A Haunted Mind: Secrets of The Shining

Paper by Anna Rowland. Viewed on DVD.

Stanley Kubrick’s, The Shining, takes us into a world of horror when writer, Jack Torrance, and his wife Wendy and son Danny, move into the expansive Overlook Hotel in the secluded and snowy mountains of Colorado. It is a building with a haunted past and mysterious blueprint. However, the family soon finds that they are not the only guests. Back in 1970, the previous caretaker had become mentally unhinged and murdered his wife and two twin girls with an axe. Now their ghostly souls remain confined within the walls of the hotel. Jack becomes afflicted with the same case of cabin fever and the story unravels into a tense deterioration of his health, all while his son Danny has psychic visions of the hotels violent history and his own fatal future. The Shining, is a psychological labyrinth, which makes us explore our own internal demons, to acknowledge our deepest subconscious thoughts, and brings once forgotten dreams to the surface. Kubrick’s carefully chosen mise-en-scene, through the use of self-identifiable, Danny, creates an anxious portrayal of what we feel on inside and its juxtaposition within our surrounding environment. The infamous scene where Danny rides his tricycle throughout the halls of The Overlook and encounters the twin’s, is a perfect example of this puzzle piece maze, which gnaws and nags on our fears in the midst of innocence.

It’s just another chilly winter day at The Overlook Hotel, and Danny is doing what any other ordinary child loves to do- playing. The young and innocent boy is dressed in playful attire- an outfit that could only have been picked by his mother. He rides through the hotel on his plastic tricycle, seated low to the ground, as he swerves through the hallways of the olympic sized kitchen and into the main lobby of the old hotel. Native American style décor lines the walls and giant rugs with geometric patterns spread across the floor. The hollow sounds of his pedaling vibrate and bounce about and a tense and ominous music moans and shrieks above. Danny makes his way into the narrow hallways where the guestrooms are, a long corridor with blue floral wallpaper and royal blue carpet. Turning a sharp corner, he stops suddenly, and is faced by the ghosts of two twin girls, dressed in identical pale blue dresses, black mary-janes, and white knee socks. They stand holding hands at the end of the hallway, starring blankly at the frightened boy and echo the words “Hello Danny, come and play with us.” Danny then has a terrifying vision, one of his “shining” spells. He sees the two girls sprawled across the hall, in a bloody scene, murdered with an axe. Blood is smeared against the walls, as they lay grotesquely lifeless. The shot resumes to the two girls standing at the end of the hallway, and the words are delivered again, “Comes and play with us Danny. Forever, and ever, and ever”, the camera pulling in closer to the twins with each chant as shots of murder flash across the screen. Danny quickly covers his eyes in terrified disbelief, hoping that what he is seeing is not real and that it will disappear. He cautiously peers through the cracks in his fingers and finds that the twins have vanished; now he is all alone in the hallway. The boy lowers his hands, yet still unsure of what has just happened. He mutters softly, “Tony, I’m scared”, to his imaginary friend which lives inside his mouth- the master of his psychic abilities. Tony then answers, “Remember what Mr. Hallorann said. It’s just like pictures in a book, it isn’t real.” Danny looks back down the hallway in confusion and skepticism. The scene closes.

Kubrick’s use of carefully selected shots within this scene creates an extremely intense and terrifying feeling for the viewer. From what is not an ordinary horror depiction, in a simple and commonplace event, the director draws on our own doubts and fears. Shots showing Danny so small gives us perspective on the scale and size of the hotel in comparison to the character. It makes it seem larger than life and as an entity in itself. It makes Danny look harmless and innocent. The hotel is like an overbearing mother, holding her guests hostage and imposing her beliefs on them. Straight shots and match cuts take the scene from slow to sudden, with quick and surprising splashes of bloody horror. We as an audience identify with the character of Danny, and wonder if we too are seeing reality or fiction. His dialogue with Tony is like our own inner monologue, asking questions and delivering answers. Is this our imagination or is this murder real? Should we be scared or should we disregard it? It causes us to ask ourselves how much of what we feel is because of our own individual life experiences and our current surroundings. This scene portrays the essence of the film, a theme of a constant tug-of-war, which forces us to distinguish dark fantasy from truth. The Overlook is our worst nightmare. The hotel is our mind, the twins become our inner demons, and we become Danny.

This scene is not the only one of its kind, but one of many thematic plot depictions throughout the film. Just a few scenes after this, there is yet another with Danny riding his tricycle inside the hotel. It has similar characteristics and mise-en-scene, showing that this is a prime idea that the director wants to convey and feature. The repetitive pattern of showing us the maze like mystery that the characters are weaving their way through becomes a key theme for the story. The complex patterns of rugs represent this puzzle. The continual struggle Danny faces when he sees visions of violence is a constant reminder that this film aims to pull on the subconscious mind.

In the beginning of the film Danny has visions and conversations with Tony as he looks into the mirror. He knows what has taken place before he has even arrived. This is a method of foreshadowing, which creates suspense, a key element in horror films. The element of foreshadowing is a fundamental theme prominently featured in this film.

