The Shining 4K UHD (1980)

[Gacivory]

To help derail the thread for The Shinning, so I’d rank the movies!

Jaws
Alien
Suspiria
The Exorcist
The Shining!

But I really like all of them!

[ROSS.T.G.]

I don’t see Jaws as a traditional horror movie. It has horror elements but I think it’s more of a monster flick.

[Nicolawicz]

The Omen is a lot more scary than The Exorcist, in my opinion. The Exorcist is great, but I've never found it particularly "scary." Shouldn't the girl be dead after turning her head around? Too unbelievable.

[ROSS.T.G.]

Originally Posted by Nicolawicz

The Omen is a lot more scary than The Exorcist, in my opinion. The Exorcist is great, but I've never found it particularly "scary". Shouldn't the girl be dead after turning her head around? Too unbelievable.

The Omen was just about a rambunctious kid.

[Bobbyjoe766]

I can never get enough The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and ALIEN.

[Nicolawicz]

Originally Posted by Bobbyjoe766

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

Yeah, easily one of the best films ever made, in my opinion. Horror or not.

[LegacyCosts]

I think Rob Zombie said he owes his entire movie career to TTCSM which is a fair self-analysis.

[Retroj23]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

As far as The Shining is concerned...no.

Relatively big budget with an A-list actor in the lead..loaded with surrealistic imagery, immaculate photography and innovative camera work.

It has the look and feel of an art film, as much as it does a horror film imo.

...all of which makes it incredibly unique.

Agree. It took advantage of the then new steady cam allowing Kubrick to film incredibly symmetric images such as Danny roaming the halls on his wheels or Jack chasing his son in the frozen maze. It's was not your typical horror film back then.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by LegacyCosts

I think Rob Zombie said he owes his entire movie career to TTCSM which is a fair self-analysis.

I really wish you hadn’t said that.

I’ve always loved The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

...until now.

[Show spoiler]

[monstermidget]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

As far as The Shining is concerned...no.

Relatively big budget with an A-list actor in the lead..loaded with surrealistic imagery, immaculate photography and innovative camera work.

It has the look and feel of an art film, as much as it does a horror film imo.

...all of which makes it incredibly unique.

Which is my point. The B-picture tag is a redundant and disingenious branding, a way to position genre filmmaking, horror in this case, as low brow or somehow less than by its very nature. Suspiria or Psycho for example would easily fit most of the criteria you have outlined above (Suspiria minus the A list actor). Halloween too has its share of great photography and at the time its use of steadicam was extremly innovative.

If you're willing to write these films off as glorified B-movies, we might as well lump the shining in as well, because there is plenty of shlock in The Shining if you want to find it. For example there is nothing as camp or gratuitously "B-MOVIE" in TCM or Halloween as that skeletons in the lobby gag.

Maybe you see the Shining as much as an art film as a horror because it doesn't actually do horror all that well.

In the end Psycho, Suspiria, TCM, Halloween, The Shining; all examples of bravura filmmaking and classics that left a lasting impression on generations of viewers, like great art will.

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Nicolawicz

The Omen is a lot more scary than The Exorcist, in my opinion. The Exorcist is great, but I've never found it particularly "scary." Shouldn't the girl be dead after turning her head around? Too unbelievable.

Love The Exorcist, but I must admit those kinds of things always confused me a little. I get that the demon using this human body to do things that are usually impossible for a human body to do is part of what makes it disturbing, and Regan turning her head around certainly makes for a nightmarish visual.

But don't the limitations of human biology come into play at any point? Like, how doesn't that permanently break her neck? I guess Pazuzu regenerates it or something... shouldn't overthink the supernatural.

Maybe the novel goes into this further? I've never read it, to my great regret.

[LegacyCosts]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I really wish you hadn’t said that.

I’ve always loved The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

...until now.

[Show spoiler]

[Show spoiler]

[captainsolo]

As a classic horror nerd I don't care about more modern horror titles. I consider THE SHINING as its own distinct work that happens to get categorized as horror when it is really indefinable.
I do enjoy how it does borrow some classical form elements but is still its own entity.

As for the best horror titles: To me there is the best of the silent era, the best of the classic Universal horrors, the best of the Hammer horrors and a great number of other masterworks through the mid 70's and then there's everything else. The true masters of the genre were most especially James Whale, Val Lewton, Jacques Tourneur and Terence Fisher to name only a few.
For me it's really hard to ever talk about horror films because 99% of people only talk about the stuff I can't stand and have no idea of what came before. It gets very frustrating at times. I simply do not get the adoration some have for certain titles, but that's their opinion of course. It would help if occasionally I could discuss anything pre-1960 once in a while and not get the dreaded blank stare...

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Love The Exorcist, but I must admit those kinds of things always confused me a little. I get that the demon using this human body to do things that are usually impossible for a human body to do is part of what makes it disturbing, and Regan turning her head around certainly makes for a nightmarish visual.

But don't the limitations of human biology come into play at any point? Like, how doesn't that permanently break her neck? I guess Pazuzu regenerates it or something... shouldn't overthink the supernatural.

