It is not easy to forget the wave of blood that comes crashing out of the elevator, flooding everything in sight. This moment is a famous one from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), the film that changed my life. It was the first film of Kubrick’s that I had seen, and more importantly it was the first film that made me fully grasp the way a director makes a work of art through their attention to detail. The Shining also had a significant impact on the way I thought about “scary” movies and on how I learned to understand that the horror genre was not defined solely by gore and sudden shocks. In a broader cultural context, the film is full of symbolism waiting to be explored, much of which is interpreted to be about how white settlers terrorized Native peoples as they spread throughout America.
I have often heard my film professors say that “everything in film is deliberate,” and in my mind, no one embodies this more than Stanley Kubrick, especially in The Shining (as the documentary Room 237 [2012], however far-fetched it may be at times, demonstrates). The Shining was the first movie that inspired me want to watch it over and over again, not just for enjoyment, but to learn new things about it each time. It was the first film that forced me to scan the frame, looking for clues, symbols, and foreshadowing. It is not a film that can be viewed once and then fully understood. It leaves open many questions, which have to be answered by paying attention to seemingly innocuous details, such as out-of-focus paintings on the wall behind the characters, or the way Jack Torrance is often shown reflected in a mirror, or the appearance of the color red throughout the movie.
The Shining especially changed the way I thought about fear in movies. Prior to seeing the film, most of the “scary movies” I had seen were not actually scary; they were gory. I didn’t realize growing up that there was a distinction between the two. I always thought that a frightening movie had to have at least blood and guts, sometimes monsters, and always things happening suddenly and horribly. The Shining taught me that what is much more crucial in instilling a lasting sense of fear in viewers is creating an atmosphere of dread and suspense, which many modern horror movies that rely on violence and jump scares fail to do. While there is still a bloody, violent death in The Shining, the movie doesn’t rely on cheap gore or scares to make a lasting impression. Instead, the music and cinematography are what kept me on the edge of my seat.
The music in the film uses a contrasting combination of sounds: the light tapping of a high-pitched piano key and a cacophony of grating strings and percussion. The piano is used at more subtle but still unsettling moments of the film to build suspense, and the strings are used at the height of the most terrifying moments. The music is a huge component in making this movie frightening, as well as the use of the Steadicam or “dolly shots” throughout. These shots, such as when Danny is riding his tricycle around the Overlook, help build suspense because we feel like we are riding behind Danny, and like him, we have no idea what lies around each corner.
Before I saw The Shining, I thought that I didn’t like horror movies. Of course it could be argued by some that the film is not a horror movie, but for me it is, and it made me understand how widespread the horror genre really is. There is a huge variety within the horror genre, and The Shining taught me that while I didn’t like movies that tried to scare me by having a guy with a chainsaw hacking off people’s legs, I loved movies that crept up on me with a subtle, lingering sense of dread.
The Shining also changed my life simply by introducing me to Stanley Kubrick. I still have not watched all of his films, but of those I have seen have been fascinating to me in different ways. Becoming drawn to Kubrick and learning more about him as a person and a director after watching The Shining also further enhanced my understanding of the film. Reading about Kubrick’s process taught me more about how a director’s style of filmmaking produces specific results, such as the fact that Shelley Duval’s performance as Wendy Torrance was so convincing largely because Kubrick made her perform the same scenes with Jack Nicholson over and over, until she was genuinely terrified and in tears.
The Shining, in a broader cultural and historical context, is seen by some as a response to the genocide of the Native Americans by white settlers. This theory is explored in Room 237 and can only be discovered as a hidden message in the film by paying attention to very subtle clues throughout. When Mr. Ullman, the owner of the Overlook, is giving Jack, Wendy, and Danny a tour of the hotel, he tells them that the site it supposedly located over an Indian burial ground and that some Native American attacks were warded off when building it. As they pass through the Colorado Lounge, Wendy comments on the authentic Indian décor and the owner tells her that they are Navajo and Apache designs. Neither of these comments is dwelled on, and both are quickly lost within the film on the first viewing. More Native American symbolism shows up when Dick Halloran is showing the storeroom to the Torrances. Behind his head, we see a large can of Calumet baking powder, which features a photo of an Indian chief on the front.
In line with this theory, the famous scene in which Danny has a vision of blood pouring from the elevators of the Overlook is thought not only to foreshadow the bloodshed that will occur there when the Torrances come to stay, but all of the blood shed by the Native Americans who were buried there. Towards the end of the film, once Jack has descended into madness and Wendy is trying to escape him, we hear what sounds like tribal chanting coming from the walls. This reinforces once again the fact that the Overlook hotel was built on an Indian burial ground. Although these theories were never confirmed by Stanley Kubrick, given his attention to detail, it seems highly likely that these clues were put in place for a reason. Additionally, the poster advertising the release of The Shining read “The tide of terror that swept across America IS HERE!” This phrase seems to have a double meaning, the first meaning being that the movie itself is the tide of terror and that it has finally been released. The second, hidden meaning could be that the tide of terror is the white man’s arrival and the eventual slaughter of the Native peoples and the destruction of their way of life.
Looking at this film in a broader cultural context also enhanced the meaning of it for me personally. Initially, I had merely seen the color red as indicative of the blood of the wife and children the former caretaker murdered, and foreshadowing the fact that Jack would try to kill Wendy and Danny. After thinking about the historical theories behind the film, I realized that the color red throughout did still symbolize blood, but was likely symbolizing all of the blood that had been spilled at the Overlook hotel many years earlier with the genocide of the Native peoples. However, there is no solid proof either way and that is what makes The Shining so fascinating. It is full of thought-provoking details and unanswered questions, ones that have drawn me to this film time and time again for years, and have made me appreciate horror films more than ever before. The suspense that’s masterfully crafted through Stanley Kubrick’s attention to detail, including his use of music and dolly shots, leaves a feeling of dread that lingers long after the film has ended.
