Analysis of 'The Shining' by Stanley Kubrick

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.

Inglorious Basterds Scene Analysis

The scene starts with a backwards tracking shot of a man walking through a corridor. A lot of the scene's meaning is created through the mise-en-scene. For example, the man is dressed in a white army outfit. It is decorated with medals which shows the man's status and also that he is a man of honor. There are red roses at either side of the hallway, which gives a connotation of danger, maybe implying that something bad is about to happen. The colour red is a running theme throughout the scene. The scene then shows a sequence of detail shots that introduce the audience to a female character and also establishes what her role is through the shots of the film being run and her pulling a lever: she is in charge of projecting the film. Throughout the clip, there is music playing that is usually associated with other war films, and there are also diegetic sounds such as the film being played and the woman pulling the lever, which emphasizes the action.

Then there are a few close up shots of a man smoking a cigarette while watching the movie that has just been played by the woman. Due to the mise-en-scene, you can decode that the film is set during World War two, and you can assume that there is racial division during the film. He is alone, which may relate to his race, and not being allowed to see the film at the normal screening. Then there is a back tracking shot of him with the screen in front of him. The shot shows the man in relation to the screen, as we see him gazing up at it. You also see a pile of something, and the man is aware that it is there, so he may have put it there. This is followed up by a bird's eye shot of him with the pile, and he is highlighted by a spotlight, surrounded by darkness. This helps to show his isolation, and how lonely he seems. There is a progression throughout the last few shots, we start out with close up shots of the man, then we progress to mid shots and end up with this final bird's eye view of him, the pile and the screen.

Then we see the man from earlier walking up stairs, accompanied with a tilting shot. This is to show him ascend, and you can say that him walking up stairs shows him in a superior way. There is a red curtain to the man's left, which again you could argue is purposely included to represent love, passion or upcoming danger. The man walks with a very proud posture and gesture, which may indicate that he is a man of power, or of a high position. Also, the man straightens out his jacket before entering the room, which gives you a hint that he wants to make a good impression to whoever is in the room. This suggests that the character cares about the person or cares about his appearance.

Then the film cuts back to a shot of the woman earlier (also in a red dress). The shot is a mid reaction shot, showing how she responds to the door knocking. She looks distressed, which tells me that she either isn't expecting somebody, or is worried about who it could be.

Throughout the duration of the clip, music has been playing, and in this scene it crescendo's and then stops playing, setting up a very tense mood for the clip. This editing technique also allows you to focus solely on the dialogue between the two characters, rather than having to take in and pay attention to the other elements of the scene.

As Fredrick advances towards the woman, the camera tracks the characters movement, imitating it. This shows the movement but doesn't alter the focus on the two characters. Also, it helps to give a sense of how much he is intimidating her. Fredrick speaks in a bitter tone and with a harsh dialogue, suggesting that he is a person that she should be scared of, but the woman maintains a calm, collected tone and demeanor and ultimately it seems like she is more in control of the situation, outwitting him by shooting her. 

Reflection of Short Horror Sequence

The task was to create a horror themed sequence consisting of 10-12 shots with varying shot types and angles. The aim was to utilise the stereotypical genre conventions associated with genre films. My role was to film the shots and help with the editing along with Emily. The whole thing was shot in college and took about an hour and a half to edit.

The film starts with a shot involving the murder, but you just see a shadow of it happening. We decided to use the shadow because it allowed us to imply a murder without actually having to show it. Shadows are generally used a lot in horror films to imply a brutal or harsh action without having it on screen. Then we had a few close up cut away shots of a sign linking to the plot and a painting of a heart and blood, setting the tone for the sequence. These shots were foreshadowing, another feature common in horror films.
Anoher element we implemented in the film was the use of black and white, to add drama and mood to the shots. Black and white is sometimes used within not only horror for films in general to create a mood of eerieness, and to represent the unknown;  the colous aren't represented, therefore not 'painting the entire picture'. I also feel that black and white allows for more contrast between the light and dark areas, which I think worked well in our case.
We used a non linear narrative with flashbacks, which is a common element of modern horror films; somebody thinks about something bad that happened in the past. This also brings up the subject of memories, and adds a psychological element to the films, rather than just making it the run of the mill slasher.
We tried to have mostly long shots, extending past 5 seconds, which is commonly used to build suspense, and tension. During the shots of Emily walking up the stairs and along the corridor, you're not sure what to expect or when something big is going to happen. I feel like this worked in our favour because the aim of horror is to invoke a negative respons through shock, built up suspense and playing on the audiences fear.