Welcome to Spinnaker’s History of Horror. Here we will be taking a look back at everything spooky in both film and video games and analyze how horror has evolved over the last century. Check back at unfspinnaker.com every day for a new installment!

Stanley Kubrick was known for making movies unlike anything or anyone else. The Shining is no different. It stands on its own in the horror genre but it is nonetheless a seminal film in spooky history.

Jack (Jack Nicholson) and his family are charged with maintaining the vacant Overlook Hotel for months. Jack spends the time trying to write while Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and their son Danny (Danny Lloyd) spend time together. What starts out as a peaceful stay quickly takes a turn for the insane as all three members of the family start experiencing supernatural horrors.

Jack starts to descend into madness along with the hotel around him and you, the viewer, start to go crazy with him. By the climax, you are starting to wonder who spiked your food with LSD. There are ghosts, skeletons, elevators gush out blood, and a strange bear-man performs sexual acts on a well dressed man. It’s nuts.

The Shining is based on a novel by Stephen King, though it thankfully strays far from the source. Kubrick takes King’s cliche’ characters and makes them compelling. He takes the idea of a living hotel and runs with it. The film is one of the most open ended in horror history. To this day, people debate about what the ending means. It’s a film that starts conversations, and that’s special.

 The impact of the film is felt literally to this very day. This year’s Halloween Horror Nights has a house based on The Shining and we did a preview for it! Check it out here.

The Shining is streaming on Spinnaker’s movie service, movies.spinnakertv.com. Watch it and come up with your own theory about what the hell this movie is about.

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