2. Bathroom scene (room 237)
The beginning of the scene shows Danny foaming at the mouth and shaking. He is wearing a
red shirt which has connotations to danger and can be considered a warning to the audience
of what is going to come later in the film. The image has blue tones, this is to suggest
darkness, coldness and a less welcoming environment which links to the theme that the hotel
is a dangerous place and gives the audience an indication of how the character is feeling. A
slow zoom on Danny’s face jump cuts to the inside of room 237 and the camera begins a
moderately fast pan of the room. Colour is a key part of this scene as it gives greater meaning
to the events as they happen. For example, the sofas in room 237 are purple; a colour that
often represents poison and foreshadows the death of a character. This is contrasted with
green which is also heavily featured in the set of the bathroom; a colour which represents
illness and jealousy.
3. Furthermore, the bathroom is trimmed with yellow; a colour commonly used to represent a hazard
and could suggest a toxic vibe to the audience. Bathrooms are often used in horror movies as it is
when a person is often alone and unsuspecting. Hitchcock’s famous thriller Psycho does this, a
woman is brutally stabbed to death while she is taking a shower. This scene has such an effect on
the audience not just because of the horrific nature of the murder, but also because of where it was
set. In my opinion, this is why the bathroom scene in The Shining is so disturbing, especially as the
woman appears from the bath completely naked yet it seems that Jack is the one vulnerable as he is
as clueless as the audience regarding who she is and why she is there. Sound is also a key part of
this scene as it is used to build tension and create a dramatic effect. The sound of a heartbeat
becomes prevalent amongst the non diegetic high-pitched string music that is conventionally used
in horror films to indicate that something is about to happen. As the pan is a point of view shot from
Jack’s perspective, the audience can assume that the heartbeat sound is his own. Kubrick uses a
slow moving camera to show the viewer the interior of the room and draw out the tension instead
of cutting straight to the door. As the camera (and Jack) approaches the bathroom door, the
soundtrack gets suddenly deeper and more foreboding, giving the viewer both visual and audio
signals that something is not right within the hotel, specifically room 237. The door opens to reveal
the green, yellow and white bathroom. The bathtub is in the centre of the frame and the eye of the
viewer is drawn towards it as it is a contrasting white within the mass of green that is the lower
walls, floor, toilet and sink.
4. There is a shot between Jack, who is captured in a medium shot and the room he is looking at which is a wide
shot to establish the environment with the audience. In the fourth shot of the sequence, a hand appears behind
the shower curtain and a naked woman appears. When she is stood up, the woman is framed by the decorative
alcove around her, once again forcing the viewers’ attention to an even smaller area of the frame of which she is
the centre. There is a distinctive over-the-shoulder shot of the woman as Jack approaches her and the music
gets louder and has a faster pace than before, further drawing the viewer in to the odd and intense encounter.
Jack and the woman are in the centre of the frame and there are no cuts as she runs her hands over his blood
red jacket and they embrace into a kiss. The camera cuts to Jack kissing the woman who appears to have
stopped moving. Several seconds elapse before he responds to this by looking up, giving the audience several
extra seconds of anticipation before the image cuts to a point of view shot of Jack holding a vile, rotting old
version of the woman he first perceived. The decaying of the woman could be a visual representation of the
decaying of Jack’s mind and is exactly what was insinuated by the colour schemes in the rooms – sickness,
hazard, decay and death. As the woman begins to laugh, the sound overlaying the imagery as it flicks between
shots of the woman laughing and grotesque images of her laying in the bath. Theme Analysis The themes of
duality and personality change are prevalent throughout the film especially with the progression of Jack’s
mental deterioration. Mirrors are used to as an icon of duality and the way a character is seen. For example, in
the bathtub scene, the woman is perceived as young and beautiful from a normal camera perspective, then
when Jack looks at her in the mirror, she is seen as old, grotesque and half rotted. Another example of mirrors
revealing a new identity is when Danny appears possessed and writes ‘Redrum’ on the bedroom door. When
Wendy wakes up and asks what he’s doing, the viewer can see the word reflected in the mirror as ‘Murder’.
