The Shining
Synopsis
After landing a job as an off-season caretaker, Jack Torrance, an aspiring author and recovering alcoholic, drags his wife Wendy and gifted son Danny to snow-covered Colorado's secluded Overlook Hotel. However, writer's block prevents Jack from pursuing a new writing career. Everything has its time, however. First, the manager must give Jack a grand tour. Then, Mr. Hallorann, the facility's aging chef, chats with Danny about rare psychic gifts. The mysterious employee also warns the boy about the cavernous hotel's abandoned rooms. Room 237, especially, is off-limits. That's all very well, but Jack is gradually losing his mind. After all, strange occurrences and blood-chilling visions have trapped the family in a silent gargantuan prison hammered by endless snowstorms. And now, incessant voices inside Jack's head demand sacrifice. However, is Jack capable of murder? —Nick Riganas
Main Characters
- Danny Torrance – A five-year-old boy who possesses extraordinary psychic powers, or shine; he becomes the Overlook Hotel's target when his father, Jack Torrance, moves the family there for a winter job.
- Jack Torrance – Jack Torrance is a disgraced former teacher and aspiring writer with a history of heavy drinking and violence; he takes a job as winter caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in a last-ditch effort to salvage his career and keep his family together.
- Wendy Torrance – Wendy Torrance, Jack's wife and Danny's mother, tries to support Jack and keep her son safe.
- Dick Hallorann – The head chef at the Overlook Hotel, shares Danny's powers of shine.
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ReplyDeleteEven though The Shining is over a quarter of a century old, I challenge anyone to not get freaked out by Jack Nicholson's descent into madness. This is a rare example of something so unique that no one has been able to rip it off; instead it has been referenced time and time again in pop culture. The twins, the elevator of blood, RedRum, the crazy nonsense "writing"... this should be seen, if for nothing else, to understand all the allusions to it in daily life. The film is simultaneously scary, suspenseful, beautiful, and psychologically intriguing. It has the classic mystery of Hitchcock and the terror of a modern thriller. And it has what horror movies usually lack: a great script.
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