern horror movies that fail to be scary even though everybody dies.

Blanco A. gave it a10:
By FAR, the creepiest, scariest movie I've ever seen. To this day, when I'm in a long, deserted hallway in a hotel, especially staring at an elevator, I think of those two little girls on trikes. Chilling!... Heeeeere's Johnny!