This is a post moved from my old blog: https://uzulblog.wixsite.com/uzul
It’s July. School’s coming to an end, work is becoming more laidback, and of course you’re giving yourself much more downtime. Oh, and its also Friday 13th soon. What's better a situation than to have a horror movie night?
Produced by Stanley Kubrick, ‘The Shining’ is a classic (perhaps THE classic) horror film that has the iconic ‘Here’s Johnny!’ scene in which Jack Torrance, a pent-up, trapped-in caretaker breaks down and smashes through the bathroom door using an axe.
'The Shining''s eerie film poster
‘The Shining’ is a stunningly visual film, which is no surprise considering the director, and it's shot perfectly, in a such way that as much tension is built up as possible. In the scene where Jack’s wife and son are exploring the maze, the camera slowly follows behind them, making sure it’s very slightly delayed so that us viewers don’t know what they’re seeing around the corner. It’s simply genius.
It comes as no surprise to anybody that 80s movies are not the most well-produced, especially the horror films, which are usually not very scary at all. However, with the limited film-making technology of the decade, Kubrick managed to use his resources so that the overall feel of the film is way ahead of its time, and this wasn’t just appreciated when it came out: it’s still recognised and
adored today.
The film provides an endless amount of context for so many other elements of pop culture, especially the vastly identifiable print on the carpet, shown when Danny Torrance is riding around the hotel lobby area.
Even in a kids’ film, ‘Toy Story’, the pattern is seen on the floor of Sid’s house, the infamous toy bully that attempts to capture Buzz and Woody. More various ‘The Shining’ easter eggs can be found in this film amongst many others, including the number 237 in a username on a laptop, which is the number of Jack Torrance’s ominous hotel room.
The release of ‘The Shining’ has sent shockwaves into pop culture that have lingered for over 30 years, and have even shown up in the least likely places; for example sitcoms, animations and even advertisements. Its legacy has definitely lived on, and I haven’t even covered the fan theories and hidden secrets within the plot, and trust me, you could spend hours reading about those. Surely this shows that if people are still taking an avid interest in the franchise even today, Stanley must have done something very, very right.
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