It’s been 40 years since Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining axed its way into theaters on May 23, 1980. Since then, the Stephen King adaptation has haunted multiple generations, who have all made their way through the Overlook Hotel doors, be it through repertory screenings, video store rentals, Saturday night sleepovers, or simply cable. Today, The Shining is a fixture of pop culture, having spawned countless memes, GIFs, homages, figurines, you name it, it’s been done. And yet, most would agree it’s still one of the most terrifying films of all time — if not the most terrifying. Of course, as with anything, fear is entirely subjective, and what’s scary to one person may be hilarious to another. Editors’ Picks That’s why we polled our staff and contributors to see what they think is the ...
The Overlook Hotel will never close. It’s been burned down, shuddered up, and even burned down again, but there’s no moving on. The walls, halls, and spooky rooms of the ghoulish institution are as obdurate as the spirits within, and they’ll remain that way forever. Point being, the Overlook Hotel isn’t just a setting in a story or a movie. It’s no longer just a name Stephen King gave to his own vision of The Stanley Hotel. And it’s not just the prismatic hell that Stanley Kubrick dreamed up a few years later. It’s been absorbed by the public consciousness; no different than Jack Torrance at the very end of the 1980 film. Of course, none of this would have happened without said film. Thanks to its labyrinthine qualities and MoMa-ready aesthetics, Kubrick’s chilling masterpiece has spawned ...