Shining

Jack Torrance takes over for the winter as caretaker of the mighty Panorama Hotel, located in the mountains of Colorado. Together with his wife and son of several years, they become the only occupants of this magnificent shrine, but soon discover that the hotel with traditions also has its secrets. The madness of closure, the ghosts of Panorama and the snowdrifts that cut it off from the rest of the world create a trap with no way out, and Jack, who was supposed to keep his family safe, turns into a possessed maniac.

The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on the bestselling book by Stephen King, is one of the most famous horror films in the history of cinema, and at the same time a work so very unique that almost every attempt to establish a dialogue with him ended in failure. Perhaps because Kubrick's terror is inhuman, devoid of logic, detached from any principles. And perhaps because the horror has the face of Jack Nicholson, whose frantic dance with an ax later in the film and his face twisted with a smile will forever remain synonymous with cinematic terror.

Kubrick's goal was to make a total horror movie. And the proof of this is already at the forefront when we look at images of majestic nature, illustrated with instantly frightening music inspired by the medieval song “Dies irae”. Evil is everywhere, the director of The Clockwork Orange seems to say. Evil is eternal. While Stephen King sought out and explained the danger in the main character's alcoholism, whose addiction becomes a gateway to evil, Kubrick lacks that gateway — evil still haunts Jack Torrance, there is no way it could not have happened. Thus, the amazing headlamp is a kind of exterior. Something calls Jack to Panorama, and he hears this invitation. And he accepts them.

[Krzysztof Walecki for Cult Classics]