Stanley Kubrik's The Shining

Unfortunately, a lot of the violence that plays out through the Kubrick motion picture version of “The Shining” was in the form of domestic abuse that plays out with Jack and his wife Wendy and is quite strained and difficult as they constantly argue with each other over past situations such as Danny accident. While in the novel, they had a difficult relationship, but it was also a loving relationship that wasn’t quite as strained. Yet in the film the malicious viciousness is felt through the words the actors say, for instance, when Jack had finally lost his sanity and is attempting to attack Wendy he says to her, “Wendy, darling, light of my life. I’m not gonna hurt you. You didn’t let me finish my sentence. I said I’m not gonna hurt ya.

The Shining is about the Torrance family having to stay at the Overlook hotel for five months. Having that said, the family was completely isolated in such a big place over the winter. The hotel had horrific history of a murder done by Charles Grady who had committed suicide after killing his two girls and wife with an axe. The shocking information given to Jack did not bother him at all and he even said that his wife, Wendy would enjoy a good scary story. The film proceeds into a story that would seem calm and full of tranquility but this would not be the case since it soon enough turns out into something more horrifying. After a month has gone by, one can clearly notice the difference between the old Jack to the new Jack. This has to do with his personality and how he is acting by himself and towards others. His attitude changes to wanting to spend more time alone and not caring to do the work for the hotel, which he was hired to do in the first place. Danny is the young son of Jack who has psychic powers which at times confuses him but most of the time frightens the young boy. Danny encounters the two young girls that were killed in the hotel. Danny tries to avoid the girls as much as possible and tries to stay away from room 237 but it attracted Danny’s attention.

Young children are often told by their parents to ’not judge a book by its cover’. The Shining Houses by Alice Munro explores the idea that it is unessential to conform to societal standards especially when they stand in the way of equality. The theme responsibility towards our community is prevalent throughout the story and we see that despite the popular opinion of everyone else we have a responsibility towards the wellbeing of our community members. Through the character of Mary, we see the importance of helping one another. Most of the people who lived on Mrs. Fullerton’s street were not fond of her because of the way he home looked however, Mary overlooked this and enjoyed spending time with her. She befriended Mrs. Fullerton because

Jack’s fear shows the reader that not only can someone have an emotional and dangerous response to it, but it can also be used to manipulate someone for his pleasures. As a kid, Jack, feared and hated his father and loved his mother. He feared whenever his psychopathic father would bring and beat his mother in the basement. The tables turned when a deep sense of realization switched into the psyche of his mind, he ended up loving the beatings and craved the cause of fear towards his mother. His innocence is lost and is refined into the mind of a psychopath, “ The knowledge that the father could instil such terror into another human being turned the boy’s fear of him into admiration and he began to emulate him. Soon,

When Arthur Miller published “The Crucible” in 1953, the play’s audience was a nation of Americans seized in the grip of McCarthyism. The Communist “witch hunt” has long since ended, but the public’s fascination with this shameful piece of American history has not. The original play unfolded over the course of 4 acts that mainly consisted of dialogue. As a result, the creators of the 1996 movie adaptation had an ample degree of creative latitude to update the narrative for a modern audience. Director Nicholas Hytner utilized a host of cinematic techniques that enabled the moving images to tug the heartstrings of the audience just as effectively as the book had done before. Given the temporal limitations of a film, several scenes were

For many, isolation is a terrible thing and can lead to madness. Dictatorships prosecute individuals who do not agree with the government and sentence them to imprisonment in solitary confinement. Isolation is a form of torture and it causes insanity. The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is a truly interesting case study of human psychology and how the descent of an individual into the depths of insanity can cause them to experience creepy and vivid ghostly encounters, which do not actually physically occur but rather originate from within the depths of the person’s psyche. Examples of such hallucinated encounters surround the main character, Jack Torrance, who, as the movie progresses, transfigures into the deranged antagonist the persons see at the end of the movie chasing his family with an axe. Jack’s psyche and subconscious mind produce visions and ghostly apparitions, all of which embody Jack’s deep violent desires. Jack seems to suffer from a split personality disorder, which is intensified by his loneliness, emotional instability, and feelings of isolation. Jack’s mind is literally falling apart.

