The Shining | What to Watch

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Aspiring author Jack Nicholson takes a job as caretaker of an isolated, closed-for-the-winter Colorado hotel, but is soon behaving erractically

Aspiring author Jack Nicholson takes a job as caretaker of an isolated, closed-for-the-winter Colorado hotel, but is soon behaving erractically.

Things don't bode too well, either, when Nicholson's psychic son Danny Lloyd starts seeing rivers of blood gushing out of elevator doors and two strange little girls lying axed to death in a corridor. And wife Shelley Duvall is none too happy when Nicholson's behaviour becomes increasingly unpredictable...

Based on Stephen King’s novel, this 1980 horror movie, directed by Stanley Kubrick, wasn’t that well received on its release - least of all by King himself - but is now acknowledged as a classic.

Kubrick creates a wonderfully eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere in the snowbound hotel and the shots taken from the little boy's level as he trundles around the empty halls on his tricycle are especially good.

Nicholson is also excellent – his famous 'Here's Johnny!' chopping-through-the-door-scene is one of the most quoted lines in film history. Kubrick’s meticulous approach meant that scene took three days to shoot and Nicholson broke 60 doors in the process!