The mise-en-scene of this film is rather unconventional compared to a typical horror movie. In The Shining, the lighting is often high key, with brightly lit scenes and backdrops, creating a contradiction to traditional scare tactics. The characters are not readily spooky, but rather ordinary and realistic. Danny is always dressed in a wardrobe conveying innocence, making him the hero and the victim. He is dressed in boyish sweaters appearing to be knitted by a grandmother, and paired with collared shirts, which gives him an appearance of wisdom. All though infantile, the boy is also “all-knowing”, smarter than the other characters and the backbone of the film. These elements give a great authenticity to the plot, which makes the audience feel like this could happen to them in their own lives. Most horror films are quite far fetched and do not create a deep sense of verisimilitude. However, here it is hard to distinguish what is real from what is fake, a smart choice made by the director. It makes this film one of the scariest of its genre. One that remains in the minds of its viewers forever, unable to be forgotten.

This scene relates to the overall narrative through its structure. It in itself it has three acts, just as the plot does. In the scene specifically, it has an introduction with the first act, setting up the scene. Danny innocently rides his tricycle, exploring the hotel, and going about his day. He is dressed child-like, he appears small, unassuming, and encapsulated by the large accommodations. It now moves on the second act, which introduces rising action, and the confrontation. Here the twins face him, and it becomes a stand off between the characters in the hallway. Danny is riddled with fear as he then sees their gruesome murder, and a bloody axe. The scene moves on to the third-act, which shows resolution and aftermath. Danny now closes his eyes and the girls disappear. He then speaks to Tony who tells him that what he has just seen isn’t “real”. We are left wondering if what happened was just the boy’s imagination or in fact a truthful reality of things yet to come. There is some sense of closure within the scene but it is left open so that the story may go on.

This scene relates to the similar three-act structure of the overall film. The first act of the film introduces us to each character, introduces us to The Overlook Hotel, and sets up what the plot is about. Jack Torrance goes to a job interview at the hotel while Danny and Wendy stay at home and wait for the news, wondering if they will be moving in to the cold, deserted, hotel for several months. Danny is in his bathroom looking into the mirror and talking to his imaginary friend Tony, who comes out and speaks as Danny wiggles his pointer finger. Danny tells Tony about his apprehensions about moving and Tony shows Danny a preview of what has happened at the haunted hotel. Danny is so overcome with fright that he falls to the floor and faints, only waking up later as he looks into the eyes of his family doctor. A concerned mother, Wendy speaks in confidence to the doctor and recounts her husband’s abusive tendencies. Here, we get a foreshadowing of Jack’s probability to act out violently again. The scene cuts back to his interview where he is offered the job and warned about the hotels history of murder. We instantly can place correlation between the past and the present day. We can practically guess that history will repeat itself, with Jack as the antagonist. The plot moves onto the second act, where the family is settling into their new life at The Overlook. Danny wanders throughout the giant property, continuing to see visions as Jack begins to suffer a mental breakdown. We are shown multiple scenes depicting these kinds of events, a slow progression which builds upon each other and becomes more and more intense and more and more common. Tension builds throughout this entire act. We see it coming but we don’t know when.

When will Jack completely snap? The film moves onto the third act after Danny is assaulted by the ghost of a woman in room number 237. He returns to Wendy who assumes it is Jack who has committed the abuse. She confronts her husband and he goes completely mad. He chases Wendy and Danny throughout the hotel with an axe, vowing to kill them. The frightened characters search for an escape while Mr. Halloran comes to the rescue after having another shining type premonition. Only to find that the mother and son have fled on a snowmobile after locking Jack inside the industrial freezer. He is then violently murdered by Jack. The very end of the film focuses on an old antique picture of guests celebrating at The Overlook Hotel, however, oddly enough, Jack Torrance is the center of attention and in this old photo. It leaves us with unanswered questions and a strikingly eerie feeling. What is a good horror film is we are not left terrified? This film achieves everything it intended for.

The scene I have analyzed is significant to the overall theme and form of the film because it represents the three-act structure as well as the overall mise-en-scene. It is the perfect example of what this film is all about and relates to the repetitive pattern of other related scenes throughout the film. It has all the key elements of what the director aimed to achieve. The lighting, wardrobe, set, dialogue, characters, music, and gore are all metaphorically used to convey the
plots meaning in the scene. This is an unconventional horror film, with the use of non-traditional themes mixed with classic horror strategies. The music is suspenseful and dark yet the set of the hotel is clean, open and inviting. This creates great contradiction. The dialogue is slow, common, and calm, yet the occasional outburst darts out behind every corner. These carefully chosen aspects and artistic nuances aim to create a confusing yet apparent storyline. We know so much, yet we know so little. The audience searches for answers, piecing together every clue, seeing each nightmare through Danny’s eyes. The small doses of gore leave us to our own devices and cause us to rely on our own imagination for reasoning and logic. We are forced to investigate our own inner feelings, hauntings, and fears- drawing from individual complexities that remain secretive and unknown. The world around us becomes our reality as we struggle to find the truth and protect ourselves from evil. The title of the movie is self-evident. Showing both implicit an explicit meaning. On the surface, The Shining is essentially about a boy who has psychic abilities that haunt him. Below the surface, The Shining represents the correlation between our own secret and the realities of everyday life.

Works Cited

Barsam, Richard Meran., Dave Monahan, and Karen M. Gocsik. Looking at Movies: An Introduction to Film. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2010. Print.
“What Does THE SHINING Actually Mean?” WhatCulture, Web. Oct. 2011 .
“How Stanley Kubrick’s Editing Conveys a Horrifying Supernatural Vision in The Shining.” AdamPolsellicom. Web. 6 Jan. 2008. .
“Thread: Kubrick’s The Shining Explained at Last.” The StephenKingcom Message Board. Web. May 2008. .
King, Stephen. The Shining. New York: Anchor, 2012. Print.