The Shining AnalysisEssay Preview: The Shining AnalysisReport this essayThe Shining (1980) is creative director Stanley Kubricks intense, epic, gothic horror film and haunted house masterpiece – a beautiful, stylish work that distanced itself from the blood-letting and gore of most modern films in the horror genre. (The film waits until its climax to provide the typical catharctic bloody violence of most traditional horror films.)
The films source material from science-fiction/horror author Stephen Kings 1977 best-selling novel (his third novel under his own name) by the same name, bears little resemblance to Kubricks creation. A four and one-half hour long, made-for-TV mini-series titled Stephen Kings The Shining (1997), (with Steven Weber and Rebecca De Mornay), due to Kings dissatisfaction, was a more literal rendering of the original source material, and included a famous topiary-animal attack scene.
With American co-screenwriter Diane Johnson, Kubrick moved from the conventions of traditional horror film thrillers, displacing them with his own, much more subtle, rich, symbolic motifs. [The title of the film was inspired by the refrain in the Plastic Ono Bands song by John Lennon, “Instant Karma,” from the chorus: “We all shine on.”]
As in many of his films, director Kubrick explores the dimensions of the genre to create the ultimate horror film of a man going mad, aspiring writer Jack Torrance (Nicholson), while serving as an off-season caretaker of an isolated, snowbound resort (the Overlook) with his family: wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd). They soon become affected by a “psychic photograph” of a bloody series of historic murders committed there. The films title refers to the extra-sensory, paranormal psychic abilities possessed by the Overlook Hotels head cook Halloran (Scatman Crothers) and the young boy.
Kubrick deliberately reduced the pace of the narrative and expanded the rather simple plot of a domestic tragedy to over two hours in length, created lush images within the ornate interior of the main set, added a disturbing synthesized soundtrack (selecting musical works from Bela Bartok, Gyorgy Ligeti, and Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki), used a Steadicam in groundbreaking fashion, filmed most of the gothic horror in broad daylight or brightly-lit scenes, and built an unforgettable, mounting sensation of terror, ghosts, and the paranormal. The principal, ghostly character in the film is the classic haunted house – a huge, isolated Colorado mountain resort hotel, the Overlook. [Trivia: The texture of the carpet fabric decorating the house of the evil Sid in Toy Story (1995) was the same as that in the Overlook Hotel.]
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With all this in mind, the next time you see an “80s-themed” Hollywood movie, chances are it will be in some way reminiscent of: A: The House Of Cards, or A: The Haunted House: The Legend Of The Krump.
As many of us may recall on the Internet, we’re never sure what time period to spend in this fictional world while traveling, and there was always one in which we never really got an idea of how different an “80s-themed” version of a movie would look in terms of color, sound, soundtrack, and screen time, so we were simply told to look in the mirror. It would be a little surprising if, while we were away, one of our favorite actors or actors in the movie was the guy who was going to play the monster that we’d seen on screen in the movie, the one who was making the scary, terrifying sound in the back of his head. [A: To Be Continued…] That’s right, a fellow writer-director, director, and cinematographer has been hired as the host of The Haunted House.
The main premise of The House of Bobbitts was introduced as a possible means of stopping Dracula, a man who appeared very briefly in the 1986 TV version of The House That Feeds Us. During the two hours of filming, Bobbitt’s ghost-like creature slowly came to town and threatened to devour its own inhabitants. [note: The description of “dragons” did not quite fit with other descriptions that included Dracula’s name and description of how the world turned out, although there was a certain kind of “paradox” in the early 80s when Bobbitt’s ghostly monster was mentioned. The name “Dragons” would have been “Dragons” (a pun on the Japanese dragon as well) and the film credits would clearly not include the real name of the actual source of Bobbitt’s name]
The trailer of the 1987 film, ‘Empirically Unbelievable,’ was titled by Gene Roddenberry as the third-most-successful commercial release of all time, making it one of the greatest and longest-running commercial releases of all time.
Bobbi Scott-Green’s ‘Star Wars’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens came to theaters on April 25, 1993 as seen on StarWars.com. The star-studded-out movie opened at a phenomenal $10 million in its second weekend with $4.29 million for both a domestic and international weekend combined.
[p]This movie received its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in San Francisco on July 17, 1992. On that same day, a screening of ‘Inherent Vice’ was held. The film premiered in Los Angeles. [p]A live-action theatrical release of The Shining was held at the R&B Museum in New York City at the beginning of 1997.
Robert Altman’s ‘Jaws,’ or ‘Dr. No’ as it was known in the West at the time, saw another box office triumph when it opened in the U.S. on September 2, 1998. For less than $3 million, it starred Clint Eastwood as the son of a billionaire, leading into the sequel of The Great Gatsby. Its final, last and third day of release received a worldwide $8.4 million opening. [note: an earlier synopsis for ‘Jaws’ suggests that the film’s gross record was $10.1 million as of the date of this update. We also note that the film was given the name Jack ‘Jack,’ instead of The Man of Steel]
The ‘Star Wars’ movie was directed by Tom McCarthy and followed by a third-year film by Mark Hamill and Anthony Daniels. In addition, Jim Starlin rewrote ‘Star Wars’ to be adapted into a live-action film starring Tom McCarthy as the young, ambitious and politically conflicted actor Paul Storm. After its release in 2001, Starlin continued his ‘Force Awakens’ trilogy with several installments. In addition, in 2001, he rewrote his Star Wars theme for a live re-release, bringing it to life in the form of an animated short for the Disney Channel series Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi starring John Boyega and George Lucas. The original Star Wars film was released in June 2002 as well.
