Film Studies II - Shining (Reupload)

The Shining is a 1980 American horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written with novelist Diane Johnson. The film is based on Stephen King's 1977 novel The Shining. The Shining is about Jack Torrance, an aspiring writer and recovering alcoholic, who accepts a position as the off-season caretaker of the isolated historic Overlook Hotel in the Colorado Rockies. Wintering over with Jack is his wife Wendy Torrance and young son Danny Torrance, who possesses "the shining", an array of psychic abilities that allow Danny to see the hotel's horrific past. The hotel had a previous winter caretaker who went crazy and killed his wife, two daughters and then himself. After a winter storm leaves the Torrances snowbound, Jack's sanity deteriorates due to the influence of the supernatural forces that inhabit the hotel, placing his wife and son in danger.

The Shining is one of the most top famous horror movie, because of the approach to conspiratorial interpretations, which most of the approach are based on the mise-en-scene of the film. The typical horror film approach is more, dark gothic horror-story lighting in the film, which shows the continuing influence of German Expressionism on the horror genre. But Kubrick setting the movie to a different approach, instead of the cramped darkness and panicky quick editing of the typical horror movie. One of the important and unique aspect of the setting in film is the lighting, the hotel was generally well lit up, to give the sense of vastness and emptiness of the space which creates the conspiratorial effects that make the audience feel creepy. Take for example, the scene where Danny was peddling in the hallway the lighting was dimly lit the whole time to create a creepy atmosphere. When Danny turns into the second hallway, it gets even darker to make it creepier. The camera angles at the very beginning of the shot, the camera is far away from Danny so that the audience can see the hallway. The next shot, the camera then zooms in on Danny as he's turning around the corner. When the girls appear, the camera constantly switches back forth between them and Danny. Then showing the flashes back of the girls are dead on the floor and every time it switches back to present time, the girls are getting closer to Danny. The Lighting in the first hallway is green and barren looking. The props are shiny and dull so that the red blood stands out in the next hallway.

In summary, The Shining is a great example of the power and potential of mise-en-scene, but it is not in any way typical. Kubrick does use mise-en-scene to define setting and character, but he also uses it counter-intuitively to challenge the preconceptions of the viewing audience, and to pose philosophical questions about the nature of the universe and the role of humans within it, as well as the role of the film director in “overlooking” or directing the gaze of the viewer.