All work and no play makes Oscar-winning actor Jack Nicholson-the caretaker of an isolated resort-go way off the deep end, terrorizing his young son and wife (Shelley Duvall).

Nicholson plays Jack Torrance, who's come to the elegant, isolated Overlook Hotel as off-season caretaker. Torrance has never been there before-or has he? The answer lies in a ghostly time warp of madness and murder.