Countdown to Halloween: Hi — I’m going to Camp Crystal Lake

Once upon a time, Hollywood was actually able to make good movies out of Stephen King novels, and The Shining is one of the best. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and starring an at-his-peak Jack Nicholson, The Shining scared me like few movies ever have.

I was 10 when this movie came out in 1980, and seeing it at that age on the big screen branded the most shocking scenes into my brain good and deep. But watching it again and again over the years with the benefit of more maturity — and less crying — has let me appreciate some of the “quieter” but no less powerful pieces in The Shining. One of my favorites is just a conversation between Nicholson’s Jack Torrance and the ghost of Delbert Grady, but it’s a scene that is chilling in its restraint and menace.

The same year The Shining came out another, much different movie called Friday the 13th was released. Unsuspecting audiences were introduced to Jason Voorhees and a girl named Annie, who would be one of the first of many, launching a horror icon and an apparently equally undying movie franchise.

And just a quick note: Is it just me, or is there something weirdly satisfying about the idea of Jason driving a Jeep?