Mirrors are prevalent in scenes where Jack’s mental state is deteriorating, such as the bar in the Gold Room
which has a mirrored back- bar, or the toilets which have a row of mirrors in them that reflect a bold red colour
throughout the room.
5. The change in Jack’s personality is most noticeable when you study his treatment of his wife. At the beginning of the
film they act as husband and wife, perhaps not loved-up but certainly walking holding hands and Jack treating
Wendy with a decent amount of respect. Although he never appeared to be the most loving and empathetic
husband, there is a distinguishable change in his behaviour after the family have been living alone in the hotel for a
significant amount of time. This is brought to the attention of the viewer in the scene where Jack loses his temper
with Wendy because she interrupted his writings. This becomes even more disturbing when reflecting on the film
later, as the audience learn that all he is writing is ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’, perhaps showing that
his short temper was to disguise his wandering and disturbed mind – or rather his other personality - from his wife.
This leads into themes of domestic abuse and the breakdown of a family which are woven throughout the film. For
example, Kubrick hints at history of child abuse and a strained marital trust even before the family move into the
hotel, when Wendy believes that Jack has hurt Danny and Jack reveals he ‘accidentally’ hurt his son before in a
monologue to his hallucination of a barman. Isolation is also a key theme within the film that is prevalent from the
very beginning. The manager of the Overlook hotel goes as far as to warn Jack that the hotel becomes so isolated in
the winter that it has driven people mad and the audience are able to physically see the Torrinnce family become
cut off from the outside world when the snow starts to fall. Wendy’s loneliness becomes most quickly apparent
when she tries to make a phone call and discovers that they no longer have a connection to the outside world other
than the police phone operator, whom she tries to converse with for as long as possible. Wendy is isolated not just
from the outside world, but also within her marriage, as Jack becomes increasingly distant and unwelcoming
towards her affection and company. Danny also becomes isolated, especially as he is the only child in the building,
and is often seen to be playing alone. He is alone in his premonitions and illness caused by his ‘Shine’ skill and the
strong sense of wrong he gets being in the hotel. He is seen foaming at the mouth and convulsing but has no one
there to comfort him other than the voice in his head. Out of the family, Jack is the only one who seems to
deliberately isolate himself, dedicating himself to his ‘writing’ and becoming angry when he is disturbed.
6. Stanley Kubrick is known for his specific directing style and how the camera
moves in his works. The technique that stands out the most in his works is the
zoom as he is able to force the viewer to change their perspective of a person
or scene by zooming close into or away from the subject. It is used frequently
in the Shining, often to isolate a character and show their individual emotions
(for example) the camera zooms in on Jacks face as he stares intently to the
left of the camera, emphasising how distanced he has become from humanity
and how quickly he is now losing his mind. The technique is used in reverse in
a scene known as ‘La marche avant la charge’ in Kubrick’s earlier film Barry
Lyndon. The zoom out gives the audience a dramatic impression of the size of
the cavalry that is charging forward towards the camera, therefore making the
zoom technique effective at building up tension and creating an exciting
atmosphere. Another technique that is used across many of Kubrick’s works is
the fade/dissolve scene transitions. The Shining tackles many difficult themes
such as child neglect / abuse as Danny is mostly left to roam the hotel alone
and is even left alone when he appears to be extremely unwell. Although his
mother is often with him or talking about him to Jack, she is unable to protect
her son from the marks he gets on his neck and the increasingly disturbed
nature of his behaviour. Moreover, Jack says at the beginning of the film that
he thinks the hotel will be good for his son and he will have lots of time to
play and roam, not acknowledging how lonely and potentially dangerous it
would be to let the small boy be alone in the large hotel. Although Jack
promises Danny that he would never hurt him, it becomes apparent that he
has a history of hurting the child when Wendy discovers mysterious marks on
her sons’ neck and gets extremely angry at her husband. Ultimately, Wendy
tries to protect her child when Jack loses his mind but he ends up alone
fending for himself and hiding from the man who was supposed to look after
and care for him.
