Read up on the latest The Shining news, reviews, features, and more from the ScreenAge Wasteland team.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick from a screenplay he co-wrote with Diane Johnson, The Shining is a horror movie starring Jack Nicholson. Based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name, The Shining presents the descent into insanity of a recovering alcoholic and aspiring novelist who takes a job as winter caretaker for a mountain resort hotel with his wife and clairvoyant son.

The Shining was released on May 23, 1980, by Warner Bros. Pictures. The psychological horror movie earned $57 million at the worldwide box office. While reactions at the time of its release were mixed, the movie has since been critically reappraised and is often cited as one of the greatest horror films ever made. It was deemed an essential movie and inducted into the ScreenAge Wasteland Canon on October 27, 2022.

The Shining has appeared on the following “greatest” lists assembled by ScreenAge Wasteland:

• #1 on The 50 Greatest Stephen King Adaptations of All Time
• #2 on The 100 Greatest Horror Films of the 1980s
• #11 on The 100 Greatest Horror Movies
• #14 (Jack Torrance) on The 100 Greatest ’80s Movie Villains
• #18 on The 100 Greatest Warner Bros. Movies
• #22 (Jack Torrance) and #55 (Danny Torrance) on The 100 Greatest Horror Characters of All Time
• #22 (Jack Torrance), #57 (Danny Torrance), #126 (Wendy Torrance), and #171 (The Grady Twins) on The 500 Greatest Horror Characters of All Time
• #23 (Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance) on The 100 Biggest Oscar Acting Snubs of All Time
• #23 on The 100 Greatest Movie Teaser Trailers
• #27 (Wendy Torrance) and #50 (Woman in Bathtub) on The 100 Greatest Female Horror Movie Characters (2026 ed.)
• #32 on The 100 Greatest ’80s Movies of all Time
• #36 (Wendy Torrance) and #50 (Woman in Bathtub) on The 100 Greatest Female Characters in Horror (2020 ed.)
• #51 (Jack Torrance) on The 100 Greatest Movie Villains of All Time