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Is this the freaking creepiest film ever made or what?

(* V*ne H*LL does like the amazing 70s carpets that look like Stereolab album covers, though...)

― kate, Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Partially creepy because Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson made for the weirdest looking couple ever.

That blood in the elevator scene really freaked me out though.

― Kim (Kim), Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:15 (twenty-two years ago)

The blood in the elevator isn't the worst, I think the old woman in the bathtub is the worst. The whole film just has this creepy, creepy atmosphere... the soundtrack and effective use of silence is just terrifying.

― kate, Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Shelley Duvall and Jack Nicholson made for the weirdest looking couple ever.

Weirder than Oliver Reed and Geraldine Chaplin in "ZPG"?

― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I think we should discuss...Danny...I think we should discuss...what
should be *done* with Danny........what should be done?

― Joe (Joe), Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:21 (twenty-two years ago)

No but it was pretty good.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 12 January 2003 00:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Soooo creepy and good.The worst is that creature in the room at the top of the stairs that you just get a real quick look at.

― ducklingmonster, Sunday, 12 January 2003 01:03 (twenty-two years ago)

I cant think of a movie with better carpet. The carpet and trike are the star couple of the movie.

― ducklingmonster, Sunday, 12 January 2003 01:06 (twenty-two years ago)

did they show the u.s. cut again ?
if the female doc wasn't in it then they did. idiots if so.
the only way u used to be able 2 see the eurocut over here
was on tv. even the video was 15 minutes shorter.

― piscesboy, Sunday, 12 January 2003 01:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Rosenbaum (Jonathan, of the Chicago Reader) has said that the first half/third of Full Metal Jacket (probably my favorite Kubrick) accomplishes more effectively what all of The Shining tried to do. I think that's partially true, though it robs The Shining of its specific context (marriage, parenting) and genre.

I think Mulholland Drive is very scary/sad.

I should note that I hate 'horror' movies.

― gabbneb, Sunday, 12 January 2003 01:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Some of it works and some of it doesn't - the bathtub lady scene is just embarrassing, and the ending is a bit too abrupt. It has the most amazing soundtrack of any horror film ever, though, no question.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Sunday, 12 January 2003 02:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, the music is incredible, it won't let you relax even during the most innocuous scenes. Pity Kubrick didn't make more horror films, seems that he, David Lynch the Blair Witch guys and a couple of others have been the only ones that understand what a Horror Film actually is.
The jump-out-and-slash-em pics don't move me in any way whatsoever, I certainly don't get any sense of actual horror.

― DavidM (DavidM), Sunday, 12 January 2003 04:21 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree on the first half of Full Metal Jacket - actually haven't seen the rest - but the look on that guy's face is one of the few truly, memorably horrifying things I've seen on film (& I'm a fan of directors inc. Cronenberg, Dario Argento & Takashi Miike, so there you go).

The Shining seemed to me to reflect more on Kubrick's amazing capacity for creating claustrophobia & shutting out all possible breathing room in the film.. And for a nice touch of misogyny re: Shelley Duvall looking like a living Munch print of a vampire woman.

― daria g, Sunday, 12 January 2003 08:01 (twenty-two years ago)

It has the most amazing soundtrack of any horror film ever, though, no question.

"Suspiria" soundtrack, anyone?

― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 12 January 2003 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

It has the most amazing soundtrack of any horror film ever, though, no question.

this is probably the wrong thread, but - of course, it's kubrick. does anyone else work better with music? (if you say scorsese, i'll barf)

― gabbneb, Sunday, 12 January 2003 09:48 (twenty-two years ago)

I was going to mention Suspiria as well. As well as the Penderecki and Crumb in The Exorcist.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 12 January 2003 09:49 (twenty-two years ago)

It's just amazing the way that he manages to create that sense of claustraphobia/cabin fever in this environment of these huge rooms in this enourmous house. The bathtub lady scene isn't scary because of the cheap makeup, it's scary because of the soundtrack. Beating hearts as only noise have been done before, but it was really really chilling. Strange because I find the blood in the elevators comical rather than scary.

― kate, Sunday, 12 January 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, the book is way scarier but isn't that always true. . .

I think Kubrick's version stands supreme as one of the best horror films ever made.

