The Shining Movie Trailers and Reviews

The Shining (1980)

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Release Date: May 23rd, 1980

Synopsis: Jack Torrance becomes the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel up in the secluded mountains of Colorado. Jack, being a family man, takes his wife and son to the hotel to keep him company throughout the long and isolated nights. During their stay strange things occur when Jack’s son Danny sees gruesome images powered by a force called “The Shining” and Jack is heavily affected by this. Along with writer’s block and the demons of the hotel haunting him Jack has a complete mental breakdown and the situation takes a sinister turn for the worse.

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The Shining Movie Trailer

About the Movie

The Shining is a 1980 psychological horror film directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Stephen King’s novel The Shining. Director Stanley Kubrick co-wrote the screenplay with novelist Diane Johnson. The film stars Jack Nicholson as tormented writer Jack Torrance, Shelley Duvall as his wife Wendy, and Danny Lloyd as their son, Danny.

Unlike most Stanley Kubrick films which saw a slow graduated release building on word-of-mouth reputation, The Shining was released in a manner more like a mass-market film, opening at first in just two cities on Memorial Day, and then a month later seeing a nationwide release (including to drive-ins) after extensive television advertising. Nonetheless, initial response to the film was mixed and at first it performed moderately at the box office. The subsequent European release was almost half an hour shorter. Later critical assessment of the film has been more favorable and it is now viewed as a classic of the horror genre by critics such as Roger Ebert and other directors like Martin Scorsese. Its iconic and surreal imagery is now deeply embedded throughout popular culture.

The film tells the story of a writer, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), who accepts the job of the winter caretaker at a hotel that always gets snowed in during the winter. Jack’s son shares psychic abilities with the hotel’s chef who calls it “shining”. They can see things in the future or past, such as the ghosts of murdered people in the hotel. As the hotel becomes snowbound, Jack Torrance becomes influenced by the ghosts in the haunted hotel, descending into madness and trying to murder his wife and son.

The novel’s author Stephen King had very conflicted feelings about the film (see Reception and Comparison with the book) which have oscillated over time. A TV mini-series adaptation of the novel broadcast in 1997 saw King more actively involved.