Jordan Kilgore- The Shining

The Shining is one of the most iconic horror films of all time- and for good reason. It is characterized by lurching slow camera shots, creepy ambiences, and a terrifyingly deranged performance by Jack Nicholson, making it a tour-de-force of horror. The Overlook Hotel is brought to life as one of the most notorious settings in modern cinema through its vibrant colors and distinct decor. Overall, the movie is masterfully vague and unsettling. Stanley Kubrick puts many objects in the movie with hidden ambiguous meanings, and the shock value of such iconic scenes as the blood flooding the hallway and the man in the bear suit make the movie live on in the memories of cinema enthusiasts. Over the course of the film, we watch mysterious and sinister forces transform Jack Torrance, an ordinary father and writer into a deranged killer with no remaining sense of humanity. Shelley Duvall plays his dutiful wife, who must save herself and her son from her husband’s murderous grasp. Jack Nicholoson’s performance is compelling and discomforting, and he somehow makes an ordinary man seem like an object of nightmares. The Shining reigns supreme even now as one of the best horror films of all time.