The Shining: Kubrick's Greatest Horror Film

Throughout many years films have taught audiences what domestic violence looks like. Big movie stars have taken action upon this situation to bring awareness to show what it looks like, and show the importance to what an audience witnesses onscreen. Many believe that in the movie ‘The Shining’, directed by Stanley Kubrick, silently conveys domestic violence within it. The movie begins with Jack Torrance, played by Jack Nicholson, who is a novelist and receives a job as a caretaker at the Overlook Hotel in the isolated mountains of Colorado. He brings along his wife, Wendy Torrance, played by Shelley Duvall, and his son, Danny, played by Danny Lloyd, to help occupy the hotel, as they will be the only people in there for the winter. Jack comes upon issues as being a writer, while being in the hotel, along with facing paranormal activities that originate from the past guests. He is eventually driven into insanity, as he progressively becomes more and more physically and psychologically abusive toward his own wife and son. It happens that Danny has special mysterious powers that are defined as ‘shining’, where he sees visions of gruesome images from the previous dead guests throughout the haunted hotel. Wendy is the only one able to save her son as her husband Jack goes through mental breakdowns and is slowly being driven into madness. While some people criticize Kubrick’s film due to the amount of domestic violence the audience witnesses between Jack and Wendy through acts of obvious emotional and manipulative behavior, however, the movie’s cinematography, acting, plot, and setting come together to create one of the best horror movies in history.

Individuals may argue that ‘The Shining’ has a much more complicated issue in it, which includes toxic masculinity and domestic violence hidden through it. This film is often negatively looked down upon and viewed as scarier not from the ghostly encounters, but from the realistic horrifying situations that are presented from it. Film analysts addressed their opinion on this situation. For example, Nathan Silva’s article ‘You Lost Your Temper, Jack: Cycles of Abuse in ‘The Shining’’ states: “Whether in the form of a roque mallet, a bottle, or a fist, abuse is much more terrifying than any supernatural conjuring ‘The Shining’ can muster and is much more distasteful”. This explains that ‘The Shining’ goes much deeper and beyond from what people think the whole film is based upon. The reoccurring physical abuse from Jack is exceedingly harsh and brutal to the audience. He later analyzes this form of domestic violence by saying, “Wendy, like many victims of abuse, remains in her relationship because of her conflicting emotions she has for Jack”. Throughout the film, there are many times where Wendy herself is fully aware of what is occurring to her and acknowledges that there is no easy way out. Some viewed King’s masterpiece as a way of promoting domestic abuse and seeing no issue with it, showing that Wendy is completely helpless in her scenario. Critics believe that the abusive relationship from what is shown onscreen is the most negative matter, but this is not the case.

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Their unfavorable opinion, based on what is visible from Jack and Wendy’s relationship, is flawed due to the inconsideration of the importance in buildup it created for the film overall, which causes the bandwagon appeal fallacy to be applied. This is focusing almost entirely on one type of theme of abusive actions and viewers focus only on that specific matter. The more people speak up about it, they believe the film is entirely wrongful and disturbing to be shown, and others continue to follow along with this opinion. What critics fail to understand is that because the sensitive topic of physical and mental abuse is present throughout the whole film; it only creates more of a realistic horror film that is easy for some to relate to. Penelope De La Cruz’s article ‘How ‘The Shining’ Is All About Abuse’ states: “One thing that makes ‘The Shining’ so arresting is its take on how violence and love can get tangled up together in abusive relationships”. There are many points within scenes of the film where this is factual, and it is something that shouldn’t just be ignored nor pushed away. ‘The Shining’ presents one of the scariest and most effective types of horror, focusing heavily on the realism deep within the story. The film is often labeled as controversial, but without denial the abundant amount of criteria such as the cinematography only adds to the importance of ‘The Shining’.

