---
title: "The Shining"
year: 1980
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-shining"
fi1m_id: "the-shining"
imdb_id: "tt0081505"
tmdb_id: 694
wikidata_id: "Q186341"
fi1m_score: 88
critics_score: 75
critics_reviews: 18
published: "2026-09-12"
updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:13.694756+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# The Shining (1980)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick · 2h 24m · MPA R · Horror, Thriller

## Identity

The Shining

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-shining
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** the-shining
- **IMDb ID:** tt0081505
- **TMDB ID:** 694
- **Wikidata ID:** Q186341
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/694, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q186341

**Fi1m score: 88** · Critics 75 from 18 reviews

*In a sentence:* The hotel tour is frightening enough before Jack Nicholson starts making matters worse

> Stanley Kubrick’s hotel horror remains frightening even when Jack Nicholson makes the danger too obvious. We recommend it for the patient tracking shots, oppressive music and attention to what a troubled family does to itself.

## Synopsis

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and Danny (Danny Lloyd) are a family isolated at the Overlook Hotel in winter. The hotel’s past threatens their stay, while Jack’s state of mind puts the family’s relationships under increasing strain. As they explore their surroundings, the danger becomes difficult to separate from the tensions between them. Scatman Crothers plays Hallorann in Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, with a screenplay by Kubrick and Diane Johnson. The story follows the Torrances as the hotel’s history and their own troubles begin to intrude on their lives together.

## Review

Stanley Kubrick’s *The Shining* is frightening, carefully made horror with a central performance that sometimes pushes too hard. Kubrick and co-writer Diane Johnson adapt Stephen King’s novel around a family isolated at the Overlook Hotel. The building’s evil history matters, but so does the unhappiness the Torrances bring into it. We spend much of the film watching people occupy rooms they cannot make comfortable.

The early tour of the hotel is enough to make us want the family to leave. We felt uneasy before we could point to a single immediate danger. Kubrick’s Steadicam tracking shots give us time to look at the rooms while making it difficult to stop looking ahead, and the measured movement begins to feel threatening in itself. Roy Walker’s production design supplies the geometric spaces that make this work: the family looks exposed even when it is indoors.

John Alcott’s winter cinematography makes the isolation convincing, and the images remain oppressive even when we have time to examine them. There is something disturbing about being able to study a place so carefully and still feel uncomfortable in it. Ray Lovejoy’s editing gives these views time to become unsettling, rather than treating every shot as preparation for a sudden interruption. At 144 minutes, this is a sustained demand on our nerves, although some of the slower passages give us too much time to appreciate the technique.

The music makes those long looks harder to bear. Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind share the music credits with Krzysztof Penderecki, György Ligeti and Béla Bartók. The assembled score sustains tension through passages in which the camera gives us ample time to study the hotel. It does not simply wait for a shock and then announce it. We are left watching a room while the sound tells us something is wrong, and waiting becomes uncomfortable even when there is little happening.

Nicholson is funny as well as frightening, and there are moments when the comedy is a relief we would rather not have been given. His broad performance makes Jack’s instability plain, but it also weakens the sense that the family might ever have managed a tolerable life together. Shelley Duvall’s Wendy and Danny Lloyd’s Danny give the family scenes the vulnerability they need. Duvall, especially, makes the strain of sharing space with Jack feel exhausting, and we find ourselves attending to her rather than waiting for his next display.

Against the usual haunted-building story, the emphasis on family unhappiness is what gives the film its force. The hotel’s history provides menace, but Kubrick keeps returning our attention to the people who must endure one another inside it. He does not explain every uncertainty, and we would not pretend every part of the story is equally convincing. Still, the feeling of being trapped with a person who frightens us needs little explanation, and the performances make that fear difficult to dismiss.

Give it an uninterrupted evening, and resist the temptation to wait only for Nicholson to become alarming. Duvall deserves just as much attention. For all the hotel’s menace, sharing a room with Jack already looks like hard work.

*Fi1m score 88, published 12 September 2026.*

## Straight answers

**Is The Shining worth watching?**

*The Shining* is worth watching for anyone who can bear two and a half hours of slow, oppressive horror, and we scored it 88. Kubrick's patient tracking shots, the assembled music and Shelley Duvall's exhausted Wendy make the fear hold, even when Jack Nicholson pushes the danger harder than he needs to. Give it an uninterrupted evening.

**How long is The Shining, and what is it rated?**

*The Shining* runs 2h 24m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a horror and thriller film.

**Where can I watch The Shining in the US?**

*The Shining* is available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $5.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is The Shining, and is it suitable for children?**

*The Shining* is a 15 certificate in the UK and R in the US, and it is not suitable for children. The fear comes less from sudden shocks than from long, uneasy looks at rooms while the music tells us something is wrong, and from a father whose instability makes the family scenes hard to sit through. Squeamish viewers will find the sustained dread harder than any single image.

