Who Is Stanley Kubrick's The Shining?

What is horror? Webster's Collegiate Dictionary gives the primary definition of horror as "a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay." It stands to reason then that "horror fiction" is fiction that elicits those emotions in the reader. An example of a horror film is "The Shining", directed by Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick was a well-known director, producer, writer and cinematographer. His films comprised of unique, qualitative scenes that are still memorable but one iconic film in his collection of work is The Shining. Many would disagree and say that The Shining was not his best work and he could have done better yet, there are still those who would say otherwise. This film was not meant to be a “scary pop-up” terror film but

Have you ever felt alone and confused? The Shining, a film by Stanley Kubrick, was released May 23,1980. The film was given mixed reviews at first, but eventually became a unique and classic horror film. It begins with Jack Torrance(Jack Nicholson) in a job interview trying to become the winter caretaker for the Overlook Hotel. When he gets hired he tells his wife Wendy Torrance(Shelly Duvall) and his estranged son Danny(Danny Lloyd). Danny has a “friend” he calls Tony who shows him the dark past and future that awaits them at the hotel. Soon their family is torn apart by the insanity that overcame Jack. The Shining is a complex film that uses symbolism to depict the effects of patriarchy, domestic violence, and racism.

First and foremost, The Shining uses setting as a main factor to help portray America and its instability. The film starts out with a deep winding road along with the Rocky Mountains that can be taken to pursue the idea of the struggle that lay ahead for the characters in the film or for the Natives that this film tries to implicitly show. The scenery can represent America and as it is shown in a continuous shot, it also displays the endless opportunities America is known for, however as the camera continuously pans for a few more seconds, a sense of despair comes across you and the long twisty road suggests the impossibility of escape. The manager of the Overlook, Ullman suggests that the Hotel is haunted which ties in with the fact that the Hotel and America has had a very aggressive history that may still haunt us today. Reporter Bill Blakemore pointed out in Room 237 that Kubrick’s team had to research the town and hotel’s history, which showed Navajo tribe tensions with the the white men in the early 1900s. Blackmore also writes about how the name of the hotel connects with the fact that this film addresses the fact that America overlooks the Native American genocide or even the racism in the country.

By his vertical placement of the cliff in the right forefront of the picture plane, he further emphasizes the illusion of space. Second, the diminishing size of the sea, cliffs in the background, and the jetty all express depth in the overall scene. The violent cove appears to move away from us in to the open sea. Ante Meridian is an example of atmospheric perspective. The foreground colors are bold and rich, whether it is the white wave caps or the cliff façade, but as the scene retreats in to the distance, the sea, background rocks, and sky become bluer, paler, and less distinct. The objects in the distance are blurrier to demonstrate this open space even more.

Compare the ways the distinctively visual is created in Run Lola Run and in ONE other related text of your own choosing?

This shows the reader hints that bad things are going to happen sometime soon and he is showing that red is very important in this story and that Red birds mean a lot he wants you to remember this for later on in the story.

This aids in the naturalistic phenomenon that is easily consumable for the viewer. The long flowing lines in the waterfall give rise to the illusion of movement and as the viewer’s gaze drops, the movement appears to become stagnant and calm in the body of water. There is careful contouring and chiaroscuro on the mountains allowing for the viewer to become inundated with its immensity.

Alfred Hitchcock also used cinematography in a uniquely stylizing way. Hitchcock not only uses the camera to create dramatic irony, but he also uses the camera to lie to the audience and create anxious suspense. For example, in his film Psycho, when Marion is in the shower Hitchcock frames the scenes very tightly. Marion is in a confined and very personal space. This makes her incredibly vulnerable. Then Hitchcock heightens the suspense by creating dramatic irony with the reveal of a shadowy figure closing in on Marion, unbeknownst to her. This creates a lot of anxiety for the audience, knowing the protagonist is vulnerable and in danger with no way of altering the inevitable. Hitchcock then manipulates the audience by “revealing” a brief silhouette of an old lady as our shower killer. Hitchcock uses this “reveal” to lie to the audience, he makes the audience think they have more inside knowledge confirming their already growing suspicions, when in reality the audience is misled entirely and the murderer was Norman all along. The way Hitchcock uses the camera to reveal both inside information and misleading information truly keeps the viewer engaged and not knowing what to believe until the truth is finally revealed. By using this unique technique of controlling the audience by only showing what he wants you to see, Hitchcock masterfully defies expectations and creates suspense.

