The Overlook Hotel in the Rocky Mountains is a gigantic building with several hundred rooms. It is closed in the winter, and teacher and aspiring novelist Jack Torrance has been hired as the off-season caretaker. He moves into the enormous lodge with his wife Wendy and son Danny. It becomes clear that the family is in for trouble when Danny, who has telepathic abilities, has visions of blood pouring from the hotel’s elevator, and of two murdered young girls. Soon, Jack starts seeing things too. When he hears the whispers of his predecessor, who apparently murdered his wife and two young daughters while caretaking the Overlook, Jack grabs an axe ... In the same way that fatal events prove the “empty box” of the hotel to be alive, so the inner conflicts that afflict the family happen under entirely conventional clothing. Jack wears ordinary flannel shirts and Wendy is an aging hippie who dresses Danny in home-made sweaters. The childish, naive “Apollo 11” pattern on one of them had Kubrick pundits wondering if the film was secret confirmation of their theory that the director had staged the moon landing.
by Stanley Kubrick
with Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Barry Nelson, Philip Stone, Joe Turkel, Anne Jackson
United Kingdom / USA 1980 English 119’ Colour Rating R16

With

  • Jack Nicholson
  • Shelley Duvall
  • Danny Lloyd
  • Scatman Crothers
  • Barry Nelson
  • Philip Stone
  • Joe Turkel
  • Anne Jackson

Crew

Written and Directed by Stanley Kubrick adapted from the novel “The Shining” (1977) by Stephen King
Cinematography John Alcott
Editing Ray Lovejoy
Music Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind
Sound Wyn Ryder, Dino Di Campo, Jack Knight
Production Design Roy Walker
Art Director Les Tomkins
Costumes Milena Canonero
Wardrobe Supervision Ken Lawton, Ron Beck
Make-Up Tom Smith
Producer Stanley Kubrick

Produced by

Hawk Films Ltd./The Producer Circle Company

Additional information

DCP: Warner Bros. Pictures Germany, Hamburg