Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
In 1966 Stanley Kubrick told a friend that he wanted to make “the world’s scariest movie.” A decade later Stephen King’s The Shining landed on the director’s desk, and a visual masterpiece was born. This definitive compendium of the film features hundreds of photographs, rare production ephemera, and extensive interviews with the cast and crew.
“A two-volume compendium of almost 1,400 pages sheds new light on the film – and reveals the last secrets of the film... The book changes everything!”
“To be precise, it is 869 pages in which Kubrick specialist Rinzler and his editor, Hollywood director Lee Unkrich, cover everything. Starting with the book on which it is based, through the filming, to the most adventurous interpretations decades after its release. The texts are easy to read, and there is also a second, almost equally thick volume in the slipcase containing hundreds of photos, some of which have never been published before.”
“TASCHEN has published an extensive masterpiece in honor of the film: This monumental work is not only a visual delight, but also documents in detail the creation and significance of The Shining.”
“A dizzying plunge into the world of a cult film that marked many generations.”
“One doesn't come across an ultimate making-of like this every day.”
“This sumptuous volume reveals everything, absolutely everything, about ‘The Shining.’”
“A journey through time.”
“Land of milk and honey: now, in two stunning volumes, Oscar-winning American director Lee Unkrich, together with film historian J. W. Rinzler, has reconstructed the history of the filming.”
“Anyone who wants to know everything about Kubrick's film The Shining and how it came about will find it in these magnificent volumes. Here, too, horror is guaranteed.”
“TASCHEN is dedicating one of its voluminous works of art to Shining: this epic is not only a feast for the eyes, but also meticulously traces the creation and significance of the film using texts and numerous images. You can completely disappear in it.”
“Drawing on a trove of interviews and images, this two-volume edition is for the serious film buff or Kubrick aficionado.”
“To me, it read like a thriller. It’s an extraordinary document, and something that I think any creative person would view as an absolute necessity. It’s a stunning achievement.”

Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
125The World’s Scariest Movie
The making of Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece of modern horror
“The Shining may be the first movie that ever made its audience jump with a title that simply says, ‘Tuesday,’” proclaimed The New York Times. Never has a film evoked so much dread in its audience with so little gore than Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of the 1977 novel by the master of terror himself, Stephen King, where true horror lies in the darkest corners of domesticity and isolation.
Equally a study of the intricate mechanics of Kubrick’s genius as an in-depth look at the making of a visual masterpiece, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining gathers hundreds of hours of exclusive new interviews with the cast and crew in an unprecedented look at the 1980 cult classic. Slip in through the back door of The Overlook Hotel to witness Kubrick’s endless rounds of script rewrites, his revolutionary use of the Steadicam, the mechanics behind the infamous blood elevator, the mysterious mid-filming fire at Elstree Studios, and the countless takes needed to satisfy the meticulous force that was Kubrick.
Conceived and edited by Academy Award-winning director Lee Unkrich, dubbed by The Hollywood Reporter as “the world's foremost Shining aficionado,” with text by best-selling author J.W. Rinzler and a foreword by Steven Spielberg, this is the definitive compendium of the film that transformed the horror genre.
The two-volume collection designed by M/M Paris includes hundreds of never-before-seen production photographs from the Stanley Kubrick Archive and the personal collections of cast and crew, rare documents and correspondence, conceptual art, an exclusive look at deleted scenes, and more.
THE SHINING and all related characters and elements © & ™ Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (s22)
The designer
The author
J. W. Rinzler (1962–2021) authored more than 20 books, three New York Times bestsellers and a London Times bestseller, including The Making of Star Wars, The Complete Making of Indiana Jones, and the best-selling graphic novel The Star Wars. He was executive editor at Lucasfilm for 15 years. His most recent novels were the space age historical thriller, All Up and Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life.
The editor
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining
Hardcover, two vols. in slipcase, 20 x 22 cm, 3.79 kg, 1396 pagesISBN 978-3-7544-0003-6
Edition: English4.8