The Shining Film Analysis

Improved Essays
The movie The Shining based on a Stephen King’s novel with the same title and directed by Stanley Kubrick introduces a family who heads to an isolated hotel for the winter where an evil and spiritual presence influences the father into violence, while his psychic son sees horrific apprehensions from the past and of the future. The "Danny's tricycle" scene is one of the most famous scenes in modern cinema history. Director Stanley Kubrick uses different film techniques to convey the horror and terror from Stephen King's novel. In this scene, camera angles and sound elements are used to create suspense, anticipation, vulnerability, and terror. In "Danny's tricycle" scene, director Stanley Kubrick uses different camera angles …show more content…
In the beginning, the director uses a suspenseful, usual low other-worldly sliding, bass that creates a momentum to that underlines the mood for the scene. The impact of the beginning score instantly creates an atmosphere of fear and paranoid for the viewers. It also creates a sense of dread for an unseen jump scare. In the scene where Danny is riding into the hallway, the music changes again into a disturbing and borderline on tragic, informing the viewer something terrible is about to happen. Then the scene reaches its climax score with climbing of bass and the strings of the violin, leaves a chilling and sinister effect on the viewers, where they moved with an unsettling feeling. Another technique element of sound is the sound effect within the scene. For example, the loud echoes of Danny's tricycle make on the tile at the beginning of the scene, gives viewers the sense of isolation and terror because of the emptiness of the hotel and the loneliness that the character has to face. In contrast, when Danny's riding his tricycle on rugs which, sounds like an almost muted, hidden and restrained, the sound of him rolling across the narrow hallway; this impacts the viewer's sense of anticipation through confined space like a small hallway. The sound

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Drawing insights mainly from Stuart Hall, but also from Ruth Mayer, please answer the following question: How does stereotyping shape the relationships between the Great White Hunter and Africa and Africans in the film, The Ghost and the Darkness? The relationship between the Great White Hunter and the Africans and their home is built upon the stereotype that the white individual is automatically more superior, dominant, and knowledgeable than Africans simply because of their race. Stereotyping can be described as an unfixed form of ideas that “reduces people to a few” where the “strategy of ‘splitting’ between the normal and abnormal” emphasizes the unequal relations between the different characters (Hall n.d., 258). The unfixed form, meaning…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This is not something they are used to seeing especially since Marcus has a very strong headed and assertive wife. So, it is clear that throughout each movie the main characters are confronted with unfamiliar traditions within these strange new cultures they are experiencing. Overall, there are many aspects of these cultures such as traditions, power distance, and in and out groups that are new to them and that they must adjust to throughout their time within them. Lastly, I would like to compare romantic relationships within each of these films and how their communication led to either a strong relationship or the termination of their relationship and the stages they went through to get there.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The four sub schools, Social Learning Theory, Social Control Theory, and Dramaturgy can be used to understand a criminals behavior. In 1983 film, The Outsiders, examples of all four sub schools can be interpreted. The Outsiders is a movie about a group of teen boys who consider themselves to be "Greasers" the boys misbehave, have knife fights, and commit crimes. Out of all the boys, Dallas Winston, is the boldest.…

    • 1241 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Throughout the film the editors and directors excite and scare the audience through its non-synchronous sound. Whenever Indy is doing something dangerous, for example jumping from one location to another on a rope inside a pit full of snakes his“theme song” starts to play, this is also played when Indy is leaving an intense action scene to show his departure and to ensure the audience that he is safe. When Indy is uncovering something important or opening something mysterious like a mummy coffin then this mysterious and eerie music starts to play in the background to keep the audience on the edge of their seats. The movie is in a low key lighting with some high contrast lighting. High contrast is used mostly on Indy's face to create more drama it is also used with blood.…

    • 1309 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Great Depression of 1929 affected the lives of many people. After the stock market crashed, the job market suffered and people were laid off from work resulting in many businesses closing. People took extreme measures to survive as shown in the film, Cinderella Man. Men found themselves competing for jobs for low pay, steady work was hard to come by, and minorities, women included, faced harsh prejudices making their ability to compete almost impossible.…