The certain form of masterful cinematography Kubrick presents majorly influences the greatness of the film. In the article ‘One Perfect Shot: The Unsung Power of Cinematography by Pamela Hutchinson, she describes: “Using a combination of tools and techniques to make a 'good shot' is pretty easy and straightforward but doing it in a way that creates visual intrigue and follows the film’s themes and motifs is way more complex and hard to define”. Kubrick often manipulates the way the scenes are edited and the camera movements in order to increase tension from the viewer by purposely limiting the scope between shots to only what characters are able to see. The editing in it is one of the primary factors to what makes this such an outstanding movie when it comes down to the small details of it. A special effect that was implemented was using a fire with no lights on to create a glowing effect for the scenes. The types of shots while using a Steadicam in low mode at floor level, Kubrick used to create this movie puts the audience in perspective of what is going on, which causes the viewer to almost feel what the characters are feeling; along with increasing both tension and suspense to viewers. He projects the types of viewpoints of the hotel when these effects are added in, whether it be subtle or not, it makes a huge difference and influences how others are viewing a specific scene. The exquisite cinematography is not the only importance to the film though, the acting is also crucial to it as well.

The acting within ‘The Shining’ is truly a piece of art and is a part of what the movie is praised for. Marcus Geduld’s article ‘How Do You Differentiate Good Acting from Bad Acting?’ explains: “A good actor is one who can express his emotions through his eyes, one who acts but doesn't look like he's acting, one who can make us believe in his/her character, one who doesn't try too hard to make audience emotional”. Jack Nicholson provides to the audience a very emotional and real performance. He is the main major terrifying character in the movie and portrayed the vision of an ex alcoholic man slowly being driven insane extremely well. Nicholson goes over the top with his character, he starts off as an in control, calm man, but gradually starts to become much angrier and violent through the film. He was never meant to be viewed as a relatable character, but rather someone terrifying with psychological issues deep within himself. Wendy’s emotions throughout the film seemed almost realistic, the terror coming from her acting was horrifying to viewers. She is filled with anxiety, fear, and is shown as a naïve person. Her character makes the audience project themselves into her. Though Danny does not have as many lines as the others, he still manages to present an outstanding performance. He is a young boy, who is constantly in terror from both the paranormal aspects and his maniac father. He makes viewers feel uneasy with the creepiness he brings throughout certain scenes, but his ability to deliver paranoia and fear is unreal. The unremarkable acting in the film connects with the majorly successful plot that makes the film what it is.

In ‘The Shining’, Kubrick does not fail to tell the story with the astounding plot causing the popularity it has gained to this day. JR Strickland’s article ‘Why Story Is the Most Important Aspect of Video’ states: “We must draw a distinction here between those sound effects which are amusing only by virtue of their novelty (which soon wears off), and those that help one to understand the action, and which excite emotions which could not have been roused by the sight of the pictures alone”. This is exactly what the film presents to us, it is truly thick with many details and abundant with ambiguity. It includes many details such as Jack’s frustration, paranormal activities, along with family and mentality issues. The story isn’t only meant to be based on the supernatural events occurring though, but it also includes great historical details within it from the ancient Indian burial ground the Overlook Hotel was built on. This historical background only makes the story more terrifying and ties into place with everything happening to the family. But aside from the plot, the setting in ‘The Shining’ creates eeriness to the film.

The setting in the isolated mountains of Colorado causes the film to successfully create an unnerving feeling to the audience. In the article ‘Fundamental Importance of Setting in Film Production’ by Susan Gitmu, she expresses: “This not only functions as a backdrop for the film or a container for the action taking place but it goes further to reflect the themes and mood, style, and emotions of a film”. The film creates a mood and type of emotion by it taking place in the mountains of Colorado in winter of 1975 in the Overlook Hotel. Other main areas of the movie’s settings are the presidential suite, Room 217, the boiler room, and the living quarters. By using these types of isolated, dark, creepy settings, it gives the viewer an all-around disturbed feeling. The main setting in the hotel has a plentiful amount of checkered history due to the many deaths that occurred there in the past. Creepiness comes also from the historical background that the Overlook Hotel was built on ancient Indian burial grounds and all the dead souls that were left behind. With this information it goes further than just a simple horror movie, the area where the hotel stands contributes to the disturbing setting. While the setting throughout the movie furthers the importance along with the cinematography, plot, and acting, it outweighs the negative opinion based off the domestic violence.