The Shining

Disclaimer:

This movie is rated: R

It contains scenes of violence, swearing, nudity, and scary imagery.

Back at it again with some Kubrick. Feels good. Personally, I feel like there’s no better way to close out Spooky Season this year than with, what many people would consider to be, one of the best horror films ever made. To some degree, I’m inclined to agree with them. Heck, I probably like this movie as much as the next person. Although, I feel like I should cover some of this movie’s background before we go all in on it.

Of course it’s since become one of the most well-regarded horror films in American cinema, but when it first came out many critics didn’t enjoy it. Not only did they not enjoy it, but the movie was even nominated for two Razzie awards. One for “Worst Director” in Stanley Kubrick, and second for “Worst Actress” in Shelley Duvall.

While I can’t deny that I really like this movie, the cynical contrarian in me can’t help but wonder if there is something to those criticisms. Not Shelley Duvall as “Worst Actress,” I highly disagree with that, but possibly in regards to Kubrick’s directing. I can understand someone who finds the slow pacing of the film and odd weekday title cards being both boring and random respectively. Not only that, but the more I think about it, Stanley Kubrick seems more and more like an acquired taste to me.

Sure I’ll be one to say that his work is genuinely different and interesting (and I am a big fan of it), but it does take a certain type of audience to get into it. First: prepare yourself for language that definitely would get Kubrick cancelled today. Second: expect a lot of artsy editing with several slow zoom ins/outs and dissolves. Third: understand that every detail, even if it seems like an error, was intentional.

Kubrick was an extremely particular filmmaker. Everyone talks about his tendency to get an obscene amount of takes for the most mundane of scenes, but even down to the placement of objects in his shots, the construction of his sets, and of course the delivery of his actors everything had to be exactly his way. This is probably why I personally like his movies, because I’ve always been a fan of films with subtle visual details that make rewatching more fun.

However, do all of those details add up to a great film or were the critics right the first time? Well, let’s take a trip back to the Overlook Hotel and see if everything still holds up in The Shining.

We open the film with this grand sweeping shot of Saint Mary Lake in Glacier National Park followed by a car driving down an empty road while an ominous tune plays in the background.

Most of what makes this scene so creepy is the soundtrack which brilliantly sets the tone right from the start. It was conducted by Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind-Tourre, and I’mma be honest, without their spooky orchestrations this scene is kinda bland.

They look nice enough, but they’re more like something you’d see in a nature documentary.
It doesn’t get unsettling until you add the music.

Also, the Overlook Hotel was a combination of several different hotels.
The one used in this shot was the Timberline Lodge in Oregon.
The interior was constructed entirely at Elstree Studios in London.
Fun fact: The set used for the Colorado Lounge was reused the following year by Steven Spielberg to construct the Well of the Souls for his film *Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark*.

Sorry, I have that reaction whenever I read the word “interview.” AHHHHHHHH!!! Okay, I’m done. What happens is that our protagonist, Jack Torrance (played by Jack Nicholson), is up for a job as the caretaker of the Overlook Hotel during the winter season. Before we go into more of this film’s tone, I first want to show you this.

You can see in this shot how there’s a hallway that goes off to the left out of sight based on the gap between the column and the wall at the far side.
Heck, you can also see it in the way the floor tiles are aligned.
But in this next shot -

There’s clearly a window that leads outside that shouldn’t be there.
I love this about the layout of the Overlook Hotel, because everything seems just a bit off which helps add to the unease of the rest of the film.

We get more odd moments when we’re introduced to Wendy Torrance (played by the late great Shelley Duvall (link to the American Diabetes Association’s website)), Jack’s wife, and Danny Torrance (played by Danny Lloyd in his first role), their son. There’s also Tony. Who’s Tony?

*[Tony]’s a little boy that lives in my mouth.*
…Ooooookayyy.

So, how’s the job-hunt going for Jack?

This is mostly what I mean as far as tone-building is concerned, and also the thing I like the most about this movie. It doesn’t start off shit-your-pants scary, it just starts off uncomfortable. There are several moments in this movie that just cause you to scrunch up your face and body in discomfort which I’m sure is exactly what the filmmakers wanted. Jack Nicholson’s performance as Jack Torrance is also a perfect example of this.

Even in the smallest scenes, Jack Nicholson is deeply unsettling no matter what he’s doing. He manages to find a way to make every scene he’s in tense as if he could crack at any moment. It does present a unique problem in the sense that Jack Nicholson has basically been playing this type of character his entire career which makes it difficult for this particular performance to stand out among most of his others. Although, one thing you can’t say is that it’s bad.

Despite that, is there anything here that can lighten the mood?