The use of the color in the settings, make the film very unique in a very good way. For example all of the houses are colorful. The buildings and houses are very well placed throughout the film. The bright colors and well placed houses make the scenes and the overall movie unique. The bright colors make the movie memorable, because bright colors stand out more than other duller colors. Another example of the films features that make the movie memorable are the characters. The characters in this film wear very flashy clothing, which shows the audience that the characters have

To illustrate, director often uses red details in scenes to symbolise danger, small things such as a scarf on Dr Sattler’s neck in the beginning of the film. These tiny details indicated the audience about danger and builds a fearful mood. In addition, the weight of the evidence suggest that, colours and lights can make any situation appealing and horrifying.

Stephen King’s The Shining has maintained its cult status since its release in 1977. The Shining begins with Jack Torrance receiving a position as the winter caretaker for The Overlook Hotel, an isolated hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Jack hopes the stay will be therapeutic and allow him to focus on writing, family, and less on alcohol. As time progresses, unsettling events begin to transpire for Jack, his son Danny, and his wife Wendy. The intensity of the gothic novel came to life by the legendary Stanley Kubrick in 1980. The book was admired by fans, but Kubrick’s reimagining made it the iconic classic that it is today. Stephen King was not as fond of the movie. Although some of Kubrick’s take on The Shining complements the book, King

The technique most artists use to project an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface is called perspective. Objects are painted smaller the farther away from the audience is supposed to be, and are painted bigger the closer the audience is supposed to be. A vanishing point is helpful in creating perspective. This technique helps to make up a sense of depth in a piece of art. In Autumn on the Seine, Argenteuil, perspective is created by the body of water that is in the foreground of painting. This body of water is going off into the distance in which you cannot see it’s end. In the background, there are

Already the DVD covers point to a certain salience of red in American Beauty, blue in Shame, and white in Revolutionary Road; however, the films do not only conform in an equally striking importance of the use of colours, they also share similarities in meaning communicated by them. Since the semiotics of colour still depends on personal perception to a certain extent, this analysis indeed considers other critics’ opinions but is largely based on my personal receptions of the film and associations the use of colour has evoked in me. The focus of my observations is primarily set on how the shades of red, blue, and white as well as the general antithesis of warm and cold colours reflect Lester’s, Frank’s, and Brandon’s state of mind and their surroundings. Furthermore, lighting and the contrast of bright and dark are addressed and exemplified through incorporated screenshots of the films. Another outstanding aspect of effectively tying in form with meaning in all three films is their respective soundtrack; however, an in-depth analysis of the use of sound and music would go beyond the scope of this thesis and can thus be considered an interesting approach for addressings

The plot of Rose Red was about a Haunted mansion that is awoken by the people that Dr. Joyce Reardon (psychology professor) has brought into the mansion. Which causes the mansion to wake up and start picking off the students’ one by one and killing them. Rose red was built in 1906 John Rimbauer for his wife, Ellen. The house was rumored to be cursed even as it was being constructed; three construction workers were killed at the site, and a construction foreman was murdered by a co-worker. A young autistic girl called Annie Wheaton was able to do unbelievable things. She was the real key to unlocking Rose Red. The teacher wants to awaken Rose Red in doing so kills most of the people that she brought into the mansion and some others that were not really invited. The mansion is said that it continues to build itself because of the wife of John Rimbauer thought that if she continues building she could live forever. This was a great movie plot it had me asking questions throughout the movie and most of them were answered throughout the film.

Based on Stephen King’s horror novel of the same name, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining features hallways filled with butchered daughters, and their guts and blood splashed down the hall. Horror and realism fuel Kubrick’s notoriously disturbing films and The Shining stands clear-cut amongst them. Although in the case of this movie, Kubrick shifts emphasis from visual horror to psychological fear and instills mounting dread from the sequence of disturbing events. Kubrick states, “one of the things that horror stories can do is show us the archetypes of the unconscious; we can see the dark side without having to confront it directly.” Never falling flat, The Shining provides a psychological horror masterpiece complete with brilliant acting, tight camera angles, haunting score, and unanswered questions.