BEFORE: The last 3 films in my Jack Nicholson chain are also the first 3 films in my Halloween horror chain. That's right, it's ShockToberfest - the sequel! For the next 30 days I'm going outside my comfort zone (and into my un-comfort zone). Really, isn't the world scary enough, without so-called "entertainment" that focuses on death, gore and made-up monsters? Seriously, what's wrong with you people? I guess I'm in the minority here - though I do like a good Edgar Allen Poe story, but to me it's a long leap from there to something like "Night of the Living Dead". This is also the first of 11 films I'll be watching this month that are based on Stephen King books.
THE PLOT: A family heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and of the future.
AFTER: This is another one of those films that I've seen parodied everywhere from MAD Magazine to the Simpsons Halloween Specials - so much that the original has lost a good deal of its punch, almost becoming a parody of itself. But that's OK, anything that tones down a horror film and makes it easier to watch is fine by me.
This is a Stephen King story, but a Stanley Kubrick film, and I do see some similarities to "2001" - the kid riding on a big wheel around the hotel reminded me of the astronauts jogging around the spacecraft - and essentially, isn't Jack going crazy the same as HAL the computer breaking down?
And boy, they sure give away the whole film in the opening act, don't they? When the hotel manager is giving the family a tour of the hotel - "Now, here's the hedge maze, and over there is where we store the axes, and did I mention that the hotel was built on an old Indian burial ground? Now let me show you the walk-in freezer..." Ummm, can we go back to that burial ground thing for a second?
In the end, cabin fever plus writer's block, plus demonic possession is a recipe for disaster. I suppose it only takes a month for your wife and son to get on your nerves when you're snowbound in a Colorado hotel. You know what they say about women - "Can't live with them, can't chop them up with an axe." Oh, wait, yes you can.
Hey, now I get the reference on "Web Soup" that introduces their "WTF?" segment...
Also starring Shelley Duvall, Barry Nelson (last seen in "Airport") and Scatman Crothers (back-to-back Scatman, nice...)
RATING: 6 out of 10 broken doors
JACK-O-METER: 9 out of 10. Might be a solid 10 if not for the slow build to the Crazy Jack. By the end of the film, he's pinging the needle on crazy, but I have to average it out.
SPOOK-O-METER: 8 out of 10. Creepy more than scary - I thought it would be gorier, and more frightening. Very suspenseful, unless you know all the plot points in advance, as I did.
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