The Shining

A closer look at the story

The Overlook Hotel, high in the mountains, needs a caretaker for the months when it closes for winter. Jack Torrance accepts the job and moves in with his wife Wendy and young son Danny, ready to spend months alone in the empty building. Danny, however, has unusual intuitive gifts, and he senses that they are not alone in the hotel's long corridors. As a snowstorm cuts the family off completely from the outside world, Jack's behaviour becomes more and more unsettling. Adapted from Stephen King's novel by Stanley Kubrick and Diane Johnson and directed by Kubrick, the 1980 film stars Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd in a psychological horror classic about isolation and unravelling.