Film Review - The Shining

The Shining is a classic horror film made in 1980 by Stanley Kubrick. The story covers Jack who takes his family to the Overlook Hotel in the isolated mountains over winter. However things soon become less than ideal when Jack begins to let madness take over, and very soon his wife and son are in danger.

Fig. 1

Described as "deeply scary and strange" (Bradshaw, 2012), Kubrick really makes the most out of every shot taken in the film, and one of the most effective ways in which he does this is through the set design. Patterns, especially on the floor, are everywhere. Kubrick obviously thinks deeply about his set and creates these patterns to perfectly frame a shot or to change a mood. One of the most interesting uses of this is where Danny, Jack's son, is playing with his model cars on the carpet, and the lines from the carpet are almost wrapped around him, making him look even smaller and more vulnerable than he already is.

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Not only does the set convey the feeling that something isn't quite right in the film, but "the actors themselves vibrate with unease" (Ebert, 2006). This is partly due to the fact that Kubrick would make the actors do take after take for just one scene, until it was perfect and exactly how he wanted it. The toll this must have taken on the actors is obvious, especially when you're recording the same thing for months on end. The anger portrayed in the film could very well be real anger, and the tears could be real tears. Kubrick really pushed his actors to the edge to create The Shining, tormenting them in their own way, possibly to make the characters even more believable than they would otherwise be.

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The use of sound in The Shining also sets the audience on edge. A review states that "The Shining may be the first movie that ever made its audience jump with a title that simply says "Tuesday."'"(Maslin, 1980) Kubrick really pushes the sound, and this sucks the viewer into the film, engages them, and most of all, scares them. Even simple sounds, like Danny riding his tricycle on the carpet and then changing to the wooden floor, can make you jump. Kubrick has perfectly orchestrated sound and picture with such precision to captivate the audience, and to make the horror of the film even more believable.

Bibliography

Bradshaw, P (2012). "The Shining - review" in The Guardian [online]. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/nov/01/the-shining-review

Ebert, R (2006). "The Shining" in Roger Ebert [online]. Available at: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980

Maslin, J (1980). "The Shining" in The New York Times [online]. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1738E270BC4B51DFB366838B699EDE

Illustration List

Fig. 1 - https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5262aa63e4b0fe976f8d0490/53f10697e4b097fb5ada11b1/53f10697e4b097fb5ada11b4/1408304811722/shining_ver1_xlg.jpg

Fig. 2 - https://media1.popsugar-assets.com/files/thumbor/Ffvu6C-mPurTZBQnI_cPu8u3y2E/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format_auto-!!-:strip_icc-!!-/2015/10/08/831/n/1922283/91691e258478e6c9_maxresdefault_copy/i/very-similar-Shining.jpg

Fig. 3 - http://dl9fvu4r30qs1.cloudfront.net/0e/a4/f2f7f87042b39ae684bef302a61a/the-shining.jpg