*He killed his family with an axe.*
I’ll take that as a “no.”

It doesn’t get much better when we cut to Wendy and Danny back home. Danny has an episode when Tony shows him what’s to come at the Overlook. Spoilers: it’s not pleasant.

That’s odd, usually the blood gets off at the second floor.
Dammit, *Simpsons*! You ruined this scene for me.

This bit of excitement causes Danny to pass out only for us to see a doctor examining him and Wendy standing in the corner worried. He seems fine for now, but the doctor asks Wendy about Danny’s history on the off-chance something happened in his past to spur this incident on. Wendy brings up the time Jack dislocated Danny’s shoulder 3 years previous during a drunk outburst. The doctor is rightfully concerned by this, but Wendy sees a silver-lining to it.

[*Jack] hasn’t had any alcohol in…5 months.*
That doesn’t bode well when the incident you mentioned took place 3 years ago.

This scene to me is a prime example why I strongly disagree with the Razzie’s decision to nominate Shelley Duvall as “Worst Actress.” Look at her face in this image. Really look at it. She looks outwardly cheerful, but the more you look at her the more you can see how she’s deeply stressed. As the audience, we don’t know why she would be stressed, but she also has a very specific tone whenever she talks about Jack to someone.

While she tries to give off the impression that she loves him, her tone is noticeably shaky whenever she discusses Jack. It subtly implies that Wendy has a fear of her own husband. Given Jack Nicholson’s acting prior to viewing this scene, I can absolutely understand why Wendy would be scared of him. From the way she carries herself, her expressions, and her voice, it’s clear to us that Wendy feels trapped in this marriage. This is also without bringing up Duvall’s harrowing experience on set.

Yeah, I had a feeling I’d have to mention this at some point or another. I briefly brought it up in my Full Metal Jacket review, but here is where I’ll break it down. While Kubrick was mostly friendly with Jack Nicholson and overly protective of Danny Lloyd on set, he was downright cruel to Shelley Duvall. He verbally abused her, pushed her to the emotional limit, and forced other crew members to avoid her/not sympathize with her. In his mind it made sense to get a very specific performance out of her, however, it doesn’t make it okay.

While art is a powerful thing and can cause us to view the world from a different perspective, under no circumstances should it come at the expense of anyone’s well-being.

Since I’d rather not dwell on this subject for too long, I’ll just go ahead and move on. Alongside Shelley Duvall’s iconic performance, Danny Lloyd does a pretty good job as well. Especially as a first time child actor.

Much of his performance gives off the impression that he’s detached from reality, and considering he gets frequent psychic updates from Tony, that makes perfect sense. Considering Danny is frequently absorbed in his Looney Tunes cartoons as well, this is doubly convincing. His Tony voice is incredibly disturbing too. Maybe it’s just because I have an interest in creepy children in horror films, but it unnerves me nonetheless.

All that aside, let’s continue with the story. Jack and his family make their way up to the Overlook the next day where they get the grand tour, are introduced to Dick Hallorann (played by Scatman Crothers) who’s the head chef at the hotel, and settle in for a long boring winter. We also learn that Dick has a really special talent, much like Danny.

[telepathically] *How’d you like some ice cream, Doc?*
Nope.
P.S.: “Doc” is Danny’s nickname on account of his love of *Looney Tunes*.

Even with Scatman Crothers’s likable onscreen persona, this scene is still very off-putting. While also not being in the film for very long, Dick manages to leave a solid impact. This is mostly through him mentoring Danny about the talent both of them share which, by the way, what is it exactly?

Basically, they’re both psychic. It’s never explicitly explained how this ability is acquired, but I like how in the previous scene with Wendy and the doctor it was mentioned that Danny started “talking to Tony” after his injury. This implies The Shining has something to do with severe childhood trauma. The book describes how Dick also had some…unpleasant childhood experiences which caused him to develop his Shine after this happened to him.

Doc also tells Dick how Tony told him about room 237. Dick doesn’t like Doc mentioning this one bit, so he tells him there isn’t anything in that room, but don’t go in there anyway. Of course this means that Doc will never go in that room. Ever.

Give Danny props for not going in that room for a solid month.
However, this does present something I can understand people having problems with: the pacing.

It’s never quite clear when the events happening on screen are taking place. This can be both a pro and a con. It’s a pro since it makes you question the reality of what’s happening in the movie just as much as the characters are. With all the days blurring together for them in their long hotel stay, the caretakers are likely just as confused as you are on what time and what day it is.

At the same time, it’s a con because it’s pretty jarring to randomly see title cards appearing on screen. It can even abruptly cut off a scene before we’ve had much of a chance to digest what’s happening in it. While I understand time is getting less and less clear to both us and the characters, you don’t have to draw attention to it by inorganically inserting title cards in random places. Just showing the characters going about their lives at various times of the day should be enough to convey that.

