Stephen King still doesn't like it, but Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining, which celebrates its 45th anniversary today, remains a landmark in horror movie history. Kubrick took extensive liberties with King's text, turning a deeply personal novel about the corruption of a broken man's love for his family into a cold, distant study of isolation, addiction, and psychosis. Yet by making the film — and perhaps the Overlook Hotel itself — into an otherworldly, stubbornly neutral viewer, Kubrick made the evil inherent in the story even more malevolent and enigmatic.
Published in 1977, The Shining follows Jack Torrance, a failed teacher and recovering alcoholic, as he, his wife Wendy, and their psychic young son Danny spend the winter at Colorado’s isolated Overlook Hotel, where a desperate Jack has landed a job as caretaker of the closed-for-the-season resort. Alone and snowbound, the family is plagued by manifestations and revenants from the Overlook’s sordid history that begin to chip away at Jack’s sanity.