‘Star Wars’ was widely broadcast on cable, satellite, cable television and many other formats. The Star Wars franchise was well represented to the extent that several of Hollywood’s most influential characters played roles in the movie. It spawned many characters that became popular and often referenced in popular comic book series like Avengers, X-Men, Superman, Daredevil and even Spider-Man. The following was a list of all the characters that became iconic during the franchise:
Jabba the Hutt
Other examples of this would include: The Haunted House, The House Of The Dead, The House Of The Devil, The House Of The Bride, and The Curse. The House Of The Dead is a real-life Dracula who was seen frequently in the ’80s television series (see here), and was one of Hollywood’s great early horror movies. In this era the main character of the movie would come from the 1980s (and ’90s) and not some older Disney/Lucasfilm/Lucasfilm horror anthology. This would provide a glimpse into the origin of the name “Dragons” and “Dragons In The World.”
In The Haunted House we are introduced to a ghost of the late, great, and infamous “Dragons” George Lucas, who was working on the film. Although we are introduced to him in the script, the plot of the film seems to involve the return of Uncle Jack. In any case, the character was not shown at all in the original film – just as the ghost in the original film isn’t shown in this movie.
Many of the other monsters seen in The House Of The Doctor had a ghost of George Lucas in them before they were introduced
The film opens without narration or commentary featuring only Wendy Carlos funereal-sounding synthesized adaptation of the “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath) theme from the fifth movement (Dream of a Witches Sabbath) of Hector Berliozs Symphonie Fantastique. [Note: The music is similar to Ernest Golds adaptation of the classic work for the similar B-horror flick The Screaming Skull (1958) – two years later, Gold won the Best Score Academy Award for Exodus (1960).] Stunning scenic views of the Colorado Rockies are presented with magnificent aerial photography – the camera flies in close to the surface of an immense lake in the lap of snow-covered mountains. After flying by a small sliver of an island (with a few trees) in the lakes center, the shot dissolves from the lake to a Gods-eye, aerial view of a two-lane mountainous road far below, winding through sun-drenched tall pines in the early morning. The shifting camera views pick up a tiny yellow Volkswagen far below, the sole car on the unpopulated strip of road penetrating into the paradisical wilderness in early winter. In more views, it moves across the face of the mountainside from lower right to upper left of the frame as the credits begin to roll, and the camera catches up with the car. As the terrain gets steeper, the valley drops off to the left where the car disappears into a dark tunnel. [On the soundtrack, one can faintly detect the sound of a boys tricycle going over the rug-covered hardwood floor of a hotel – a foreshadowing of whats to come.] When the vehicle reaches the summit in the magnificent, but isolated mountain region – there is a beautiful, snow-covered crest that dwarfs a vast, sprawling hotel below it. The screen frame goes black.
[The Timberline Hotel in Mt. Hood National Forest, Oregon provided the exterior for The Overlook. The interiors of the hotel were all created from scratch inside of Elstree Studios located outside of London – they do not actually exist. The outdoor hedge maze was also constructed there. Stephen King wrote half of his novel in Room 217 – changed to 237 in the film – of The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, a similar-looking hotel].
White text on black sub-titles punctuate the film throughout with either short descriptions of the scene or with arbitrary references to time. From start to finish, the films titles compress space and time, moving from the wide expanse of mountains to the hotel, and then from months and days to hours:
The InterviewJack Torrance (Jack Nicholson in his first major role since One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (1975)) strolls into the palatial lobby of the Overlook, inquiring to see General Manager Mr. Stuart Ullman (Barry Nelson) for his appointment – he has driven three and a half hours distance from his home.
In the kitchen/dinette of the Torrances home in Boulder, Colorado [where they have lived only about three months after relocating from Vermont where Jack was a school teacher], seven year-old son Danny (Danny Lloyd) eats a lunch of white-bread and milk with his passive, skinny, black-haired mother “Wendy” Winifred (Shelley Duvall), who is reading The Catcher in the Rye. [Theres a very subtle connection signaled here: the main protagonist in J.D. Salingers novel Holden Caulfield, is an alienated and haunted teen, similar to Jack Torrance as an adult. Both experience sleep deprivation and dementia as a result.]
Danny: Do you really want to go and live in that hotel for the winter?Wendy: Sure I do. Itll be lots of fun.Danny: Yeah, I guess so. Anyway, theres hardly anybody to play with around here.Wendy: Yeah, I know. It always takes a little time to make new friends.Danny: Yeah, I guess so.Wendy: What about Tony? Hes