Stanley Kubrick’s 1980 adaptation of *The Shining* holds a Metacritic rating of 68 out of 100, based on reviews from 26 film critics. This score places the film in the “generally favorable reviews” category—not a universal masterpiece, but a work that critics more often praised than dismissed.
For a film that has since become a cultural phenomenon and subject of countless academic studies, this moderate critical score might seem surprising at first glance.
- Metacritic Rating Shining: Table of Contents
- How the Metacritic Score Was Calculated
- The Discrepancy Between Metacritic and Other Platforms
- Critical Reception and Kubrick's Reputation
- What the 68 Rating Means for Viewers
- The Role of Professional Critics vs. Audience Opinion
- The Lasting Impact of the Metacritic Rating
- Understanding Metacritic Ratings in Context
- Conclusion
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The 68 Metacritic score reflects the fractured critical consensus at the time of the film’s release and in the years immediately following. While some critics immediately recognized the brilliance of Kubrick’s vision—his meticulous direction, the unsettling atmosphere, and Jack Nicholson’s descent into madness—others found the film detached and glacially paced.
This article explores what that 68 rating actually means, how it compares to other rating systems, why the critical response was mixed, and what the Metacritic score tells us about both the film and the nature of critical evaluation itself.
Table of Contents
- How the Metacritic Score Was Calculated
- The Discrepancy Between Metacritic and Other Platforms
- Critical Reception and Kubrick’s Reputation
- What the 68 Rating Means for Viewers
- The Role of Professional Critics vs. Audience Opinion
- The Lasting Impact of the Metacritic Rating
- Understanding Metacritic Ratings in Context
- Conclusion
How the Metacritic Score Was Calculated
metacritic‘s score of 68 comes from aggregating reviews across 26 professional critics, with each review weighted based on the critic’s perceived expertise and publication reputation.
The site converts letter grades, star ratings, and numerical scores into a 0-100 scale, then calculates the average to determine the final metascore. For *The Shining*, this process resulted in a score positioned firmly in the “favorable” territory—not exceptional, but respectable.
The “generally favorable reviews” designation means that, on balance, critics who reviewed the film spoke positively of it, though not overwhelmingly so. This is a crucial distinction: the score doesn’t suggest *The Shining* is a bad film or a borderline case.
Rather, it indicates that critical opinion was divided between those who saw genius in Kubrick’s approach and those who found his cold, methodical style at odds with the novel’s emotional core. Some reviewers praised the symmetrical cinematography and the slow-burn horror; others felt the film prioritized visual perfection over genuine scares.
The Discrepancy Between Metacritic and Other Platforms
While Metacritic rated *The Shining* at 68/100, the film received notably higher scores on other major review aggregation sites. On IMDb, where millions of general audiences weigh in, the film scores an impressive 8.4 out of 10.
On Rotten Tomatoes, using a different methodology that counts reviews as either “fresh” or “rotten,” *The Shining* achieves an 83% score. This gap between Metacritic’s 68 and Rotten Tomatoes’ 83 is significant, and it reveals something important about how these platforms weight and aggregate reviews.
The difference stems partly from methodology: Rotten Tomatoes’ system is more binary (a review is either positive or negative), while Metacritic preserves the nuance of each critic’s rating. However, the gap also reflects the composition of reviewers.
Professional critics, whose reviews Metacritic prioritizes, were more divided on *The Shining* upon release than audiences have proven to be in hindsight. Some of those original critics harbored reservations about Kubrick’s departure from King’s novel; modern audiences and critics tend to appreciate these very departures as evidence of Kubrick’s artistic vision.
This is a cautionary note for using any single rating: a film’s Metacritic score tells you about professional critical consensus at a moment in time, not necessarily about the film’s intrinsic quality or its standing in retrospective appraisals.
Critical Reception and Kubrick’s Reputation
In 1980, Stanley Kubrick was already a legendary director, but he was also a divisive figure.
Critics knew that supporting a Kubrick film meant endorsing his often-brutal creative choices: his perfectionism, his willingness to demand dozens of takes, his indifference to actors’ comfort, and his willingness to discard beloved source material in pursuit of his own vision. *The Shining* exemplified all of these traits.
Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall would later discuss the ordeal of filming—Kubrick’s relentless directing style, the isolation of the set, the psychological toll—and some critics saw the film through the lens of this austere production approach.
The original critical response was therefore shaped by the tension between admiration for Kubrick’s command and discomfort with his methods and artistic choices.
Defenders of the film—critics who pushed back against Stephen King’s own public dissatisfaction—argued that Kubrick had transformed King’s novel into something more ambitious: a meditation on American violence, isolation, and madness.