During this period, which takes up the majority of the movie, we also experience tension building moments. A lot of them. I could easily go over each of them in turn, but I’d rather not since we’d probably be here until next summer if I do that. Instead I’ll just mention what I enjoy about scenes like these.

*When I came up here for my interview, it was as though…I’d been here before.*

*Oooooooo*.
Another thing I assume will never come back into play. Ever.

What I really like is “Slow-Burn” horror. The kind that takes its time getting you invested in what’s happening on screen before scaring the crap out of you at the end. As I mentioned, that’s most of what this movie is and I like it for that because it never feels like certain scenes shouldn’t be in the movie, or the movie doesn’t have any momentum. Everything we see on screen eventually leads to its own payoff later on which is both satisfying and frightening.

Some of my favorite examples of this include the ghost twins. After Doc runs into them in the hallway, they ask him to come and play with them -

*and ever.*
Um, his mom doesn’t like him playing “Bloody Axe Lie-Around,” thank you.
His dad on the other hand…

The reason I like this isn’t just because of the creepy kid aspect. I mainly like the payoff to this scene when we later see Danny and Jack alone together. Danny is having doubts about the Overlook Hotel, but Jack is loving it. In fact, he wants to stay here -

These kinds of scenes help make certain scares seem less random and more essential. Another is after Danny eventually goes in room 237 like he totally wasn’t planning on doing when he was with Dick earlier. He ends up getting his neck bruised up and Wendy accuses Jack for it.

Given what we know about Jack and his incident with Danny 3 years ago, it makes sense that Wendy would jump to this conclusion (especially since they’re the only ones in the hotel). Jack, however, feels profiled by this accusation, so he sells his soul for some alcohol. A fatal mistake.

*Hi, Lloyd. A little slow tonight, idn’t it?*

Oh.
If that’s not the devil in disguise, I don’t know what is.

Despite the fact that Stephen King didn’t like this film (and I think still doesn’t like it), the movie accurately portrays one of King’s original intentions: how the Overlook Hotel is an allegory for addiction. These are the scenes that are some of my favorites in the movie. Jack is a recovering alcoholic and is the only one who enjoys being at the Overlook. Whenever he has an interaction with Lloyd, he doesn’t pay for his drinks, but Lloyd serves them anyway. Whether Jack’s comfortable with it or not.

What helps convey this concept even more is just the look and feel of the hotel itself. Practically every room has high ceilings, is vastly spread out, and is easy to get lost in if you’re walking through them yourself or casually observing them through a screen.

Several characters mention in the movie how the hotel is very beautiful. I agree with them, but I think that’s part of the point as well. The hotel is supposed to be beautiful so it can lure you in and slowly break you down physically and mentally. That’s also how I assume most addiction starts as well. Ultimately, I think it’s a subtle and clever way to get across an idea without mentioning it through dialogue.

Back to the matter at hand though, the story continues with Jack slowly getting crazier and crazier, Danny getting Shinier and Shinier, Wendy getting distraught-er and distraught-er, and it all comes to a head when Jack just so happens to come across the ghost of the former caretaker: Delbert Grady (played by Philip Stone). The same guy who killed his family with an axe. The same guy with the twin ghost daughters. Personally, Delbert Grady is the scariest part of the movie.

[GRADY] *You’ve always been the caretaker. I should know, sir. I’ve always been here.*

Sure he’s creepy, but he hasn’t done anything to make me hate him.

While there have been things here and there that’ve caused Jack to fly off the handle from time-to-time, it’s Grady who’s the catalyst that plants the idea of family murder in Jack’s head. I wonder why that is…

*My girls, sir, they didn’t care for the Overlook at first. One of them actually stole a pack of matches and tried to burn it down. But I…****corrected*** *them, sir. And when my wife tried to prevent me from doing my duty, I…****corrected*** *her.*
Chills…

Because of this conversation, Jack sabotages the hotel’s radio among other things while Wendy tries to think of a way to get Danny to a doctor without Jack knowing, and Danny contacts Dick using his Shine so he can help them. Eventually this culminates in Wendy going to tell Jack about her plans to get Danny to a doctor which also gives us the opportunity to see what Jack’s been working on this whole time.

My assessment: derivative and repetitive.

*Very* repetitive.
Aren’t you supposed to, you know, be looking after this hotel?

