Adapted from Stephen King’s novel of the same name and shot at Elstree Studios north of London, where RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK was filmed around the same time, Stanley Kubrick’s version of THE SHINING focused less on key elements of the novel and made it more like a supernatural ghost story, rather than the subtext of Jack Torrance, the lead character in the book, abusing his son Danny.
In this version, which also had a longer US version which has seen the light of day in recent years, Torrance (Jack Nicholson) takes over the Colorado hotel of The Overlook as caretaker, hoping to use the time off-season to work on a new novel whilst taking care of key areas of the hotel.
However, his son Danny (Danny Lloyd) has visions of the past and has the ability to ‘shine’ – something that another employee of the hotel, Halloran (Scatman Crothers) senses. As time goes on, Jack begins to see other elements of the hotel’s dark past manifest themselves, causing a mental relapse which concerns his wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall)….
On its’ own terms, THE SHINING is a solid horror film that should be viewed without reading the source material on which it is based. The longer version has more key exposition, but the European and UK version which debuted under two hours in 1980 (and became one of the hits of the year alongside the original version of THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and FRIDAY THE 13TH) is solid enough.