Critics less enamored with the film found it emotionally remote and more interested in its own visual perfection than in scaring the audience or exploring the characters’ interiority.
This debate is reflected in the Metacritic score: there was no consensus, just a preponderance of favorable but not enthusiastic reviews.
What the 68 Rating Means for Viewers
For someone considering whether to watch *The Shining*, the Metacritic score of 68 should be interpreted carefully.
In Metacritic’s own classification system, 68 falls comfortably into “generally favorable reviews”—the second-best category after “universal acclaim.” This means that if you selected a random critic from the 26 surveyed, you’re more likely to encounter someone who endorsed the film than someone who didn’t. However, you’re not dealing with overwhelming consensus; reasonable critics had reservations.
The practical takeaway is that *The Shining* is worth watching, particularly if you appreciate Kubrick’s style, slow-burn horror, or ambitious adaptations.
The film rewards patient viewing and repeated watches; many of its admirers admit it didn’t fully click for them on first viewing. If you’re seeking straightforward, traditional horror—jump scares and simple narrative momentum—this might not be it.
But if you’re interested in a deliberately crafted, visually stunning exploration of psychological deterioration, the modest critical consensus (68) barely captures what the film has become in the decades since release. The Metacritic score reflects a moment of critical uncertainty that subsequent audiences and scholars have largely resolved in the film’s favor.
The Role of Professional Critics vs. Audience Opinion
One reason *The Shining* achieved a higher Rotten Tomatoes score (83%) despite a moderate Metacritic rating (68) relates to how these platforms handle the gap between critics and audiences. Rotten Tomatoes includes both professional and audience scores, with the “Tomatometer” (critics) showing 83% and the audience score typically running even higher.
Metacritic also includes a user score separate from its professional metascore, and audiences consistently rate *The Shining* more favorably than the 68 professional score would suggest. This discrepancy is instructive.
Professional film critics prioritize artistic ambition, technical execution, and innovation—and Metacritic’s averaging process is sensitive to mixed opinions on these dimensions. A critic might admire the cinematography but dislike the pacing, or appreciate the ambition while questioning the emotional payoff.
Audiences, by contrast, often respond more directly to whether a film worked for them as entertainment or as a personal experience. *The Shining* has grown in stature partly because modern audiences are more attuned to Kubrick’s subtleties and less concerned with fidelity to King’s novel.
The Metacritic score thus represents a historical snapshot—critical consensus from an era when the film was newer and its influence less fully understood.
The Lasting Impact of the Metacritic Rating
Despite its moderate score, *The Shining* has transcended whatever limitations the Metacritic rating might suggest. The film is routinely included in “greatest films ever made” lists, has inspired countless analyses and documentaries (most famously the obsessive decoding in *Room 237*), and is quoted and referenced across popular culture.
In a sense, the 68 Metacritic rating has become almost quaint—a period artifact showing how even seasoned critics didn’t fully grasp what Kubrick had created.
This phenomenon is not uncommon with Kubrick’s work: *A Clockwork Orange* was similarly controversial upon release, and *2001: A Space Odyssey* actually had a mixed critical reception in 1968, with some major reviewers calling it pretentious or dull. Kubrick’s films often improve with time, as audiences develop the interpretive frameworks needed to appreciate them.
The 68 Metacritic score represents professional ambivalence that four decades of cultural engagement has largely resolved into admiration.
Understanding Metacritic Ratings in Context
The Metacritic rating of 68 for *The Shining* serves as a useful reminder that critical scores are contextual and often misunderstood. A 68 is not a failing grade; it indicates a film that professional critics, on balance, thought was good.
The fact that it’s considerably lower than modern audiences would rate it speaks to the evolution of taste and critical perspective rather than any flaw in the film itself.
Kubrick’s boldest choices—the adherence to symmetry, the psychological rather than supernatural horror, the extended takes—are now recognized as strengths, but in 1980, they were legitimate points of critical contention. Going forward, the Metacritic score remains a historical document, a record of what critics thought at that moment.
Modern viewers should consult it not as an absolute judgment but as one data point among many.
The combination of a Metacritic 68, an IMDb 8.4, and a Rotten Tomatoes 83 tells a fuller story than any single number: this is a film that professional critics found flawed but commendable, that audiences have increasingly championed, and that has only grown in critical and cultural esteem.
Conclusion
For viewers considering *The Shining* today, the Metacritic rating should be understood as historical context rather than a definitive judgment.
The film’s standing has only increased in the forty-plus years since its release, with scholars and critics now consistently ranking it among Kubrick’s masterpieces and among the finest horror films ever made.
If you’re interested in watching the film, the moderate critical score is an invitation to engage with a work that challenges and rewards careful viewing—a film that perhaps needed time and perspective to be fully understood.
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