Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on January 2014

And here you thought Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 The Shining was just a movie. Hah! Actually, upon its release, many thought it a rather mediocre horror story, an underachievement for the genius director that had brought us 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove. But the five obsessive cinephiles interviewed in this unique essay-film by Rodney Ascher beg to differ, preferring to think that the director was working on a higher level and embedding little clues into the fabric of the film. They, in turn, confidently advance interpretations of each continuity error or errant reflection to come up with explanations that range from the vaguely lucid to the outright batshit. One sees it as a statement on the Holocaust, another a comment on the genocide of the American Indians. Then there’s the subliminal message on twisted human sexuality, the hidden minotaurs, numerology, carpet patterns and, my favorite, the director’s coded confession that he helped fake the Moon landings. One guy suggested running the film simultaneously backward and forward to reveal astounding secrets. None of them convinced me that their hidden meanings were either meanings or hidden, but that’s not to say it wasn’t great fun to watch. (104 min)