What seperates Dunkey from other youtube movie reviewers, is this took 5 minutes, it made it's point and showed it on screen, the points were short, precise and so simple, yet so accurate that even an idiot, or someone never seeing this film can understand what he is saying, and how it works well in the context of the film without going on these long rants, till the video becomes a 20 minute mess of ramblings, much like this comment
The Shining's emotional effect on the viewer can be summarized by the feeling you get when a shadow in the corner of your room somewhat looks like a person. You wake up in the middle of the night, look around, and your heart stops when you see the shadow.
Watched this again recently and I noticed in the beginning that a lot of the scenes transition from one another with a fade, even with things that don’t necessarily convey that a lot of time has passed. But towards the end it is pretty much all cuts, not a single fade when Jack fully snaps. My personal interpretation is that in the beginning, things could be up to interpretation and blurred a little bit. Jack’s abuse could be explained away as “accidents” and in the past, as well as other aspects about the hotel and their situation. But towards the end, you cannot say that anything on screen is reasonable or easily explainable. Jack is trying to murder his family. Wendy is seeing countless apparitions in the hotel. Halloran is dead. Nothing about this situation can be excused or misinterpreted at this point
your incredible way of getting to the point of what you want to say as quickly and as clearly as possible makes your five minute videos feel like they would be 25 minutes if made by anyone else. Please do more movie reviews hell maybe even book or tv show reviews.
This dunkview is actually very good, I saw this movie at the age of 13, and I'll never forget the director's perfectionist nature, making every scene flawless, with terrifying scenery and music, Nicholson's magnificent performance, the perfect special effects and the camera (Steadicam) which managed to capture every part of the hotel and its dark history, but always focusing on the protagonists. The story can lead to many explanations as well as the ending (Jack might have been a reincarnation of the man in the picture, maybe he was absorbed by the hotel's dark secrets) but that's what makes the movie special, I hope they soon find the 25 minute lost cut.
My personal interpretation is that the evil spirits that haunt the hotel exploits a specific persons evil. It seemed that jack had issues controlling his anger when it came to Danny in the one incident of his shoulder, and while he went clean after that event, he kept raving about it when he was in the golden room. The bartender kept filling his cup, and was pretty much a yes man the whole time. And when the old caretaker came into play, he simply told jack that he had corrected his family, which led jack down his own “correction” path. Then once the victim becomes completely insane, the victim gets added to the long list of insane spirits, hence why he’s in that picture with the date.
No other movie has messed with me like this one. After I first saw it as a teenager, I actually slept with the light on for a month or two. Twenty years later, watching this video right before bed (WTF is wrong with me?), I still had to look away at times so I wouldn't catch a glimpse of the girls in the hall. That's how effective it is.
Ya know, Dunk, your deconstruction of what makes the Shining scary actually explains what's so wrong with many modern horror movies. We have all these reboots and sequels and remakes and origin movies that are just cashing in on known names. The fear of some unknown evil, and the way it takes time to properly build suspense... that is what makes a classic scary movie. Thanks for the review, man. Have a good one.
