1) The Shining

Father and husband Jack Torrance accepts a position as winter caretaker of the Overlook, a majestic hotel nestled in the Colorado Rockies. As the winter grows colder and society more distant, Jack’s wife Wendy begins to notice a change for the worse in his personality. And his son Danny witnesses manifestations of a supernatural force inhabiting the Overlook - a force that has found the perfect channel in Jack.

Like Kubrick’s earlier film 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining had a decidedly mixed reception when it first premiered. In fact, it earned Kubrick one of the first Razzie nominations for Worst Director. The disorientating pacing and visuals, coupled with numerous departures from the source material, earned it the contempt of many fans of Stephen King’s work, including King himself.

But if you can separate the film from the book, The Shining is a fabulous psychological portrait in its own right, less about the nagging doubts and veiled secrets at the heart of a family and more about one man’s surrender to violent madness.

Fun fact: the child actor had no idea he was acting in a horror film. Neither did Jack Nicholson - that's just his default state of being.

In Conclusion

Abuse. Deformity. Isolation. Madness. These are subjects that have obsessed us since our earliest ancestors looked into the eyes of their dead and saw portals to another reality. Some of these films make us laugh, some make us cry - but all of them transport us elsewhere, to a dark mirror domain that inspires and enlightens even as it terrifies us.

To horror films: may we ever watch them, and may we never live them!

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