    • 1041 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hitchcock Auteur

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Marisa Pearce An auteur in the world of cinema exists to show creative, stylistic vision that is unique to their own. Through lighting, musical score, and cinematography, both Alfred Hitchcock and Truffaut exhibit the true definition of auteur theory. Specifically, Psycho and The 400 Blows demonstrate the true craft of a signature style that influences and defines a certain genre of film. Truffault spearheaded the French New Wave movement with his use of film stock, mood, and unique character perspective, whereas Hitchcock ushered in the use of suspense and surprise in the Horror movie genre. Both are visionaries who led the way for film in the future.…

    • 918 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Two ideas are forced upon every single person. Taxes and death. Through the movie Stranger Than Fiction the audience follows Harold Crick, ironically an IRS auditor, who is forced to face his own fate. However, these are only the ideas posed on the screen. The underlying message stressed throughout this movie is the idea that time is precious and should not be taken for granted.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Witch Movie Analysis

    • 2090 Words
    • 9 Pages

    The movie uses the horror genre to explain how the strong belief and conformity in religion can force people to be blindly fearful and skeptical of themselves and the people around them. This idea in the movie is portrayed creatively through realistic scenery, symbolism, and chilling…

    • 2090 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Shining Stanley Kubrick was regarded as "one of the greatest and most influential directors of all time". He was best known for his brilliant signature themes and cinematic techniques. Kubrick’s adaptation of the film The Shining help us get a clear understanding of his directorial style. The use of slow, protracted shots, long tracking shots, extreme camera angles and sound effects were effectively used in some scenes that help build a special kind of suspense allowing the audience to be fully engaged and be a part of the story he was trying to tell. Scene 1: Hallway Scene (Dead Twins)…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Is there eternal sunshine in the spotless mind? This is the question posed by writers Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry and Pierre Bismuth in their movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. This movie, directed by Gondry, explores the idea that feelings and emotions are more powerful than memories, and that if we erased all of our memories, we would still possess the feelings and emotions that were created by those memories. The movie was inspired by a male friend of Bismuth who said that he would like to have all memory of his girlfriend erased. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind tells a story about two people, Joel and Clementine, who are in a bad relationship and eventually break up.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Crossing released on TV the 2000. It is about the book the crossing, which is about George Washington crossing the Delaware on a Christmas night and winning the battle of Trenton. This fill was directed by Robert Harmon, with a very low budget to work with he sat out to make this as good as possible. This movie was nominated for a couple of awards, and won two. One was the ASC award, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Movies of the Week/Mini-Series/Pilot.…

    • 799 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The sound techniques used throughout the film contribute to the construction of Norman as an evil person. When Norman is sitting in the parlour with Marion there is no music playing for most of their conversation, that is until Marion brings up the idea of sending Norman 's 'mother ' to an institution. Norman 's reaction to this is not pleasant and he begins to speak of how awful asylums are and how he would never consider doing something like that to someone he loves. The non-diegetic music then begins and intensifies as Norman 's tone and demeanour becomes threatening. This builds tension in the scene, and both Marion and the audience become increasingly uncomfortable and scared by Norman 's change of mood.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Primal Fear Movie Analysis

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Dissociative Identity Disorder: A Study on Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear The movie Primal Fear explores the journey of defense attorney, Martin Vail, as he defends his client, Aaron Stampler. Aaron is charged with murdering the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Chicago and appears to be just a young altar boy with a speech impediment.…

    • 1435 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Drugs, greed, hookers, and a giant scam. This would be an accurate way to summarize the "professional" life of Jordan Belfort also known as the "Wolf of Wall Street". Mr. Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is the main character in the film The Wolf of Wall Street, a film by Martin Scorsese based on the real life memoir of Jordan Belfort. He is a man consumed in himself and Scorsese makes his viewers want to embody his lifestyle. So how was he able to present and glamorize a life filled with all of this sin?…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The suspenseful music that is played in the first beach fight scene gives the reader a good idea of what is about to happen. This type of music displays that there is…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays