One may have expected a horror film from Kubrick to have something more than just shrieks but this is purely in the horror/ghosts/insanity genre and reasonably scary and suspense laden even at it's marathon two hours and a half. It is as though the director is saying, look, I can do these too. A couple and their psychic son are isolated in a large hotel cut off by snow from the world. Insanity and spooks take the field and "redrum" (murder) armed with knives, axes and baseball bats spills through the corridors and over the staircases. There are deluges of blood (literally) and a pair of spooks (see picture), former murderees, invite the psychic Dan, "Come play with us, for ever and ever and ever." Jack Nicholson is at home playing himself with leers, grimaces and speech mannerisms and extracts a few laughs along with the fear and suspense. Duval in the female lead does a competent job as a perpetual shivering jelly. Certainly not in the class of
Exorcist,
Silence of Lambs or
Repulsion. But good enough to pass an idle afternoon and excellent if this happens to be your chosen brand of caffeine.
