The Shining

Hoping to get some writing done, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) accepts a job in the mountains as the winter caretaker of the snowbound Overlook Hotel, with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and young son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), in tow. The expansive lodge—impressively built on soundstages in England—makes an unlikely setting for gothic horror, but the well-lit interiors expose the ugly intimacy of domestic disharmony. Cabin fever and some ingeniously conjured haunted encounters only add to the toll. Kubrick’s patented gallows humor—a perfect match for Nicholson’s manic energy—doesn’t offer relief; it only peaks the terror.