The Shining (1980 film)

To call "The Shining" one of the best horror films ever made feels like underselling its merits. It's a ghost story, maybe, from certain angles, but it's a thin veneer for an allegory of abusive relationships and how victims and children cope with the abuse, either helpless to find or blind to a way out. It's a story of cycles of violence, of the ugliest sides of masculinity, of recognizing the fragility of our mortality, presented in a fugue that leaves the three leads as unreliable narrators. "The Shining", through any lens you want to view it, is a masterpiece.

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