The first time I saw The Shining, I only made it about halfway through. The specific moment where I checked out was when Sally discovers Jacks writing consists solely of, “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” I was in middle school I think, and up until that point I had watched the film on tenterhooks, ready at any moment to flee as the tension grew and grew, and things grew stranger and more horrifying. And that was it. I did peek back out of my bedroom at the end to see that Jack had become a human popsicle which was good. Bad guy died. Though I can’t remember when I did finally sit down and watch the film from beginning to end, I will always think of that first viewing as the most terrified I have ever been of a piece of media.
Thinking back on it, a lot of that has to do with age; as I’ve gotten older my threshold for fear has gotten higher, and even at their most horrifying, movies scare me in a different way now (not that I really seek out horror movies). Looking back on The Shining with a critical perspective it amazes me how different it is from most modern horror in its construction and execution. It terrified me with atmosphere, with a barely palpable, but steadily rising tension. The moment where I couldn’t take it any more is just as things reach their breaking point and actual murder is attempted, but what is truly fear-inducing is the build-up to that moment, which director Stanley Kubrick handles masterfully. A great number of things contribute to this feeling of unease, from Jack Nicholson’s performance, to the score, to the isolated location, to the ghost encounters, to the story of a previous caretaker that basically promises the audience that this man is going to try and murder his family. We just have to sit around and wait for it to happen.
