The Shining is not a Horror Film

The Shining is not a Horror Film

The Shinning is orchestrated inside a large human-made structure, controlled by un-human entities. Virtually, the movie revolves one family that goes to an isolated hotel for winter. Unbeknownst to them, an evil spirit haunts the place and influences the father who turns violent towards his family. This is not made any easier by his psychic son who can see into the horrific forebodings of the past and the future. The environment being haunted leaves the family entrapped between an unforgiving outside world and an inside environment that is murderous. At the beginning of the Shining (1980) by Stanley Kubrick, the audience experiences an ambiance of several magnificent Rocky Mountainous terrain. The view is beautiful to the viewer, leaving a potential imagination of an endless land of opportunities, where memories grow and flourish. The view, however, is contradicted with the introduction of some senses of uneasiness, which cuts through the imagination, leaving the viewer overwhelmed with a feeling of fear. The anxiety emanates from Jack’s interview when he receives a warning not to go murdering his family with an axe. Unfortunately, soon as this is mentioned, the man goes bonkers, and blows off his poor wife Wendy and starts interacting with long-forgotten ghosts.   As a result, the masterpiece has over the years, received several mixed reactions from its viewers. Some people feel that the movie does not fit into a typical horror genre since it fails to meet the specifications of a horror film. Others assert that the Shining is indeed a classical horror film, which is creepy in every aspect, but light on gratuitous violence. The movie, thus, raises several controversies, on whether it is indeed a horror movie or not. 

The Movie is not Horror

At first glance, The Shining seems to bring out two undeniable truths. Firstly, the film is a horror movie, made with professional skill and flair for threatening its audience. Secondly, according to the horror movie analysis and definitions, the film fails to meet the specifications. Going by the first assertion, the Shining can be a horror, yet, it lacks several features that would give it an undisputed stance of being classified in that genre. Firstly, the movie does not have a singular source of horror, which leaves it out of featuring in the traditional horror film genre. The contrast between the threatening ghosts that manifest the Overlook hotel and the psychosis of Torrance leave the audience grappling with a stable source for their imagination. However, as the film plot advances, the viewer is confused whether the story is about ghosts or some family melodrama movie. 

The place where the movie begins is in a picturesque mountain scene, with a choice of color not associated with horror scenes. This distinct is one of the things that prevent the film to come out as a horror movie. However, the music in the background highlights the vastness of the environment, completely overpowering the characters to give an ominous and frightening feeling to the viewer. Inside the scenes, the nature of the narrative is somewhat exaggerated especially the part between Torrance and Mr. Ullman and Danny with only the mention of twins and blood.  Save for these mentions; the audience does not get any other feeling of supernatural activities that may be taking place in the movie. Still, towards the opening, the shot starts off with creating a type of fear that leaves its audience helpless of the situation. The camera follows a moving car, which immediately diverts soon as it gets to the hotel lobby leaving the audience languishing with a feeling of helplessness and fear of not knowing what will happen to the car and its occupants. However, if this scene is used to define the movie’s genre, then it could as well be identified as more of as an isolated genre, rather than a horror film.  

Consequently, several shots in the movie leave the audience wondering whether the shot is real or unreal. The audience is unsure of what to fear or not to. Watching the Shining carefully, it proves that it is a typical genre that fails to explicitly tell the audience what it is they should fear. Rather, it causes an underlying tension and danger, which only leaves the audience with countless questions after the curtains roll down. The film leaves behind a residual effect that should not be present in a movie of its genre. Instead of being haunted by the terrifying memories, the audience is nagged by a question of what initiated the horrible images. For example, this effect is felt when Jack is walking down the hallway and encounters with a large party. It escapes the viewers’ assertion on whether both of them are existent. The dressing mirror in Torrance family bedroom is also used by the director to bring forth some confusion with defining a clear boundary whether it is real. The only evidence of its existence is the inverted text on Jack’s t-shirt. Similarly, when Danny sneaks into the room, we see Jack sited beside the bed looking depressed with his image enlarged by the mirror. These two, are the only evidence that the scene is actually real and not some imagination on the part of the actors. Apart from these, which are straight forward and shows their true existence, the rest of the shots challenges the audience to find the evil within the film, because the director fails to show it to the public.

Besides, the lighting of the Shining film fails to meet the specifications of a horror movie. The director fails to incorporate shadows of chiaroscuro lights as would be expected. Instead of presenting the viewer with a cold, dark environment, the setting is clinical and sterile. Although, there are exceptions like with the case where Jack is in a silhouette, and he is presented in a threatening black figure. It could be argued that using low key lighting accentuates the horror genre together with the combination of blood and murder. By contrast, it seems that by use of light, Kubrick wants to define the character and to set and not to place the film into its specific horror genre. Since the opening of the movie, the audience does not get a forewarning by say, a gloomy corridor or a shadowed figure as is with most horror films.