**How does The Shining compare to Don't Look Now?**

*The Shining* is the more frightening film; [*Don't Look Now*](https://film.one/film/dont-look-now) is the sadder one. Kubrick makes fear out of isolation and a family that cannot live comfortably together, while Roeg makes it out of grief and a couple worth caring about, cut together in fractured pieces. Choose *The Shining* for sustained dread, *Don't Look Now* if you want the fear to hurt.

**Is The Shining based on a true story or a book?**

*The Shining* is based on Stephen King's novel of the same name, not on a true story. Kubrick and co-writer Diane Johnson adapt the book around a family isolated at the Overlook Hotel, keeping the building's evil history but putting the family's own unhappiness at the centre. You do not need to have read the novel to follow the film.

**What should I watch after The Shining?**

After *The Shining*, try [*Don't Look Now*](https://film.one/film/dont-look-now) (1973, Fi1m 90): For family grief made frightening through patient editing and an unfamiliar city. Then [*Cure*](https://film.one/film/cure) (1997, Fi1m 85): Patient, disquieting horror that makes ordinary rooms difficult places to endure; and [*The Babadook*](https://film.one/film/the-babadook) (2014, Fi1m 86): A domestic nightmare with a mother and child at its uncomfortable centre.

### Reviews we read (18)

- **Radio Times**, Adrian Turner (5/5): Kubrick's adaptation of King's novel chills rather than shocks through stealth and eerie discomfort, with an overpowering Steadicam technique and Nicholson's hammy yet deeply disturbing performance. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-m64bmt/the-shining/)
- **Empire**, Ian Nathan (90/100, inferred): Kubrick elevates horror with meticulous technique and psychological depth, ditching formulaic elements for a study in madness. The film is technically unmatched in the genre, with unforgettable imagery and sound design that unsettles rather than shocks directly. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/shining-2-review/)
- **The Independent**, David Thomson (90/100, inferred): Thomson calls The Shining the Kubrick film he loves most and finds it a mysterious, rapturous work of beauty. He singles out the Gold Room scenes with the ghostly barman and Grady for their exquisite, fiction-like descent and luminous atmosphere. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/welcome-to-the-house-of-the-spirits-1080452.html)
- **The New York Times**, Janet Maslin (90/100, inferred): Kubrick's horror film is spellbinding and diabolical in its depiction of the Torrance family's tour of the Overlook Hotel. The director excels at building an atmosphere of dread through the isolated setting and performances. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1980/05/23/archives/screen-nicholson-and-shelley-duvall-in-kubricks-the-shining-horror.html)
- **Time Out**, Ben Walters (5 out of 5 stars): The critic calls it a masterpiece that demands big-screen viewing, praising how Kubrick transforms the Overlook Hotel into a warped environment of mental instability and supernatural menace. The review notes some daft scare shots and length issues in the longer US cut but affirms its status as essential cinema. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-shining)
- **Film Comment**, Richard T. Jameson (85/100, inferred): The critic views The Shining as a characteristically Kubrickian work that prioritizes formal and spatial concerns over conventional horror tropes or jump scares. He singles out the innovative Steadicam tracking shots and the film's geometric treatment of the Overlook Hotel's spaces for particular praise. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/article/stanley-kubrick-the-shining/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Eric Henderson (85/100, inferred): The critic praises Kubrick's film as a radical distillation of the novel that enhances its unnerving domestic and psychological horror through meticulous form, Steadicam cinematography, and ambiguous themes rather than conventional scares. The review highlights the experience of isolation and terror over plot specifics, noting how the film stretches genre boundaries. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/the-shining-dvd/)
- **The Telegraph**, Tim Robey (85/100, inferred): Robey deems Kubrick’s film definitive and unforgettable despite mixed original reviews and Stephen King’s reservations. He highlights its eerie power, the iconic Overlook Hotel imagery, and Nicholson’s performance as the elements that make it a horror masterwork. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/nearly-40-years-shining-continues-haunt-us/)
- **Los Angeles Times**, Kevin Thomas (70/100, inferred): Kubrick's adaptation turns the story into a Freudian exploration of the family psyche amid the hotel's evil history. The film emphasizes psychological horror over straightforward terror from the source novel. [Read](https://documents.latimes.com/movie-review-kubricks-shining-freudians-picnic/)
- **Sight and Sound**, Richard Combs (70/100, inferred): Kubrick has retreated further into personal auteurism after Barry Lyndon, turning the film into an abstract exploration of space, ambition and isolation rather than a conventional horror. Nicholson's performance is eerily apt as a man primed for demonic promotion. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/shining-archive-review-whole-new-kubrick)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Arthur Knight (50/100, inferred): The critic struggles to discern if Kubrick intends serious artistic statement or mere entertainment in this adaptation, finding the narrative ambiguous and unsatisfying. He praises the striking winter cinematography by John Alcott and the effective, tension-building score compiled from modern composers. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/shining-movie-review-stanley-kubrick-1980-1235921809/)
- **The Guardian** (30/100, inferred): The review sees the film as a progression of Kubrick's bleak vision of humanity dehumanised, focusing on a man isolated in his own void where bloody madness seems an escape. It criticises how the horror genre exacts too great a price, with Nicholson's performance encouraging laughter as much as fear and illogical plot twists. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/02/the-shining-stanley-kubrick-jack-nicholson-review-1980)
- **The New Yorker**, Pauline Kael (30/100, inferred): Kael finds the film technically impressive but ultimately distancing and unengaging as horror, with overly calculated Steadicam tracking shots that dissipate suspense and a talky, metaphysical approach that fails to deliver scares or emotional investment. She singles out the virtuoso technique and Nicholson's early performance for admiration while criticizing the lack of integration of horror elements, the puppet-like acting, and the failure to make the family dynamics or ghosts compelling. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1980/06/09/devolution)
- **Variety**, Jim Harwood (**): Kubrick and Nicholson have ruined the terror of King's novel by straying far from the source material and making the characters unconvincing. The performances, especially Duvall's, undermine the horror. [Read](https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/the-shining-1200424592/)
- **Den of Geek**, Tony Sokol (5/5): The critic celebrates Kubrick's reimagining of the story as an optimistic Christmas parable focused on internal evil and family dynamics rather than external supernatural forces. He singles out the performances, symbolism, and the Overlook Hotel itself as a major character for praise. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-shining-1980-lookbackreview/)
- **Digital Spy**, Emma Dibdin (5/5): The review lauds the extended cut re-release for retaining the film's timeless psychological terror and meticulous construction, emphasizing its predestined doom, strong performances (including Duvall's), and iconic unsettling imagery and score. It calls the film one of the most viscerally disturbing ever made. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a434921/the-shining-review-extended-cut-packs-in-more-psychological-terror/)
- **Consequence** (90/100, inferred): Kubrick’s chilling masterpiece has become a state of mind and a cultural brand thanks to its labyrinthine qualities and aesthetics. The critic highlights its meditation on grievances, irritability, and the inevitability of things falling apart, along with its enduring mythical impenetrability. [Read](https://consequence.net/2025/05/the-shining-45-anniversary/)
- **Paste**, Jim Vorel (90/100, inferred): Kubrick’s The Shining is a masterpiece of composition and design and the single most distinctive horror film ever made, even if not a faithful adaptation of King’s novel. The critic singles out its droning soundtrack, innovative Steadicam shots, singular images, and standout performances from Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall for praise. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/horror-movies/best-horror-movie-of-1980-the-shining-stanley-kubr)

