Building Tension in The Shining by Tyler Johnson
Chesapeake College
The Shining (1980) is a horror-drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, The Shining is about a family who takes residence in a secluded hotel for the winter during its off season. The hotel is home to evil spirits that manipulate the father, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), into a violent state. His psychic son (Danny Lloyd) suffers from the abuse from his past, while having frightening visions of the past and future. Kubrick infuses the perfect elements of horror to build tension to create a frightening narrative. Kubrick’s use of dialogue, color symbolism,and sound design …show more content…
For example Stephen King, the author of the novel, wrote a screenplay for the film, but Kubrick rejected it without even reading it. The dialogue builds its tension through inevitability. The film never tries to find the fact that Jack is unstable. As an audience we know something will happen, through the works of dramatic irony. From the very first scene when Jack meets with Mr. Ullman, we are warned about the past events that have taken place in the Overlook Hotel. We are told that isolation for long periods of time can cause people to go insane, like previous caretakers of the hotel. Jack is unbothered by the hotel’s past as he replies with, “Well you can rest assure Mr. Ullman that’s not going to happen with me”. In the next scene we are told of Jack past actions as Wendy, Jack’s wife, talks to their son’s therapist. Wendy even defends Jack's action by say the situation was “purely an accident”. On the family drive to the hotel Jack openly talks about cannibalism to Danny, which is strange. Danny says he’s heard about cannibalism on television, and Jack said it was okay because it was on television. Wendy shows caution about talking about such dark things to a child, but Jack excuses his …show more content…
Every detail in his films is planned and intentional, nothing is there by accident. I will now be examining the detailed symbolism of color presented in The Shining. The use of color in film inform the audience on characters, circumstances, and relationships, and even change the foundation of colors to trick the audience. A dominant color is the color yellow, which represents the foreshadowing of insanity. An example would be in the opening scene, an extreme wide shot of Jack driving his yellow car on the mountain side. From this we already see a man with some problems. The yellow paper for the typewriter is instrument use that displays his descent to madness. As Jack procrastinates his work he plays with a yellow tennis ball. He throws the ball at the wall and it comes back. No matter what Jack does his insanity will always follow. To contrast this is the color green, which represents sanity. In a beginning scene we see Danny’s therapist dressed in green. She is here to delivery some sanity to Wendy. But she appears sitting under some yellow curtains, possibly showing she knows about family trauma. Through wide shots of the exterior of the hotel we see that the green grass decays as it comes closer to the hotel. The sanity literally dies as we get closer to the Overlook. A Jack enters room 237, it's interior is light green. A signal that this place is sane and safe, however it is the opposite. This is how Kubrick
Chesapeake College
The Shining (1980) is a horror-drama film directed by Stanley Kubrick, starring Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. Based on the novel of the same name by Stephen King, The Shining is about a family who takes residence in a secluded hotel for the winter during its off season. The hotel is home to evil spirits that manipulate the father, Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), into a violent state. His psychic son (Danny Lloyd) suffers from the abuse from his past, while having frightening visions of the past and future. Kubrick infuses the perfect elements of horror to build tension to create a frightening narrative. Kubrick’s use of dialogue, color symbolism,and sound design …show more content…
For example Stephen King, the author of the novel, wrote a screenplay for the film, but Kubrick rejected it without even reading it. The dialogue builds its tension through inevitability. The film never tries to find the fact that Jack is unstable. As an audience we know something will happen, through the works of dramatic irony. From the very first scene when Jack meets with Mr. Ullman, we are warned about the past events that have taken place in the Overlook Hotel. We are told that isolation for long periods of time can cause people to go insane, like previous caretakers of the hotel. Jack is unbothered by the hotel’s past as he replies with, “Well you can rest assure Mr. Ullman that’s not going to happen with me”. In the next scene we are told of Jack past actions as Wendy, Jack’s wife, talks to their son’s therapist. Wendy even defends Jack's action by say the situation was “purely an accident”. On the family drive to the hotel Jack openly talks about cannibalism to Danny, which is strange. Danny says he’s heard about cannibalism on television, and Jack said it was okay because it was on television. Wendy shows caution about talking about such dark things to a child, but Jack excuses his …show more content…
Every detail in his films is planned and intentional, nothing is there by accident. I will now be examining the detailed symbolism of color presented in The Shining. The use of color in film inform the audience on characters, circumstances, and relationships, and even change the foundation of colors to trick the audience. A dominant color is the color yellow, which represents the foreshadowing of insanity. An example would be in the opening scene, an extreme wide shot of Jack driving his yellow car on the mountain side. From this we already see a man with some problems. The yellow paper for the typewriter is instrument use that displays his descent to madness. As Jack procrastinates his work he plays with a yellow tennis ball. He throws the ball at the wall and it comes back. No matter what Jack does his insanity will always follow. To contrast this is the color green, which represents sanity. In a beginning scene we see Danny’s therapist dressed in green. She is here to delivery some sanity to Wendy. But she appears sitting under some yellow curtains, possibly showing she knows about family trauma. Through wide shots of the exterior of the hotel we see that the green grass decays as it comes closer to the hotel. The sanity literally dies as we get closer to the Overlook. A Jack enters room 237, it's interior is light green. A signal that this place is sane and safe, however it is the opposite. This is how Kubrick