The Shining (1980)

“All work and no play makes Jack a lunatic dad.”


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🎥 Let’s start by showing y’all the trailers shall we?

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🧾 Non-Spoiler Plot Overview

So here’s the deal: Stephen King wrote the book, Kubrick made the movie, and the two basically hate each other now. King despises this adaptation because it’s not book-accurate. Me? I like it anyway, because Jack Nicholson carries this thing like a madman. He plays Jack Torrance, a guy who takes his wife Wendy and his psychic kid Danny to the Overlook Hotel to look after it for the winter. Ghosts, isolation, and alcoholism don’t mix well, and before you know it Jack goes from “grumpy dad” to “axe murderer.”


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👥 Character Rundown

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) – Father of the year. Shows up already kind of a jerk, then slowly descends into full-blown insanity. Nicholson’s performance is unhinged, scary, and honestly hilarious in moments.

Wendy Torrance (Shelley Duvall) – Jack’s wife. Nervous, fragile, but the only one who actually keeps it together. Gets terrorized constantly.

Danny Torrance (Danny Lloyd) – Their son, who has “the shining” — psychic visions of past, present, and future. Also talks to an imaginary friend named Tony.

Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers) – The cook who also has the shining. He warns Danny about the hotel, then comes back at the end to help… only to get axed by Jack in about five seconds.



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⏱️ Pacing / Episode Flow

The movie’s a slow burn. It’s quiet, eerie, and gets under your skin. Kubrick spends a lot of time building tension with long hallways, creepy camera work, and unsettling music. The last act is where it really kicks off, when Jack loses it completely and turns into the axe-swinging psycho we all know.


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✅ Pros

Jack Nicholson’s performance — legendary, meme-worthy, terrifying.

Iconic scenes: the twins in the hallway, “Here’s Johnny!”, the elevator blood, the hedge maze.

Atmosphere is off the charts. Cold, haunting, dreamlike.

Kubrick’s direction makes the hotel feel alive and sinister.



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❌ Cons

If you’re a Stephen King purist, this ain’t it. The story is very different from the book.

Slow pacing might bore people who want more action.

Hallorann’s death feels cheap — he builds him up, then kills him off instantly.

The book gave Jack a redemption arc; the movie just makes him a straight villain.



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💭 Final Thoughts

I get why people debate this movie to death. Book fans hate it, film fans worship it, Stephen King disowned it. But me? I think it’s a great movie on its own terms. Nicholson makes it unforgettable, the visuals are iconic, and the Overlook is one of the best horror settings ever. Different from the book? Sure. But it’s still one hell of a horror film.


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⭐ Rating

8.4/10. Creepy, cold, and iconic. Not faithful to the book, but unforgettable in its own way.


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⚠️ Spoiler Warning

Okay, let’s talk about what actually goes down in the Overlook.


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🩸 Spoilers

Jack takes his family to the hotel, tries to write his book, but slowly loses it. The ghosts egg him on — he hallucinates parties, drinks phantom alcohol, and talks to dead bartenders. Danny keeps seeing horrific visions: the twin girls, rivers of blood, room 237. Wendy just tries to keep it together while her husband unravels.

Danny’s powers (the shining) link him to Hallorann, the cook, who senses something’s wrong and comes back to help. Unfortunately, Jack greets him with an axe to the chest, cutting him down instantly.

The climax: Jack chases Danny into the snowy hedge maze at night with an axe. Danny outsmarts him, backtracks in his footprints, and escapes with Wendy. Jack freezes to death in the maze, snarling like a madman. The film ends with a creepy photo implying Jack has always been part of the hotel’s history.

In the book, Jack redeems himself by blowing up the boiler to destroy the hotel. In the movie, he just goes insane and dies. Two very different takes.