Ceris' 31 Days of Horror Challenge: Day 4 - The Shining
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  • Writer's pictureCeris
    • Oct 4, 2020

Ceris' 31 Days of Horror Challenge: Day 4 - The Shining

Tonight’s film is The Shining adapted from the novel by Stephen King. I’m going to admit from the off that I’m not a fan of Jack Nicholson and from the minute he appeared on screen he seemed creepy.

The film starts with Jack being offered the job of looking after the Overlook Hotel during the winter months while it is closed. As soon as he is told about the previous person who looked after the hotel went crazy and killed himself and his family I had an idea of what was going to happen. I won’t lie I spent the first 10 minutes quite confused by what was going on, including Danny’s conversations with his finger friend Tony.


The family arrive at the hotel and are given a tour around the hotel, and Danny sees two girls in light blue dresses, who I immediately realised were the two girls who were killed by their father at the hotel. It is during the tour that Danny is able to read the mind of Dick Hallorann, and he reveals that his parents don’t know that Tony tells him what to do!


It’s within the first 15 minutes of the film that we see Jack starting to lose his patience with his wife Wendy, telling her to leave him alone.

We knew something bad would happen when the phone lines go down and Wendy is told by the police to leave her radio on all the time, this is never a good sign!

The first time I jumped in the film was when Danny was cycling around the hotel only to come face to face with the creepy twins and then had a vision of their dead bodies covered in blood. Also was anyone not at all convinced when Jack told Danny he would never hurt him ever cos I called bullshit!

Jacks scary dream that he killed Danny and Wendy and chopped them into little pieces, followed by Danny appearing from room 237 with a ripped jumper and red marks on his neck, seem to tip Jack over the edge and the shit hits the fan! Halloranns warning that things that happen in the hotel leave an imprint start to show itself with the introduction of Lloyd the bartender who Jack seemed to know well making me think he has been losing his mind for a while! He goes on to explain to Lloyd that he would never hurt Danny, apart from the one time 3 years ago when he lost his temper and did hurt him, which confirms my suspicions that he is going to hurt them both this time.


Wendy finds Jack and tells him that Danny was attacked by a woman in room 237 so Jack goes to investigate. This leads us to a very confusing 5 minutes of the film. Jack makes out with a young, pretty naked lady who then changes. I don’t understand the mouldy naked lady. Jack tells Wendy he found itching in the room and she is making the whole thing up to stop he being able to work - it’s clear he hates her!


The film is really confusing, where the hell did all the people in the ball room come from? Is Jack a psycho? Is the house playing tricks?

Delbert Grady appears having dropped a drink over Jack, goes on to tell Jack that Danny is bringing in help from the outside to help save him at the hotel, and that when his daughters tried to burn down the hotel he corrected them and also corrected his wife - basically he tells Jack to go murder Wendy and Danny and Jack is like yeah cool!

Hallorann realised that something isn’t right and contacts the local police after not being able to reach the hotel. When he gets no reply, he jumps on a plane and races to the hotel but I think he might be too late! Wendy has already twigged that Jack has lost the plot and has resorted to carrying round a baseball bat and I can’t say I blame her especially when she finds Jacks notes and he appears in the room. Jack tells her he is going to bash her brains in so she uses the bat and smacks him over the head making him fall down the stairs, although I do wonder why she didn’t chuck him in the freezer instead of the store cupboard.


Jack tries to convince Wendy to open the the door and let him out as he needs a doctors but when she tells him she will bring him a doctor, he reveals that he has broken the Snowcat which is the families only way out. We all know that no one is making it to the end of the film alive.


Danny saying REDRUM over and over in his creepy Tony voice, followed by Wendy seeing the reflection in the mirror and revealing the word Murder (jumped a mile at that bit). Then Jack says the famous line while trying to break his way into the bathroom to murder Wendy. I enjoyed Halloran's death, made me jump. Felt bad he had to die just for trying to help, but thats the way horror goes I suppose. I thought the chase through the maze was brilliant, didn't think Danny was going to get away. Rather fitting ending for Jack though, got what he deserved.


I won't lie, it’s safe to say I spent 90% of the film asking Adam what the hell was going on. I didn’t understand what was happening for most of the film...the ending just confused me even more. I found it hard to follow, then the ending just really made my head hurt. What the hell was up with that picture? All in all I won't be watching this one again.

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