Oh Ryan Taylor, why oh why is HOLLYWOODLAND better than the filthy enjoyable pulp thriller BLACK DAHLIA? You know, elaborate yourself because, your James Dean avatar doesn't cut it.

I gotta disagree with Capo, a guy I do respect, on one review.

THE SHINING (1980) - *****

What makes Kubrick's horror masterpiece a hallmark of the horror genre of American cinema is that it accomplished something that few, if any, have actually acheived.

THE SHINING, a superior dramatic treatment of the same plot and storyline based on Stephen King's alcoholic, feel-good ending morality tale(where can even argue that the book's optimistic ending for the protagonist is partly based on King's own struggles with alcoholism), is truely a Gothic literary film.

No, not the goths like those fat girls that like to dress in black over at the local mall, or those depressed Emos that should just get it over with, and kill themselves. I mean Gothic Literature of the 19th century, and continued in intervening revival periods in the 20th century.

As wikipedia describes Gothic Fiction?: "Prominent features of gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness (especially mad women), secrets, hereditary curses, persecuted maidens and so on."

Certainly alot of details, including the Overlook Hotel(which looks like a castle fortress in the mountains with its own gothic-inspired architecture) does make my point credible.

Hell, THE SHINING was the last movie that Ebert put in his GREAT MOVIES list before he got sick. At least somebody is in my corner.