## Details

- **Director:** Stanley Kubrick
- **Director:** Stanley Kubrick
- **Screenplay:** Diane Johnson, Stanley Kubrick
- **Novel:** Stephen King
- **Cinematography:** John Alcott
- **Editor:** Ray Lovejoy
- **Music:** Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind, Béla Bartók, Krzysztof Penderecki, György Ligeti
- **Production design:** Roy Walker
- **Costume design:** Milena Canonero
- **Producer:** Stanley Kubrick
- **Cast:** Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance; Shelley Duvall as Wendy Torrance; Danny Lloyd as Danny; Scatman Crothers as Hallorann; Barry Nelson as Ullman; Philip Stone as Grady; Joe Turkel as Lloyd; Anne Jackson as Doctor
- **Runtime:** 2h 24m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 13 June 1980
- **Genres:** Horror, Thriller
- **Budget:** $19 million
- **Box office:** $50 million
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZQvIJxG9Xs

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-12.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IN, IT, JP, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## Awards

- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress 1981: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress (nominated)
- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director 1981: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director (nominated)

## If you liked this

- *The Innocents* (1961): Another isolated household where adult distress makes the children’s surroundings frightening.
- *Don't Look Now* (1973), Fi1m 90: For family grief made frightening through patient editing and an unfamiliar city. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dont-look-now.md)
- *Cure* (1997), Fi1m 85: Patient, disquieting horror that makes ordinary rooms difficult places to endure. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cure.md)
- *The Devil's Backbone* (2001): Children face a haunting shaped by the violence of the adult world.
- *The Babadook* (2014), Fi1m 86: A domestic nightmare with a mother and child at its uncomfortable centre. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-babadook.md)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-shining