Thursday 5 February 2009

The Shining

I once had a friend who had ambitions to be an author and every time he gave me a pile of type to read through i would comment that it needed a vampire. Sure enough he soon got fed up with it and stopped sending me things to read through but i stubbornly maintain that any story can be improved with the introduction of the blood drinking living dead. Just think how much better Pride and Prejudice would have been if Mr Darcy had taken to rampaging through the village of Longbourn in an orgy of blood lust instead of chasing the prudish Elizabeth about the place but then Jane Austen seemed to do quite well without my advice. Could have been better though.
One man who doesn't need my advice because he always seems to squeeze a bogeyman somewhere into his writing is Stephen King who has been honoured as the author of the scariest movie ever by boffins at King's College, London.
Using a mathematical formula which factored in the use of music, the balance between true life and fantasy, and how much blood and gore is involved, the scientists picked out the Shining out of hundreds of horror films and the shower scene in Psycho as the scariest moment ever.
I did see another version of The Shining a few years back which stayed true to the book and knocked spots off the Stanley Kubrik version which weaved its way around the book rather loosely although it was damned scary. The two small girls in the hallway asking the boy if he wanted to come and play with them. Funnily enough as i write this there is an advert for the Shining on the TV behind me. Wow, i forgot how scary it was what with the screeching and wailing woman, her features all twisted and screwed up in anguish, abandoned and shunned by society.
Ooops sorry, its an advert for Madonnas UK tour. She could do with some Vampires on backing vocals methinks.

7 comments:

Cheezy said...

Though it's in no way as scary as the sight of Madonna's arms, I enjoy The Shining - mainly because it has some superbly effective horror scenes in it.

Having said that, I have read some analyses of the movie that suggest Jack's portrayal of the main character (Torrance, is it?) starts off too crazy and therefore doesn't do the full 'arc' that the book did (that of the sober, sensible, likeable dude who gets sent slowly, gradually, round the twist by the madness living in the hotel)...

And I can see what they mean. Apparently Jack was having some trouble in his private life at this time (not least of which being the Roman Polanski, erm, 'incident', which I believe took place at his crib) and while this meant it was easy for him to get hyped up enough to play the crazy-apeshit scenes, he had trouble conveying sanity, when that was called for...

I believe King himself doesn't care for the movie.

Nog said...

Man, I can never make it through that movie. It's too creepy.

Anne said...

Love the movie, and love that Jack.

Cody Bones said...

Please no vampires around Madonna, giving her immortality would be the scariest horror movie yet.

Falling on a bruise said...

I was disappointed that the Kubrik film played fast and loose with the original story. The scene with the hedge animals that come to life would have been scary but maybe they just didn't have the right technology to make it look realistic then. I'm not much of a fan of Jack Nicholson either, apart from the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo Nest, i find his acting style too intense if thats the right word.

Anne said...

he's a crazy mofo, no doubt. perhaps he appeals more to old broads, such as your truly.

Representative Kimble said...

I always loved this Shining Trailer:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmkVWuP_sO0&NR=1