Analysis of ‘The Shining’
by Stanley Kubrick
The Shining is a classic horror film
directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson. All the way throughout
the film, technical conventions and other means are used to create a tense,
suspenseful mood and through the use of lighting, colour connotations, editing
and music, Kubrick managed to successful invoke a negative reaction in his
audiences; the main aim of horror.
The first scene I’ll focus on is the
Baseball bat scene. The scene starts off with Jack appearing in the hall where
Wendy is and asking what she is doing. After this is said, non diegetic music
starts to come in. The music is made of strings and sounds like plucking, and I
think that it is very similar to the sound of insects. I think that this music
was chosen to start to put the viewers on edge, as they’re not quite sure what
to make of it yet. Then there is a mid
shot of Wendy with a bat. She looks very distressed, with her hair wet, which I
presume is sweat. This suggests that she is scared. This is backed up by her
worried facial expression. I think that this shot was selected to show how
defensive she has become around Jack (hence the bat) and to show that she no
longer sees him as a husband, but as a threat. In the scene, the lighting has a
slight blue cast to it. Some people could say that this is just coincidental,
but with Kubrick’s obsessive, perfectionist style of directing, I think that it
was purposely given this tint to portray a cold feel, reflective of how Wendy
may feel at the time. Towards the end of the scene, the lighting does take on a
more orange tone, creating a warmer mood. A common theme in horrors is binary
opposites, and this could be linked to the lighting in this scene as it
switches between blue and orange, colours which are opposite in their
implications. During this part of the scene, Jack looks very sinister, with a
devilish grin and his face not being properly lit. I think that these choices
were made to show the evil/ possessed side of him coming out, which is
accompoanied by the music getting louder. The music is synced with him pushing
his hand down on the pages he wrote, which emphasises his action. Then Jack
starts to slowly walk towards Wendy, which itself is an action that has
negative associations. Because of the way he is speaking to her while this is
happening, I think that it is to show him as more of a predator, chasing her
down (reminiscent of the opening helicopter shots at the beginning of the
film). All of these conventions help to alienate Jack, showing him as more of a
possessed animal than a human being. Alienation is a common convention within
horror, which links in to the fear of the unknown. Creators will often
deliberately show their characters as unhumane or indecipherable because it
doesn’t allow the audience to get a proper grasp on them. Then you get a shot
of Danny, their son, who is staring off in to the distance, which has been
happening a lot in the movie. You hear Jack suggesting that Wendy wanted to
talk about Danny, and because of the switch in shots (parallel editing is used
to switch between two scenes of action), Jack’s voice takes on a different tone
that has been edited. The new sound is warped, and almost sounds evil and
unrecognisable from his regular voice. Once again, this is alienation, as his
character is being pushed away from being human. I also think that this
particular shot and voice edit is linked in with Danny’s “Shining” ability as
introduced by a character earlier in the plot. During the shot of Danny, the
camera zooms in to his face, conveying the worry or mood of his character.
There are also cut away shots of the blood flooding the room that you see
earlier, which brings up the idea that Danny is seeing these visions and his
panic is being caused by it.
The next scene I looked at was the twin
scene in the hallway. It starts off with a slow tracking shot of Danny on his
tricycle. The colours within the first shot are very light, almost pastel like
and you see Danny go from the corridor (cold colours) to a room with a warmer
tone, which may have deliberately been done to suggest him going from a good
place to a bad place or mentality. Also, the non diegetic music (which is once
again composed of string instruments) builds as he approaches the corner, which
signifies to the viewer that there may be danger up ahead. The music continues
to build as the camera tracks Danny around a corner (the camera is now closer
and actively tracking him) and comes to a crescendo as you see the twins
standing at the end of the corridor. A close up of Danny’s face shows his
confusion and panic. The music now switches to a low pitch, which creates
another binary opposite, with it going from a high pitched sound reflective of
scratching nails, to a low sound which is reflective of lurking or stalking.
This music was chosen to play in to the viewer’s fears of such topics. Then the
twins both say “Hello Danny”. Normally their dialogue wouldn’t be scary or
provoke any kind of fear in a person, but over time, young children are being
used more and more with themes that you’d normally associate with much older
people (like murder, possession etc.). For this reason, their dialogue is
eerie, and is adds another binary opposite of innocent children and sinister
themes to the film. The scene is compositionally well shot because the narrow
corridor acts as leading lines, naturally leading your eyes into the scene and
towards the twins, almost forcing you to look at them. Linking to this, the
corridor seems small (maybe due to the specific lens used), which could play on
people’s claustrophobia. This relates to the main aim of horror; invoke a
negative response by playing with people’s fears or by creating new ones. There
are very short cut away shots of the twins dead, blood splattered everywhere
and an axe on the floor. These shots are only very short, but they immediately
invoke fear in the audience, just because of the way they look. You associate
blood with death and the colour red also naturally brings up ideas of murder,
anger or revenge.
In summary, the two scenes I analysed use
a combination of mise-en scene, connotations, technical aspects, genre
conventions and actors performance to create a feeling of fear in the audience,
and through the conventions the audience subconsciously picks up the directors
intended ideas and meanings without much exposition.