deep analysis from both film historians and the viewing public throughout the years, and is a cinematic classic as well as a horror classic; "The Shining" is the seminal best. Based upon the novel by famed horror author Stephen King, this adaptation takes liberties from the book, which led to King leaving the set and creating his own miniseries in 1997. This version takes liberties with the motivations behind the lead character, some of the plot, and some of the less horrible of the ghosts and monsters. Set in the Overlook Hotel, writer and alcoholic family man Jack Torrance is broke and trying to get sober for the sake of his young son and waifish wife, Wendy. The family sets up shop in the hotel as caretakers whilethe rest of the employees and residents are gone, snow covering the road twenty inches high, trapping them inside. The film, like the book, is a morphing of psychological thriller and ghost story, as the motivations of the characters become skewed along the way. The hotel is haunted by many specters, including the last caretaker's bludgeoned young daughters, axed in the upstairs' hallway, hallucinations of twenties' parties in the ballroom including butler Grady, and a sickly, skin peeling woman in the upstairs bathroom. Those elements are of course horrific, contrasted by Torrance's son, Danny, who is psychic, possessing an ability called the shining. His visions and distorted facial expressions make you squirm in your seat, as you wonder how this child wasn't frightened by his own performance. (Kubrick