Stanley Kubricks The Shining Essay examples -- Kubrick Shining Horror

Stanley Kubricks The Shining (1980) initi anyy received quite a bit of negative criticism. The film irritated umpteen Stephen nance fans (and King himself) because it differed so greatly from the novel. The Shining also frustrated many filmgoers who expected a conventional slasher film. afterwards whole, Kubrick said it would be the scariest horror movie of all time.1 Kubricks films, however, never fully aline to their respective genres they transcend generic expectations. In the same way that 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) is non just another outer-space sci-fi flick, The Shining is not a typical horror movie. The monsters in The Shining originate not from opaque wooded atomic number 18as, but from the recesses of the mysterious human mind-in broad daylight, at that. mayhap Kubrick said The Shining is the scariest horror movie of all time not because it offers a bit of suspense, blood, and gore, but because it shines a light on the inherently evil nature of humankind on psychological and sociological levels. After Kubrick bought the rights to Stephen Kings 1977 novel The Shining and hired novelist Diane Johnson to uphold write the screenplay, both Johnson and Kubrick use up Freuds essay on The Un throneny and Bruno Bettelheims book about fairy tales, The Uses of Enchantment.2 Kubrick simply wanted to surpass the intellectual depth of contemporary horror films such as The Exorcist and Omen. He said he was attracted to Stephen Kings novel because theres something inherently wrong with the human personality. Theres an evil side to it. One of the things that horror stories can do is to show us the archetypes of the unconscious we can see the swart side without having to confront it directly. 2 In order to transfer his raft of the dark side to the screen, however, Kubrick had to substantially alter the story in Kings novel. With the help of Johnson, Kubrick threw out most of Kings ectoplasmic interventions-many ghosts, the demonic elevator, th e deadly drainpipe, the swarming wasps, and the sinister hedge animals that puzzle to life. Apparently Kubrick could not find special effects to animate the shrubbery in a satisfactory manner. 2 Kubrick also dispensed with virtually all of Jack Torrances troubled history and his gradual descent into insanity. Jessie Horsting, author of Stephen King at the Movies, said, I loathed The Shining when it fir... ...e film with a shot reverberative of Michael Snows Wavelength1 which moves down a corridor and into a photograph, after which a dissolve provides ease closer scrutiny of the photograph. The photograph shows a grinning Jack at the Overlook Hotel July 4th Ball in 1921. The date links Americas independence with senseless violence, and the image of Jack suggests that his sanity now exists only in the past, while his dark side remains frozen in the snow-covered maze outside. In addition, as the film ends, Kubrick uses the sound of applause to integrate the contemporary mov ie audience with the 1920s audience. The 1920s audience consequently begins to chatter as filmgoers would when exiting the theater. The contemporary audience members, therefore, usually overlook this soundtrack-just as they overlook Native American genocide and other instances of humanitys violence against humanity. Thus, eve through its final credit sequence, The Shining attempts to disrupt the complacency and shelter of the audience-to hold up a mirror to viewers to show them that they were and are the guests at the Overlook Ball. For this reason, perhaps, Kubrick said The Shining is the scariest horror movie of all time.