What is The Shining's IQ Score?

The Shining has an IQ Score of 130/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient framework, placing it in the Stimulating tier. The score breaks down to 42/50 Cognitive Stimulation, 18/50 Educational Value, and 38/50 Craft & Quality.

Is The Shining educational?

The Shining is low on educational value, 18/50 on TVI's rubric. Watch for entertainment, not for learning.

How does TV Intelligentsia calculate IQ Score?

TV Intelligentsia's current published formula is round((Cognitive Stimulation × 0.4 + Educational Value × 0.35 + Craft & Quality × 0.25) × 4), scoring titles from 0 to 200 across five tiers. TVI publishes a three-dimension breakdown only when those values reproduce the displayed composite. The framework is published at tvintelligentsia.com/methodology/.

The Shining IQ Score 130/200

The Shining has an IQ Score of 130/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Stimulating tier.

By Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH·Updated 2026-07-28·Methodology

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130/ 200

Stimulating

Consistently challenges the viewer and rewards attention

Score Breakdown

Cognitive Stimulation/50

Educational Value/50

Craft & Quality/50

IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4) · How we score →

What these dimensions mean

Cognitive Stimulation: how much the title demands of your mind, its structural complexity, ideas, and sustained intellectual engagement.
Educational Value: what you take away, across academic content, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, life skills, and knowledge transfer.
Craft & Quality: production excellence in service of the work, its direction, writing, performance, and aesthetic intent.

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The Verdict

Best forHorror viewers who want dread built from architecture, impossible space, and slow menace

Skip ifYou want the scares explained by the end; the hotel's logic never resolves, by design

Use it asA rewatch object for tracking the gaslighting and the geography beat by beat

Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH

Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.

Methodology

Published rubric, v1.3

Formula

round(C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4

Database scale

2,590 titles, version-controlled

TVI Canon

Stanley Kubrick →

How we stay independent. Editorial scores are not for sale. TVI may take on paid advisory or research work, but no commercial relationship buys coverage, advance access to scores, favorable treatment, or a change to a published finding. We pay for our own streaming subscriptions, and no reviewer sees sponsor data or affiliate revenue tied to a score. More about how we work →

The TVI Take

A family isolated in a hotel during winter descends into madness. Educational about isolation, domestic abuse, and gaslighting.

Cognitive engagement from the maze-like architecture and the unreliable narrator. Entertainment from the horror atmosphere and the visual precision.

People & Production Stanley Kubrick · Hawk Films · United Kingdom 25 connections

Direction & creation

Director

Stanley Kubrick

Writer

Diane Johnson Stanley Kubrick

Producer

Stanley Kubrick

On screen & sound

Selected cast

Jack Nicholson Shelley Duvall Danny Lloyd Scatman Crothers Barry Nelson Philip StoneSelected in source order; not represented as billing order.

Composer

Wendy Carlos

Cinematography

John Alcott

Production & release

Production company

Hawk Films

Distributor

Warner Bros. Entertainment Netflix Columbia Pictures

Country of origin

United Kingdom United States

Original language

English

Related works

Followed by

Doctor Sleep

Based on

The Shining

Credits and relationships: Wikidata, CC0. TVI preserves production, broadcasting, and distribution as separate roles.

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187

Also directed by Stanley Kubrick2001: A Space OdysseyMasterclass

183

Also directed by Stanley KubrickBarry LyndonMasterclass

179

Also directed by Stanley KubrickDr. StrangeloveMasterclass

175

Also features Jack NicholsonChinatownMasterclass

The Trailer

Official trailer, embedded from YouTube.

Characters Scored Here

People search for these characters by name. TVI doesn't invent fictional-character IQ numbers, but The Shining's score is the honest answer to how seriously the work treats each mind.

Jack TorranceIQ →

Where to Watch

Rent