King's version of later years though stands as a pathetic tribute to an author's own egoistic posturing. I mean, fuck, Kubrick did his books. Can't he leave it alone!?!?!

What the else has he recently fucked up? Carrie?

― That Girl (thatgirl), Sunday, 12 January 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I should admit, I managed to watch half an hour of The Shining before thinking "this is too creepy to watch on my own." I am a wuss. I've seen it before with friends though, and it's grebt.

The Suspiria soundtrack is pish, though - you know exactly when anything sudden or "scary" is going to happen because the soundtrack goes completely silent for about 5 seconds beforehand.

― caitlin (caitlin), Sunday, 12 January 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

And I thought this was going to be a thread about Reason.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Sunday, 12 January 2003 13:35 (twenty-two years ago)

And I'm beginning to suspect that we aren't talking about the old Grant National winning horse.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I want those carpets.

― Ed (dali), Sunday, 12 January 2003 13:44 (twenty-two years ago)

It is scary, I mean the part where she walks into the room and the teddybear is giving the butler a blow job, at least thats how it looks, that part is pretty disturbing. (did I imagine that being in it)

― Ronan (Ronan), Sunday, 12 January 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Ronan has a vision.

Been many years since I've seen it, but since I can remember just about everything referenced without having to think twice, clearly it made a lingering impact...

Random trivia -- that's outtakes from the opening credit sequence tacked onto the end of the original release of Blade Runner.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 January 2003 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm beginning to find "Eyes Wide Shut" pretty creepy, actually. Like when you wake up out of a particularly vivid dream and can't work out what's real, but (for the movie) that feeling doesn't stop. "The Shining" is creepy enough though, particularly the way we're led (i think) to sympathise w/JN. Yeah, they're annoying. Hey, you should KILL THEM!

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Sunday, 12 January 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

King's version of later years though stands as a pathetic tribute to an author's own egoistic posturing. I mean, fuck, Kubrick did his books. Can't he leave it alone!?!?!

Samantha is completely OTM. It's the JK Rowling conceit of just having the actors recite the book line by line -- it might be faithful to the book but it makes for a less than exciting viewing experience.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 12 January 2003 15:54 (twenty-two years ago)

it's kubrick. does anyone else work better with music?

Tarkovski's films with Edward Artemiev soundtracks work better, I think, as do Herzog's movies with Popol Vuh soundtrax, but the shining is very, very effective, yes. I read somewhere that Wendy Carlos had realised a complete electronick soundtrack for the shining, but it was mostly unused. That makes me curious, I must confess.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Sunday, 12 January 2003 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It's the JK Rowling conceit

Heh heh heh. The triumph of the author AT LAST! Bow down, Hollywood wretches, bow down!

(Needless to say I agree. This is why Peter Jackson is The Man on this subject [and Fran Walsh and Phillipa Boyens The Women], given their ability to prep up Tolkien for a film *as* a film and not as the book -- currently in the midst of my annual reread of LOTR and it's clearer than ever how deftly that team translated page to screen).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 January 2003 18:09 (twenty-two years ago)

There are just too many differences betweeen films and novels as mediums to expect one to faithfully re-create the other.

― Nicole (Nicole), Sunday, 12 January 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

This is why novelizations are so uniformly awful (though is there in fact any novelization that's ever worked?).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 January 2003 18:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I can think of two excellent ones - ET and Superman III, both by the great William Kotzwinkle. He wrote an excellent sequel to ET too.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 12 January 2003 19:20 (twenty-two years ago)

I read somewhere that Wendy Carlos had realised a complete electronick soundtrack for the shining, but it was mostly unused. That makes me curious, I must confess.

I think that's right.

― gabbneb, Sunday, 12 January 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

This is one of my favorite films. I never got to see it as a child so it's not as scary as it is funny and entertaining to me. The first time I saw it I had taken 8 hits of acid which might explain my adoration for it.

― lou (lou), Sunday, 12 January 2003 21:13 (twenty-two years ago)

The screepiest bit is surely the ghostly ballroom scene.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

'Screepy' is my new word.

― N. (nickdastoor), Monday, 13 January 2003 02:26 (twenty-two years ago)

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