Compare the ways Steven King in The Shining and William Friedkin in The Exorcist use techniques to create suspense.

The Shining is indeed a tragedy. Jack Torrance is the story’s villain, but it’s easy to feel sympathy for him. Jack is a tortured man and had to watch his father physically abuse his mother when he was a child. He has witnessed domestic abuse first hand, and now as an adult, he became the same man as his father. In the novel, the ending is quite depressing. Jack is a good man, but he is deranged. He’s tormented by his inner demons and the demons of his past. The Overlook is seemingly haunted and is beset by a vengeful spirit dwelling inside of it. This “spirit” possessed Delbert Grady, the previous caretaker to murder his family. The same spirit that possessed Grady is after Jack, and Jack slowly loses his mind and descend into madness. Jack

Perhaps the most iconic Halloween-themed movies of all time, this film, directed by John Carpenter, redefined horror as we know it.

Alfred Hitchcock’s film “Psycho” created a tremendous impact on 60’s American films. Hitchcock powerfully describes the murder scene of Marion, while taking a shower at Bates Motel. Viewers and critics of the film believe that it is unconventional and overly violent for young viewers eyes, but some analysts think that it is a form of deconstruction, a new structure of horror film that Hitchcock wants to share. Different perspectives and ideas emerge because of the murder scene in the film, but still, Psycho is viewed by millions of moviegoers who want to experience the morbid description of Hitchcock—for them to believe the critics and viewers’ negative reactions.

I find it hard to accept that anyone involved in this film actually cared, for I feel it just doesn't show upon viewing. It's not word for word or shot for shot, there are a couple other differences, just honestly not enough to make this worth watching. Other friends and critics have tried to steer me clear of this one, but I couldn't judge a film until I've seen in. Now that I have, I can bury it six feet deep where it belongs, and pray it never sees the light of day to Horror fans

James Dickey’s Deliverance, and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, demonstrate masculine roles in America going through a period of challenge and change brought on by historical social and political movements resulting in the cultural definition of masculinity to be widely questioned and inevitably altered in the United States. Michael Meadows states that Dickey narrativizes the negative and regressive “civil and primitive masculine roles” which were traumatic for American men during the 1970s by using the wilderness and its inhabitants as a gothic convention which antagonizes the group (128). Michael Kimmel solidifies this message of Western cultural damage on men by noting that, female and homosexual rights movements challenged both forms of civil and primitive masculinity (175). These two movements were fought for and accepted by Americans beginning in the 1970s. The rights these movements fought for irreversibly made women working equals to their male counterparts, and offered them shelter from the control, violence, and overall sexual and mental abuse that women and children had put up with since antiquity. In continuity with these changes during the 1970s, Vivian Sobchak argues, “more and more 'families ' no longer partook in behavior and standards set by bourgeois mythology. Therefore, the horror in The Shining plays out the rage of a western masculinity and fatherhood denied the economic and political benefits” of patriarchal authority and domination within the nuclear

‘The Happening’ by M. Night Shyamalan, is an apocalyptic film about plants striking back against humanity by spreading neurotoxic chemicals which induce humans to commit suicide. According to the director, this film was created to raise awareness about what humans are doing to the environment. He elaborated saying that humans today think that they are above nature, when in fact, we are at nature’s mercy because natural disasters like tsunamis could easily kill many humans. ‘The Happening’ is also a modern film and, therefore, problems raised in the film would directly relate to issues society currently has. This film gives insight into the human condition, and audiences can see

The character of Dan “Danny” Torrance is best known for his role in the fictional story of The Shining and Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. As a child Danny goes through a large amount of heavy trauma ranging from domestic abuse from his father to being inside of a hotel during a mass boiler explosion. His life as he grew up was riddled with night terrors and hallucinations driving Danny to become an alcoholic in order to drive away the nightmare images and the memories of the explosion and the death of his father.

Unexpectedly unnerving, but unlikely to be remembered with the same fondness as the films that so clearly inspired it