Never actually thought it'd be hard to review a movie I really liked, but there's always a first time.

British director Stanley Kubrick took-on Stephen King's best-selling novel and the results got mixed reactions from critics and King himself (who wasn't that pleased with the results). But I can safely say it turned out better than a lot of us could've expected and having Kubrick at the reigns definitely helped. Jack Nicholson stars as reformed alcoholic and wannabe author Jack Torrance who drags wife Shelley Duvall and somewhat odd son Danny Lloyd to the Outlook hotel high in the Colorado mountains after taking a job as the Winter caretaker for five months. Well soon the hotel, isolation and supernatural presences within the walls start to take their toll on Nicholson who starts to lose his grip on reality dragging his family along with him. It all falls to Duvall who has to deal with a now murderous husband and a son who's busy having nasty visions and letting his imaginary friend "Tony" take over.

This lovely looking movie opens with one of the many amazing shots in the film as the camera glides over the mountains stopping on the massive hotel; then there's plenty of eerie mood in the slow, but effective, build-up. It's in the mid-section that it gets a tad bloated and slow even though we're still kept interested by Kubrick's constantly good use of steadi-cam (when he follows Danny's big-wheel ride through the halls we get a good idea how massive the hotel is) and the script's subtle hints something may be a-miss with Nicholson (how the terms of endearment that him and Duvall shared started to become more one-sided, how his concern for his looks became less and less and how he disassociated himself with his family). It's hard to think anyone but Kubrick who could pull off this movie, his constantly muscular direction and stylish camera work is put into grand use in the finale that's just awesome and intense.

A great film with a bunch of memorable moments (the bathtub lady, the 'redrum' part, "heerre's johnny", etc.) wedged between a mostly interesting (if a bit slow) psychological/ghost story. See it.

Remade as a TV mini-series in 1999.

Directed By: Stanley Kubrick.
Written By: Diane Johnson, Stanley Kubrick.

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers.