The film presents the descent into insanity of a recovering alcoholic and aspiring novelist (Nicholson) who takes a job as winter caretaker for a haunted mountain resort hotel with his wife (Duvall) and clairvoyant son (Lloyd).

Of particular note is Kubrick's use of Penderecki's The Awakening of Jacob to accompany Jack Torrance's dream of killing his family and Danny's vision of past carnage in the hotel, a piece of music originally associated with the horrors of the Holocaust.

[26] Geoffrey Cocks notes that the film contains many allusions to fairy-tales, both Hansel and Gretel and the Three Little Pigs,[22] with Jack Torrance identified as the Big Bad Wolf, which Bruno Bettelheim interprets as standing for "all the asocial unconscious devouring powers" that must be overcome by a child's ego.

[29][21][30] Many of the paintings that appear include depictions of Canada or are painted by Canadian artists including Le Campement du Trappeur (1931) by Clarence Gagnon, December Afternoon (1969) by Hugh Monahan, Log Hut on the St. Maurice (1862) and Paysage d’hiver, Laval (1849) by Cornelius Krieghoff, After The Bath (1890) by Paul Peel, Site du : "Combat de la Grange" September 25, 1775 (1839) by Louise-Amélie Panet, Starlight: Indian Papoose (n.d.) and Chief Bear Paw (n.d.) by Nicholas Raphael de Grandmaison, Montreal from the Mountain (1838) by William Henry Bartlett, Makah Returning in their War Canoes (1845–1859) by Paul Kane, Mill on the Cliff (n.d.) by Nicholas Hornyansky, The Johnson House, Hanover (1932–42) by Carl Schaefer, and Cooper's Hawk (1974) and Glaucous-Winged Gull (1973) by J. Fenwick Lansdowne.

[21][31] A number of paintings by Alex Colville make appearances including Woman and Terrier (1963), Horse and Train (1954), Hound in Field (1958), Dog, Boy, and St. John River (1958), and Moon and Cow (1963).

Film critic Jonathan Romney, while acknowledging the absorption theory, wrote: As the ghostly butler Grady (Philip Stone) tells him during their chilling confrontation in the men's toilet, 'You're the caretaker, sir.

[56] Nicholson was Kubrick's first choice for the role of Jack Torrance; other actors considered included Robert De Niro (who said the film gave him nightmares for a month),[57] Robin Williams, and Harrison Ford, all of whom met with Stephen King's disapproval.

In his search to find the right actor to play Danny, Kubrick sent a husband-and-wife team, Leon (who portrayed Lord Bullingdon in Barry Lyndon) and Kersti Vitali, to Chicago, Denver, and Cincinnati to create an interview pool of 5,000 boys over a six-month period.

Saint Mary Lake and its Wild Goose Island in Glacier National Park, Montana were featured in the aerial shots of the opening scenes, with the Volkswagen Beetle driving along Going-to-the-Sun Road.

For each language, a suitable idiom was used: German (Was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf Morgen / "Never put off till tomorrow what may be done today"), Italian (Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca / "The morning has gold in its mouth"), French (Un «Tiens» vaut mieux que deux «Tu l'auras» / "One 'here you go' is worth more than two 'you'll have it'", the equivalent of "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush"), Spanish (No por mucho madrugar amanece más temprano / "No matter how early you get up, you can't make the sun rise any sooner.

[106] Unlike Kubrick's previous works, which developed audiences gradually through word-of-mouth, The Shining initially opened on 10 screens in New York City and Los Angeles on the Memorial Day weekend, then was released as a mass-market film nationwide within a month.

[116] The U.S. network television premiere of The Shining (on ABC's Friday Night Movie of May 6, 1983)[117] started with a placard saying, "Tonight's Film Deals With the Supernatural, As a Possessed Man Attempts to Destroy His Family.

In response, Bass commissioned a small, silkscreened print run of his original version, which also lacks the "masterpiece of modern horror" slogan, and has the credits in a compact white block at the bottom.

[135] Janet Maslin of The New York Times lauded Nicholson's performance and praised the Overlook Hotel as an effective setting for horror, but wrote that "the supernatural story knows frustratingly little rhyme or reason ...

"[141] Vincent Misiano's review in Ares magazine concluded: "The Shining lays open to view all the devices of horror and suspense – endless eerie music, odd camera angles, a soundtrack of interminably pounding heart, hatchets and hunts.

"[144] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote "Stanley Kubrick's production of The Shining, a ponderous, lackluster distillation of Stephen King's best-selling novel, looms as the Big Letdown of the new film season.

"[145] Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic described The Shining as 'laborious filmmaking' and 'a grab bag of spook stuff, with no rhyme or reason of its own' and that Nicholson's 'mouthy work here makes the late Bela Lugosi look conservative'.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Though it deviates from Stephen King's novel, Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is a chilling, often baroque journey into madness — exemplified by an unforgettable turn from Jack Nicholson.

[174][175][176] In 2006, Roger Ebert, who was initially critical of the work, inducted the film into his Great Movies series, saying "Stanley Kubrick's cold and frightening The Shining challenges us to decide: Who is the reliable observer?

"[178] Jessica Jalali of Screen Rant ranked it the best performance of her career, calling her "the heart of the film; she is out of her depth in dealing with her husband's looming insanity while trying to protect her young son, all while being fearful of the malevolence around her".

[138]In 1999, Jonathan Romney discussed Kubrick's perfectionism and dispelled others' initial arguments that the film lacked complexity: "The final scene alone demonstrates what a rich source of perplexity The Shining offers ... look beyond the simplicity and the Overlook reveals itself as a palace of paradox".

According to the novel, the character represented an ordinary and balanced man who little by little loses control; furthermore, the written narration reflected personal traits of the author himself at that time (marked by insomnia and alcoholism), in addition to abuse.

Stephen King stated on the DVD commentary of the 1997 miniseries of The Shining that the character of Jack Torrance was partially autobiographical, as he was struggling with both alcoholism and unprovoked rage toward his family at the time of writing.

In Stanley Kubrick and the Art of Adaptation, author Greg Jenkins writes "A toadish figure in the book, Ullman has been utterly reinvented for the film; he now radiates charm, grace and gentility.

"When Ullman, himself all smiles, relates as a footnote the story about the former caretaker who 'seemed perfectly normal' but nevertheless cut up his family with an ax, Jack's obvious interest (as if he's recalling one of his own nightmares) and his insincere congeniality (early signs of a personality malfunction) lead the viewer to believe that the film's definition of his madness will be far more complex.

Because of the limitations of special effects at the time, the living topiary animals of the novel were omitted and a hedge maze was added,[229][230] acting as a final trap for Jack Torrance as well as a refuge for Danny.

[242][243][244] The season 30 2019 episode "Girl's in the Band" has Homer, driven mad from working double shifts at the nuclear power plant, experiencing a Gold Room party scene with Lloyd followed by an axe-wielding Human Resources Director who resembles Nicholson's character.

[264] In Andy Muschietti's 2019 film It Chapter Two, which is based on It, another Stephen King book, Pennywise the Clown disguises himself as Henry Bowers while tormenting Beverly in a bathroom stall, and repeats the "here's Johnny!"

"[268] In 2020, the fifth-season episode "Our Mojo" of Lucifer paid homage to Kubrick and The Shining by having a young boy riding on a tricycle down a corridor in a hotel with wallpaper similar to the carpet pattern in the film.

[269] As part of its "A History of Ideas" series, BBC Radio 4 produced a video illustrating Immanuel Kant's concept of the categorical imperative outlined in On a Supposed Right to Tell Lies from Benevolent Motives, using the characters and setting of The Shining.