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.