Jack appears in all his crazy glory which earns him a baseball bat to the noggin and a fall down some stairs. Can’t say he didn’t deserve that. Also, there’s a lot of confusion about how many times the scene of Jack chasing Wendy up the stairs was shot. Many people believe it was done 127 times, but this is actually incorrect. According to the film’s editors it was actually shot between 35-45 times. Still a ridiculous number of times, but nowhere near the hyperbolic 127 people have come to believe.

Anyway, Wendy locks Jack in the walk-in food closet only to find out Jack sabotaged hers and Danny’s means of escape. Shortly after this, ghost friend Grady lets Jack out of the closet and he and his axe go to pay his family a visit which results in this massively iconic moment in cinematic history.

I’m not even gonna say it, because I don’t have to.
You already said it in your head.
In case you’re curious, yes, Jack Nicholson improvised that line on set.
It’s also because of this scene (and Weird Al) that I know who Ed McMahon is.

This is probably a good time to mention how this movie has been referenced and parodied TO DEATH. Of course I mentioned The Simpsons earlier on a couple occasions, but there are hundreds of other movies, shows, short films, and others that not only referenced/parodied this movie in some way or another, but just this scene alone. If that doesn’t give you an idea how much of a pop culture phenomenon this film is, I don’t know what does.

When Jack hears Dick roll up on his Snow Cat, he decides to leave Wendy alone (despite the fact that Wendy is trapped in a bathroom with no other way out) and go say “hi” to Dick. I’m sure Dick will be fine.

Because of his screams, Jack ends up finding Danny and chasing him outside into the snow-covered hedge maze. Meanwhile Wendy comes across all sorts of weird supernatural stuff as she runs through the hotel trying to find Danny.

Compared to the rest of that, this seems normal.

Back with Jack and Doc’s game of tag, Doc comes up with a pretty solid strategy. He’s been making footprints in the snow this whole time, allowing Jack to follow him. After noticing this, Doc backtracks along his footprint path and jumps off into the hedge to hide. Jack follows Doc’s footprints until the end of the trail, gets confused, and wanders off. Doc then follows the trail back to the entrance of the maze while Jack gets turned around inside the maze. For a 6 year old kid, that was practically genius.

After reuniting with his mother at the entrance, they take Dick’s still-running Snow Cat back to civilization while Jack is left to freeze overnight.

We then end the film with a slow zoom in on a very eye-catching photo hanging on the Overlook’s wall.

I guess Grady was right.
Jack was always the caretaker.

Despite a few things here and there, I think the movie as a whole still holds up pretty well. Are any of the notes from the original critics still valid, though? Let’s see in the conclusion.

After going over the film in detail, I’d say that there are definitely more positive aspects that stand out to me than negative ones. From the environment, the subtle scares, and the constant sense of unease, it’s easy to see why this movie has, and continues, to get under people’s skin. Mine as well. Even after watching it several times, there were several moments that still caused me to recoil in discomfort which to me is a clear sign that a horror movie is working.

It’s a shame that sometimes the editing choices end up taking you out of scenes rather than engrossing you in them. I’m not sure why, but I guess a consistent through-line for the Kubrick films I’ve covered so far seems to be the editing choices irking me in some way or another, because I had similar feelings about Full Metal Jacket’s transitions. Maybe I’m being a bit too nitpick-y, but I will say that I still enjoyed this film overall.

It’s possible that since this film has become such a pop culture icon, much like other popular films before it, it’s “been done” so many times by now. The sheer number of times that I’ve seen it, and the sheer number of times others have referenced/parodied it, has caused me to notice more flaws in the original material that I didn’t before. However, to me, those flaws don’t come anywhere close to overshadowing the good stuff.

Even if people have “done” this movie so many times by others, they at least “did” it because the original had artistic value worth appreciating. For that, I can’t help but have a deep sense of respect for this film. Not the abuse that Shelley Duvall had to go through for her role (RIP), but everything else. So if you’ve never seen this movie, I’m assuming you’ve at least seen it parodied somewhere. Also, feel free to give it a look on this final weekend movie night of Spooky Season.

To me, this movie is a 4.5/5 Ed McMahons. I still can’t help but be annoyed by those editing choices here and there, but I did consider giving this movie full marks despite that. The picky film-goer in me still wants to reserve full marks for films that I had 0 problems with, and this film didn’t quite make it. Bear in mind, that specifically means I have 0 problems with a film, not that there are no problems whatsoever (because a movie like that doesn’t exist).

I won’t be covering another spooky movie this season (since it’ll be November soon), so I’ll be back to my regular reviews next week. Thanks for joining me and I’ll see y’all next year for another Spooky Season. Happy Halloween!

(I make no claim of ownership for any of the images used in this post)

(Each of them are owned entirely by their respective copyright holders, which are not me)

(I’m just a humble blogger who talks about movies, I do not make them)

(Yet)

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