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Why is The Shining so awesome?- by Bridget McManus

It's that time of year again. HALLOWEEN! As a gay person, I feel especially connected to a holiday that demands heavy makeup, wigs and platform shoes. Apparently, in my mind, RuPaul is that the Santa Claus of Halloween.

Tonight, whilst flipping through the television channels, I came across the 1980 classic horror film The Shining. I must preface what I'm about to say with the admission that I'm a scaredy cat and I really despise horror movies. But for some reason, whenever I see Shelley Duvall – with her terrified face, camel-colored corduroy jumper and messy low ponytail – running through the hallways of the Overlook Hotel, I get hooked and have to watch the film to completion. (I hate to blue-ball my movies.)

For those of you who don't know, The Shining is a film based on a novel by horror legend Stephen King, brought to life by the twisted mind of director Stanley Kubrick, and includes a musical score that will give your goose bumps goose bumps.

Jack Nicholson plays Jack (very creative name), a caretaker of the enormous and haunted Overlook Hotel, which causes him to go crazy and hunt down his wife and son.

This terrifying movie shouldn't be a holiday classic but it is, and I believe it is the best horror movie ever made! Not only does The Shining stand up to the test of time, it bends time and space and makes me uncomfortable whenever I check into a hotel.

The Shining is cinematic perfection and has more spectacles than a Kardashian baby shower.  It boasts an elevator full of blood, necrophilia, a death maze and the film's sundae is topped off with a big cherry in the form of a crazy kid. Who doesn't love a crazy kid? Crazy/ghost-talking/monster-seeing kids are textbook requirements to make a scary movie even scarier. For example, The Exorcist, Orphan, Poltergeist, The Sixth Sense and Jerry Maguire (that kid was crazy and had a huge head!)

So for this Halloween, I suggest that you dress up, go trick or treating and then watch The Shining. For your viewing enjoyment, I also recommend locking up your house and pouring yourself a glass of rum. Just make sure it's not red rum.

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