The Shi­ning

The Overlook Hotel, a huge complex in the mountains of Colorado, is closed for the winter like every year. Only the writer and former teacher Jack Torrance, who is hired as caretaker for the time, and his family remain in the hotel, snowed in and cut off from the outside world.
The film begins with a tracking shot that follows Jack Torrance's car through the autumnal mountains on the way to the Overlook. The dialogue now shows the job interview on the one hand and the situation with Jack's wife Wendy and his son Danny on the other. This is also the first time that Tony, the little man who "lives in Danny's mouth", is introduced. Tony speaks through Danny's mouth and moves his right index finger, telling Danny what will happen. In this way he foresees that Jack will get the job as caretaker. The hotel manager Ullman does not hide from Jack that one winter a few years ago a former caretaker named Delbert Grady killed his wife, his two young daughters and himself, presumably in a fit of trapper fever caused by loneliness and isolation. Jack says that his wife loves horror films and that he doesn't mind the loneliness. He wants to work on a manuscript and the five months of solitude are just right for that. Even the fact that the hotel was built on an old Indian cemetery cannot deter Jack. Later, Danny gets visions from the Overlook through his imaginary friend Tony (two murdered girls, streams of blood from elevator doors, etc.), which Danny cannot yet identify and which frighten him...
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Film genre: Horror Thriller
Admission age / Recommended age:
Country of production: UK / USA (1980)
Duration: 119'
Cast: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel