Not just one of the greatest horrors in history but also one of the best movies ever, period, The Shining is so compellingly enigmatic that entire documentaries have been made trying to unravel it. Ingenious auteur Stanley Kubrick may have ostensibly signed on to adapt a Stephen King novel about a father hunting his family in a haunted hotel, but what he created goes well above, invoking genocidal and patriotic imagery, as well as the Nietzschean notion of eternal recurrence. Is this a commentary on America’s unending history of persecution and prejudice? Yes, it is—but it’s a broader purpose only hinted at, while vivid colors, sinister writing and Jack Nicholson’s unhinged performance steal center stage. Whether you view this as a supernatural slasher or an art film lamenting the nature of violence, The Shining is a masterstroke that begs to be rewatched repeatedly.