7. Kubrick is well known for his meticulous set design and the Shining is one of his many films that use colour and style
to represent emotions of characters and to predict key moments in the movie. In the Shining, Kubrick uses the
colour red in the ballroom bathroom alongside many wall mirrors which not only reflect the colour of the walls
around, making them all the more obvious, but also highlight the characters shift in personality. The set design
indicates to the audience that the scene causes a shift in the film’s plot and the actions of Jack’s character. The
bright red on the walls can be considered a warning and a sign of future blood and death, the room is more modern
than much of the rest of the hotel and insinuates how Jack is thinking ahead and almost considering a future where
he kills his wife and child. Red is also prevalent in A Clockwork Orange, noticeably so in the carpet of the cat
woman’s house. The cat lady is seen doing yoga, lying on the carpet in her house which could represent her blood in
her death, which happens in the very same room when Alex hits her over the head with a large sculpture. Her red
hair might also be an indicator of how she will die, which is a clever use of mise-en-scene by Kubrick. Genre Analysis
The Shining falls into the Horror genre at the point of reformation in the genre cycle. It is known for pushing the
boundaries of horror and crossing over into a psychological horror aswell as the typical jump-scare violent styles
incorporated in horror of the time. The Shining contains many conventions of a psychological horror movie,
including insanity:, in how Jack loses his mind and with it all affection for his family and remorse for wishing them
dead and Evil children; in the two little girls in the hallway, shown dead and alive and in the scene where Danny
writes ‘REDRUM’ on the bedroom door and hovers over his mother’s head holding a knife. It also features icons
typical of the classic horror genre, including handheld weapons that are commonly found around a typical
household, such as the large kitchen knife that Wendy uses to defend herself and the baseball bat that Jack attacks
her with. The baseball bat has since been used as the murderers weapon in many horror films and tv broadcasts
since The Shining came out, for example the horror icon and monster Chucky, uses it to brutally murder a teacher. It
is also used in recent media, for example in the tv show The Walking Dead. They use a baseball bat wrapped in
barbed wire as a main weapon and it has become an iconic thing for the character and the shows brand.
8. This is just one example of how the Shining influenced the horror genre as much as it was influenced by it.
However, Kubrick has incorporated many classic horror conventions into the film, for example, the Overlook Hotel
is said be tainted by a past involving a triple murder and that previous groundskeepers have gone insane because
the memories live on within the hotel. This is a twist on the classic version of a haunted house that has been an
icon of horror since the genre began. The idea that the location is tainted by previous events is similar to the house
in The Innocents (1961) which is revealed to be full of ghosts that talk to the orphaned children within the house
and is linked to the mysterious death of their governess. The hotel affects Danny in much the same way as the
house does to Miles in The Innocents, as his ‘shine’ ability appears to strengthen to a point where it debilitates him
the longer he is in the hotel, and is seen to be having some sort of seizure because of the memories in the hotel.
Moreover, the owner of the hotel tells Jack that it was built on a native burial ground, which indicates to the
audience that the hotels grounds have a far more brutal and violent past than they can even comprehend. Context
The Shining is a film based from a novel by horror author Stephen King and adapted to film by Kubrick. It was
created in a time where the Horror genre was being revolutionised and horror was splitting into a multitude of
sub-genres. Between 1970 and 1980, horror was divided between two sub-genres, psychological horror and
slasher horror films (such as Halloween, John Carpenter 1978) which typically involved conventions of a vulnerable
‘virgin’ girl watching her friends get murdered by a psychopath with a knife, hence the ‘slasher’ name. The Shining
was the second Stephen King novel to be adapted in this time and both of them fell under the Psychological title.
The Shining could have a deeper layer of meaning centred around Jack’s desperation to become more than his
families current social status by moving away from his current life and attempting to achieve more somewhere
else. This is reminiscent of the American Dream and how families and migrant workers would constantly travel in
search of wealth and success and hope of achieving the ‘dream’. It also discusses difficult issues in American
history, such as the conflict between the first settlers and the native American people as their land was pillaged
and stolen from them and how these issues have never truly been resolved. This is prevalent in the way that the
hotel was not only disrespectfully built upon a native American Indian burial site, but also decorated with an
‘American Indian’ theme which is appropriated from the original cultures of the land and making the history of the
area into a tourist attraction for the hotel.
