The Shining
63
metacriticBased on 12 Critics
88
Based on 731 Users

Release Date: May 23rd, 1980

DVD Release Date: June 29th, 1999

R |2 hr 22 min

Plot Summary

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and Danny's visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.

Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joseph Turkel, Anne Jackson

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Genres: Thriller , Horror

Production Co: Producers Circle, Peregrine, Warner Brothers, Hawk Films

Distributors: Warner Bros. Pictures

Keywords: Escape , Pursuit , 1970s , Suspenseful , Wife ,

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Ratings & Reviews

  • 50
    Gene SiskelChicago Tribune

    Disappointing... Jack Nicholson parodies himself while Kubrick fails to provide any thrills. [11 July 1980, p.8]

  • 75
    Boston Globe

    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]

  • 100
    Roger EbertChicago Sun-Times

    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. show more

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