The Film is Horror

On the other hand, and contrary to the above analysis, the film can be described as a gothic horror movie. In a characteristic way, Stanley Kubrick updates the traditional style by introducing modernity, while still maintaining the architectural splendor of dead aristocracy.  All through, the only time the director alludes to the traditional gothic way is when Jack is talking to the bartender and some lights illuminate the faces of the two men to give them a demonic look. Virtually, the Overlook hotel is characteristically modernist, a kind of castle perched on top of a mountain. By insinuating that the Overlook hotel is haunted, creates an image in the mind of the viewer that indeed the movie is the horror film. The hotel is stylishly lit, and this is where the story will revolve around. The design of the hotel is a maze, where everything is interconnected in a continuum, and this is where we get to see Danny go about his activities. The vastness of the corridor leaves the viewer entrapped in a sensation that is enclosing both enclosing and frustrating as well. All this, climaxes in a barrenness of spirit and mind, and the audience is engulfed with bursts of fear and emptiness.

Ideally, almost all modern gothic films ensure that the haunted buildings are an expression of their characters mental state. However, in our case, the hotel is not just a manifestation of the main character’s demonic possession; it is a terrifying home where the whole family is affected by the cabin fever. At this point, it would be easy to adopt the Freudian interpretation of horror movies to get a clear understanding of what lies within the field of frightening. According to Sipos (2010), feelings of fear are not stimulated by a strange and unearthly phenomena, but unconscious fear that originates from a family fantasies especially from a father figure. Kubrick makes several allusions to this explanation. For example, Jack acknowledges that the hotel is homey and what follows towards the end is him bashing the door, axe in hand and calls out to his wife telling her he is home. The film is characteristic of the Freudian perspective in that, although it shifts its focus on other members of the family, its main focus is on Danny and Jack. On the one hand, there is the father who is a narcissist, frustrated and keeps on wishing death on others. On the other, is the son who is trying so hard to conceal his sexual desires and emotional conflict. The film thus revolves around the struggle of a male child, against a domineering father who despite his prolonged absence, has full control over the mother. 

From the beginning, the viewer gets a hint that Jack is the film’s threatening figure. Although there is some briefing on his other likes such as drinking behavior, the audience is prepared beforehand to fear Jack as he is the villain in the movie. The inclusion of a character in the film, which helps promote fear, is one of the characteristics that make the Shinning a horror movie. 

Ostensibly, too the director uses some supernatural components in the form of the evilness of the human spirit, is in the character of Jack when he becomes mad. The director takes the audience through a series of psychological explanations on Jack’s apparitions, leaving the viewer in a state of confusion on the origin of the spirits. Amidst the explanations, the audience is caught by surprise when Grady’s ghost escapes Jack, which shows that indeed the hotel is haunted. Kubrick plays with the mind of the viewer when he keeps on interchanging between rational and irrational fears. These two types of fear are evident in the outbursts that Torrance lets go and the supernatural spirits that haunt the hotel. In essence, the director keeps on contrasting between the known and unknown fears to keep the attention of the audience fully captured. 

As the plot continues to develop, the audience experiences a bizarre proliferate, until it gets to the point that it was difficult to decide whether we should continue disbelieving in the non-existence of supernatural or it is time we changed our mind.  For example, when Jack comes into the Ballroom to have a drink and places an order from the satanic bartender, the audience is elevated to a level of pure fanaticism. Jack is locked up in a food locker by some former worker ghost, and somehow when he is released, the audience experiences the first supernatural event of the film. From this point onwards, we move into several climatic scenes where we have to deal with the supernatural powers such as blood in the elevator, cannibalism, bestiality and several allusions to myths.  

From the above analysis, it is clear that the Shinning cannot be classified as a horror genre. By contrary, it would fit in as a fantastic type of movie. The film did not meet the specifications of a traditional horrific video and also fails to meet the modern definition of a horror movie. This is one of Kubrick’s greatest tricks. Leave the audience scared so much in a traditional style, yet leave them questioning what they have seen or they have not. Horror movies, though scary are fun to watch, and their meaning is apparent to everyone. However, in the case of the Shining, Kubrick did not want his audience to merely enjoy the movie and leave the theater, he wanted us to think carefully about the message he was passing and that the film was all about. Thus, it should be right to say, in some contexts and to some people, the Shining may be a horror movie, while to others it is not.

Reference

SIPOS, T. M. (2010). Horror film aesthetics: creating the visual language of fear. Jefferson, N.C., McFarland & Company.

Kubrick, S., et al. (2001). The shining. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video