Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer’s block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son, Danny (Danny Lloyd), who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack’s writing goes nowhere and Danny’s visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel’s dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.
| Reviewed by: Syed Wazir Ahmed
In a study published in 2016 by psychologists Francis T. McAndrew and Sara S. Koehnke, they state: “Creepiness is anxiety aroused by the ambiguity of whether there is something to fear or not and/or by the ambiguity of the precise nature of the threat.” The Shining is not a scary movie—it’s a creepy movie, and a good one at that.
Jack Torrance struggles with writer’s block and seeks solitude in the Rocky Mountains as the caretaker of the secluded Overlook Hotel when it shuts down for the winter. Early in the film, the hotel manager informs us of a tragic familicide committed by a previous caretaker, and we hear from Mrs. Torrance about her husband’s history of domestic abuse towards their son, Danny.
At this point, one might already begin to feel uncomfortable with the three of them living together in the vacant hotel. However, it never feels like they’re together at all. Upon reaching the monumental hotel, we rarely see any two characters in the same frame. Characters are kept apart and Kubrick thereby imbues viewers with a sense of isolation—a clever tactic to disconcert audiences from the onset.
As the camera tracks Danny riding his plastic trike through the elegant hotel’s empty halls, the atmosphere created by deceitful sound design may leave one unsettled, as the ominous music fails to match the seemingly harmless surroundings.
Adding to the confusion, on no occasion is it made clear if what the characters see are real or figments of their imagination. Kubrick makes us unsure of when we should feel afraid, effectively forcing us to remain on guard throughout the film. He takes advantage of the anxious mind’s imagination to conjure demons more terrifying than any he could possibly introduce himself.
“I think Stanley wants to make the best horror film ever made”, said Diane Johnson, an American novelist who co-wrote the film’s script, in an interview with The New York Times in 1978. It’s been 43 years since, and I think he might very well have succeeded. _ Waz is a Singaporean film enthusiast who spends most of his time scaring himself watching horror films when he’s not completing overdue college assignments. He hopes to make a living writing one-liner reviews for cash grab blockbusters someday. |
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