The Shining (1980)

With the Shining celebrating its 45th Anniversary, it felt like a great opportunity to watch this classic at the cinema. There is a documentary which serves as a very good companion piece exploring all the theories associated with this film which range from good to downright ridiculous. The movie sees Jack Nicholson play Jack Torrance who takes on a job as a caretaker of the Overlook Hotel during the winter months so that he can write his novel. Things seem to go strange quite quickly though and it becomes a fight between Jack and Wendy.

As the movie progresses things get very bleak and one of the things that I do like about this film is that it’s very well shot. The claustrophobic feel of the latter half of the film adds an extra layer of tension to what was already a tense film. It really doesnt take long for the strange vibe to start as it starts from the flying over the lake then there are the continuous shot of following Danny around on his little bike.

In the past I would have said that I could have done without Wendy because even though she’s suppose to be in terror at what her husband has turned into and I just found myself being slightly bored by her. As the years and rewatches have gone by I still find portions of Shelley Duvall’s acting to be a little ropey but overall I have changed my opinion of her performance. Nicholson is in fine form here and pretty much steals the film. Every time he was on screen he was in complete control and every time he wasn’t on screen, I took this as an opportunity to take a mental breather and wait for the next time and that was probably a wise thing to do. The infamous ‘here’s Johnny’ line was exactly as good every single time I hear it. There is a reason why it's iconic and it's because it’s truly terrifying.

As a movie, I thought that it was brilliant. One of the best horror films ever made because no matter how many times I have seen this film I am totally engaged with what is happening. It’s very tense and very well acted and also I liked the story. This was the first time that I saw it at the cinema and the big screen is the perfect place and the version I saw was apparently the American cut because there were a couple of things that were new such as the extended doctor scene with Wendy and the shot of the skeletons sitting in the reception area at the hotel. There are probably more but they dont come to mind. If you ever get the chance to see this film on the big screen then you should because its makes the film even better.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (2025)

So the first one made enough money so that we were inevitably going to get a sequel. I still don't know as much about the games as I did when the first one came out. The set up is that the original Fazbar saw a young girl was murdered in 1982 and her spirit got into a marionette and she has developed a hatred of parents because when the girl tried to get adults attention they just dismissed her.The story then moves back to ‘present day’ where Mike and Abby are trying to move on after the events of the first film with Abby missing her ‘friends’.

This is nowhere near as good as the first one. I think that comes across as Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Part 1 because this doesn't feel like it has got a satisfactory conclusion. The line about them coming back suggests we are getting a third film and then Vanessa getting possessed shows that her story isn’t over. Other issues with the film include the ‘climax’ where Mike uses the music box to release Abby from the marionette’s power seemed a bit underwhelming as when this sort of thing happens elsewhere it would be a bigger deal and here it seems to end in about 4 seconds. They also make a big deal out of Skeet Ulrich being in the film with his connection to the Scream films and would it be a possible reunion with Matthew Lillard but sadly that didn’t happen because of Ulrich’s blink and you miss is cameo and also the fact that Lillard is in about three scenes and they are all flashbacks. Although in the mid-credits scene his costume from the first one is seen and apparently there was more post credits stuff which suggests that Ulrich might feature more in the next one.

There are some good things about this film. I think that Piper Rubio is quite likeable as Abby and she manages to liking and being friends with the killer robots seem like a sensible thing. It just would be nice if she were given more to do because I found Abby more of an interesting character than Vanessa. Wayne Knight was great as Mr. Berg who is a teacher that doesn't seem to like Abby for some reason but his death is quite good. Mckenna Grace is also great in her brief appearance as the presenter of a paranormal series which is starting to appear cliched but she makes the most of her brief time.

This hasn’t been advertised as the first part of a trilogy or a two parter so things feel like they are starting things off just to be resolved in another film. It’s a bit like Halloween Kills and Halloween Ends. I’m getting a bit fed up with films spilling over into more than its current entry. Definitely a step down from the first one.