Film Review The Shining

The Shining

Its a masterpiece of Modern Horror.

The film is based in a hotel in the mountains and shows us the life of the Torrance family and their fathers, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) decent into madness.

the film stats with a wide angle shot of a yellow Beetle, its a panoramic shot traveling through the sky, then ending up at the overlook hotel. the film properly starts with an interview of jack Torrance and the hotels manager. when in the interview he is warned about the last employer of the same job, which was the caretaker of the hotel that he murdered his family. Jack reassures him: "You can rest assured, that's not gonna happen with me. And as far as my wife is concerned, I'm sure she'll be absolutely fascinated when I tell her about it.". ( Ebert 2006)

figure 1

the film makes you feel isolated but not in that way. its a big hotel with many hiding spaces but no where to escape. it plays that game of hide and seek but with a tragic ending.

the film has jump scares but not in the film but with the transitions of the film when the days of the week pops up. its humours in a way. The Shining may be the first movie that ever made its audience jump with a title that simply says "Tuesday."(Maslin 1980)

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the film is confusing and there are many twists , puzzles  and its a labyrinth film. the film has so many turns and a confusing plot. what makes the film the way it is, is  how it uses different camera angles  to create an atmosphere of the main characters and there decent into madness. the director uses music to create a sense that something is going to happen, but then it changes. your always ready for something Stop correcting “because” of the screeching sound of the music then nothing. he plays on your emotions.

the camera angle gives the audience a sense of isolation being close up to the characters face then pans out to another angle then straight back to the characters face again. a great explanation of this is when Danny(Danny Lloyd) is on his tricycle weaving through the hotel corridors and then stops. the camera transitions from Danny to then the twins haunting the corridors. it shows them alive then dead then to Danny as his face expressions changes. "The carefully organized, seamlessly edited tracking shots and the complex musical textures of György Ligeti and Krzysztof Penderecki don't even offer room to breathe, and the disorientation causes the mind to grasp for gravity" ( Henderson 2007) 

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A mansion of memories in “Last Year at Marienbad.” Bottom images: The haunted hallways of the Overlook Hotel in “The Shining.”

illustrations

figure 1 http://the-indie-pendent.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/theshining-1.jpg

figure 2 https://horrorpedia.com/2013/02/16/the-shining-1980-stanley-kubrick-horror-movie-overview-cast-plot-reviews-buy-trailer/

figure 3 http://illusion.scene360.com/movies/72675/stanley-kubrick-film-inspirations/

bibliography

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-shining-1980(Roger Ebert 06)

http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF1738E270BC4B51DFB366838B699EDE (Janet Maslin 1980)
http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/the-shining(Eric Henderson 07)