Review on the Shining//

 I believe that the shining is in the horror genre. The shining was made in the year of 1980 on the 23rd of May. It is directed by Stanley Kubrick. It was originally a book written by the American author Stephen King. I have chosen the shining because it is one of my favorite horror films. The intended effect on the audience is to confuse and scare them. I believe that the film definitely achieves its purpose. It achieves it by displaying the films themes very well. The main themes of the film are dread, isolation and insanity.

 It displays the theme of dread through its tracking and dolly shots. There is three tracking shots of the character Danny on his tricycle. Danny is the son of the family. The tracking shot creates dread whenever it goes round a corner this because the audience expects something to appear every time it goes round the corner but nothing ever does for the first two times. The third tricycle tracking shot the twins appear. By this time the audience is on the edge of their seats because so much suspense is drawn up by the tracking shots and nothing ever appearing round the corner. The sound play a huge role in creating dread. There is few scenes where the music will build to a crescendo but then dissipates. The effect of this makes the audience think that something is going to happen but then nothing does therefore filling the audience with dread. For example the first time when Danny tries to open the 237 room and it’s locked.

 I believe that the theme of isolation is displayed very well through the wide angle shots of the hotel. These wide angle shots create isolation by having none else in the frame but one person conveying how the character is all on his own. For example when jack is working in the main room the shot is very wide and very tall. Another example of isolation is the scenes where Danny is riding around on his tricycle for the first time. There is no music in this scene. There is only the noise of the tricycle riding over the wooden floor and the carpet. This therefore gives an atmosphere of isolation because there is no music to accompany the tricycle. Although Music might have made this scene scarier I think that the lack of music creates a better sense of isolation.

 The theme of insanity is displayed through a lot of ways. The mid shot of Jack looking out through the window to Wendy and Danny. The shot very slowly moves closer to jacks face representing how he is becoming crazy but becoming crazy very slowly. Another way that insanity it represented is the set design. There are rooms and doors which don’t lead to anywhere and corridors which shouldn’t be there. For example for Danny’s first tricycle ride he upstairs riding around the corridors. Some of the corridors which Danny rides down don’t fit with the lay out of the set. This was Stanley Kubrick’s way of boggling the minds of the audience. Another form of confusing set design is the entrance of the hedge maze. At the beginning the hedge maze s facing away from the hotel but at the end of the film the hedge maze is facing towards the hotel. Also the fact that the characters never notice through the film at all and nothing is ever mentioned about it. This again confuses the audience. Another thing to do with the maze is when jack is looking at the miniature model of the maze. The model maze its self looks like a very simple maze. The shot then changes to a bird’s eye view of the maze and shows Danny and Wendy in the center of it. The maze is much bigger and looks much more complex than the model. This shows how the maze changes therefore confusing the audience even further and creating the theme of insanity.