Maybe the novel goes into this further? I've never read it, to my great regret.

Read it! The novel's excellent.

I could be wrong, but I seem to remember the book suggesting that Regan turning her head is an illusion.

[LegacyCosts]

I always read the head spinning as some mind ****ery by the demon, not literally spinning Blair's head around.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by monstermidget

Which is my point. The B-picture tag is a redundant and disingenious branding, a way to position genre filmmaking, horror in this case, as low brow or somehow less than by its very nature. Suspiria or Psycho for example would easily fit most of the criteria you have outlined above (Suspiria minus the A list actor). Halloween too has its share of great photography and at the time its use of steadicam was extremly innovative.

If you're willing to write these films off as glorified B-movies, we might as well lump the shining in as well, because there is plenty of shlock in The Shining if you want to find it. For example there is nothing as camp or gratuitously "B-MOVIE" in TCM or Halloween as that skeletons in the lobby gag.

Maybe you see the Shining as much as an art film as a horror because it doesn't actually do horror all that well.

In the end Psycho, Suspiria, TCM, Halloween, The Shining; all examples of bravura filmmaking and classics that left a lasting impression on generations of viewers, like great art will.

I love the both the original Halloween and the original Suspiria.

But to compare either of them to The Shining in terms of writing, acting and overall craft is ludicrous imo.

Halloween has a great story, but not the psychological depth or the incredible cinematography/production value of The Shining. It was made on a minuscule budget and the acting is mediocre at best...and frankly subpar when compared to a classic performance by one of the greatest actors of all time.

Suspiria wows from a visual/audio perspective and delivers a scary vibe, but the “story” is preposterous and the writing and acting are both shite. At least compared to what you get in The Shining.

There’s nothing about The Shining that feels like a B-picture.

...not the case with the other two.

...which I love.

[Spartan21]

No horror movie freaked me out as much as The Exorcist, so it's definitely # 1 for me in terms of horror movie rankings. It's a masterpiece of a movie...and I've read the book too, which is amazingly unsettling as well. Some people's opinions may be different, but to me personally this is the case. However though, I absolutely love The Shining, The Thing, Jaws, Halloween, The TCM, Hellraiser, Alien, and others that have been mentioned.

[monstermidget]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

I love the both the original Halloween and the original Suspiria.

But to compare either of them to The Shining in terms of writing, acting and overall craft is ludicrous imo.

Halloween has a great story, but not the psychological depth or the incredible cinematography/production value of The Shining. It was made on a minuscule budget and the acting is mediocre at best...and frankly subpar when compared to a classic performance by one of the greatest actors of all time.

Suspiria wows from a visual/audio perspective and delivers a scary vibe, but the “story” is preposterous and the writing and acting are both shite. At least compared to what you get in The Shining.

There’s nothing about The Shining that feels like a B-picture.

...not the case with the other two.

...which I love.

You seem hung up on the B-picture tag and seem to apply one lense to view these percieved B-movies and another for The Shining. I mean the story of the shining is equally preposterous.The acting, often wildly over the top, Jacks freewheeling performance while iconic is hardly his best work. What's this psychological depth you speak of? Whats so incredible about the writing? The one note characters? The campy jump scares? Dick halloran's laborious sub-plot that goes precisely nowhere?

Surely The Shinings strengths (much like suspiria) lie in its technical and visual exellence and the rolling dream logic of the unfolding events.
Undoubtably it is more visually and stylistically involved than something as precision tooled as Halloween but its like comparing apples and oranges.

When I look at the shining I can see plenty of hokey/schlocky B-movie elements, right down to its gleefully twilight zone ending. You don't or won't it seems. And so we reach an impasse.

[Ray Jackson]

Originally Posted by monstermidget

You seem hung up on the B-picture tag and seem to apply one lense to view these percieved B-movies and another for The Shining. I mean the story of the shining is equally preposterous.The acting, often wildly over the top, Jacks freewheeling performance while iconic is hardly his best work. What's this psychological depth you speak of? Whats so incredible about the writing? The one note characters? The campy jump scares? Dick halloran's laborious sub-plot that goes precisely nowhere?

Surely The Shinings strengths (much like suspiria) lie in its technical and visual exellence and the rolling dream logic of the unfolding events.
Undoubtable it is more visually and stylistically involved than something as percision tooled as Halloween but its like comparing apples and oranges.

When I look at the shining I can see plenty of hokey/schlocky B-movie elements, right down to its gleefully twilight zone ending. You don't or won't it seems. And so we reach an impasse.

[Show spoiler]

[brainofj72]

I think this would be my all-time horror top 10:

1. Suspiria ('77) (My all-time #1 regardless of genre.)
2. The Fearless Vampire Killers
3. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre ('74)
4. The Beyond
5. Cannibal Holocaust
6. Night of the Living Dead ('68)
7. The Evil Dead ('81)
8. The Crazies ('73)
9. The Shining ('80)
10. Bram Stoker's Dracula ('92)