Mega_Mana posted...
Though The Shining towards the top of people's lists feels kind of default judging against the rest of the list, I dare anyone who listed it as #1 to watch it again in a theatre or without any distractions (book/phone/Shining as background) and see how it holds up to you. The movie is a slog.
One of my most disappointing theatre experiences was going to watch a special showing on the big screen. I'd seen it plenty of times before, loved the book and Room 237 and had some Nostalgia Critic-induced praise for the miniseries, and was going to see it with another horror-King friend. So while The Shining has so many great moments and memorable scenes... it feels like a four or five hour slog when you're just sitting there waiting for anything at all to actually happen. It is a slow, boring movie. I am so glad it didn't take top spot and The Thing did.
It's still a great piece of cinema! I've enjoyed it again since, at home--when I can do other things during 80% of the runtime. But I completely understand it getting blasted with terrible reviews for its theatrical run. It's insane to me how opposite The Shining is to a lot of other movies where Big Screen > Small Screen.
i should straight up admit my partiality towards Kubrick. Part of me also feels like I'm generally not particularly into ghost fiction, and I view The Shining and Poltergeist more as spins on haunted house horror while Ghostbusters is more like a high-concept SNL comedy. And even then, the only good Ghostbusters movie is the first one.