Thursday 26 May 2011


The Shining 1980

‘The Shining’ has become one of the all-time classic horror films. There are quotes and moments that no one can forget from that film and also techniques which so many horror directors used in today’s film within the genre.

Originally being a Stephen King book and the film is of the same name and follows the book very much how it was written and was directed by Stanley Kubrick. It’s the story of a man a woman and their son. The father is a writer and alcoholic and the son seems to hold physic powers involving the past and future. Together they go to an isolated hotel out in the snow for the winter to get away from everyday life in general.

The most famous scene, or one of, is ‘here’s Jonny’. This scene holds a lot of psychological horror for the audience to take in, especially for the era when it was released. At the time for constant slasher films, to have a very realistic horror was refreshing and also very effective. There are two ways in which the horror is at its strongest during this scene. Firstly the films score. ‘The Shining’ has a very dark underlying score which really helps to create the awkward and unnerving atmosphere which the films hold very tightly throughout. The deep cello’s constantly playing through and what makes the score new for a horror film is the lack of BAM, BAM, BAM which Hitchcock made so famous within the genre.

The second is the real time slow pace of which the scene happens. In most horrors the editing is fairly fast and keeps up the tension. With this scene the notorious bathroom moment when Jack is smashing down the door he was using a real axe. This gives the audience a strong sense of reality because with every smash on the door you can see wife’s face get filled with more and more fear as her fate get every step closer. This idea of your own family turning on you instead of an exaggerated 7foot killer, is what makes ‘The Shining’ so successful.

No comments:

Post a Comment